Student Wellbeing

Positive Thinking

Why encouraging a positive mindset benefit’s both children and parents:

• Encourages both you and your child to recognise and value the positive aspects of life.
• It's simple to become consumed by life's challenges, which can lead to feelings of overwhelm, stress, and anxiety.
• Adopting a positive outlook helps to maintain perspective during tough times.
• Prioritising positivity while acknowledging challenges promotes happiness and overall well-being for both you and your child

How to do a positive thinking activity

1. Each day for a week, take 10-15 minutes to write down 3 things that went well. This could be something as simple as ‘My son gave me a nice smile this morning’. Or it might be a major event – for example, ‘I organised my daughter’s birthday party’.
2. Underneath each thing that went well, write what you did to make it happen. For example, if you put ‘My son gave me a nice smile today’, you could write, ‘I smiled and he smiled back’.
3. Try to give it a go for a week. It might feel odd to do this at first, but it gets easier with practice.

Adapting positive thinking for children at different stages

You might need to do this activity with younger children so you can help them think of ideas. For example, your younger child might have built a Lego creation that they really like. Younger children might also find it easier to draw pictures of the positive things they’re focusing on, like a picture of a Lego block.

Older children and teenagers can try doing this exercise by themselves. But they might be going through more ups and downs than they used to, so there might be days when they find it harder to think positively. Some gentle encouragement from you can help. For example, you might need to remind your child that they finished a tricky assignment or helped with extra family chores.