A message from Kim

Building Resilience in Primary School Aged Children 

The Resilience Project, based in Melbourne, provides practical, evidence-based mental health strategies to help children and families build resilience and happiness.

The Resilience Project believes that the research is clear; the more positive emotion you experience, the more resilient you will be and for that reason they focus on three key pillars proven to cultivate positive emotion; Gratitude, Empathy and Mindfulness.

Gratitude

What is gratitude? It’s about paying attention to the things and moments we have right now, and not worrying about what we don’t have. We practise gratitude by noticing the positives that exist around us, and by being thankful for things, places and people in our lives.

Empathy

What does empathy mean? Empathy and kindness are closely linked. So are empathy and compassion. To be empathetic is to put ourselves in the shoes of others to feel and see what they are. We practise this by being kind towards other people.

Mindfulness

How to practise mindfulness? Mindfulness activities help us to be present in the moment and often create a feeling of calm. We practise this through slowing down and concentrating on one thing at a time. This includes meditation, colouring in and flow states.

To learn more about how we can foster Gratitude, Empathy and Mindfulness in our children check out The Resilience Project at https://theresilienceproject.com.au/

Justin Coulson describes resilience as ‘the ability to recover quickly from adversity and adapt to difficulty in positive ways’ and says that that research shows that the resilience levels of our children have dropped significantly in recent times. 

Justin Coulson’s Happy Families website has some great resources (including articles, books, podcasts, webinars) on how we can develop resilience in our children - 

https://www.happyfamilies.com.au/search?terms=resilience

Beyond Blue’s Healthy Families website also has a number of articles around how to help our children become more resilient including Encouraging Independence, Solving Problems and Developing Good Communication Skills.  

https://healthyfamilies.beyondblue.org.au/age-6-12/raising-resilient-children