As the world sees different lifestyle habits come into force every day, it’s easy to become overwhelmed by which ones could be the most valuable to your child as they are growing up. As mental health is becoming a priority from a young age, it’s wise to think about including emotional care into the usual self-care routines. If you are struggling to find ways of teaching your child which habits will be the central to their life, even as an adult, it’s a good idea to start by following small but integral tips to encourage your child’s awareness of self-care.
Make healthy food tasty
Establishing a healthy diet from an early age is the key to growth and development in the human body. Yet it has also been shown to give benefits to a healthy mind when you are receiving the right vitamins. The problem here is that such healthy food doesn’t taste as good as food which doesn’t have the same nutrients. This can make children less likely to finish the food you have made for them, meaning all the goodness you have stored in such food goes to waste. Healthy but tasty recipes are hard to come by, but when you find the right ingredients, you can give your child the foods they know and love, but in a way which gives them everything they need. Pizza, burgers, and even fries can be enjoyed, and be the start of a lifestyle of eating tasty but healthy food they can take through into life.
Exercise should be fun
Exercise is the charming brother to eating well, and without it, your child won’t grow up with healthy bones and muscles. Luckily, exercise is much easier to get kids interested in than eating well, as they will have a lot of energy that needs to be expended. If you perpetually make exercise a fun-filled activity, then your child will have no problems associating self-care as not only a necessity, but something they enjoy. Games and dancing alongside competitive sport are both ways to ensure your child stays engaged with the activity. Over time, the endorphins released during exercise will make it so your child can’t go long without it if they want to feel their best self.
Break time is their time
When growing up, a child’s life will be filled with an abundance of school-related activities, as well as extra-curricular sports and meet-ups. This can often leave them feeling exhausted, and like they don’t have time to wind down. Having breaks is not only integral to recovering enough energy for the next day, but as a way of preventing stress from entering their lives at an unnecessary level. Sitting down with a cup of cocoa on the sofa to watch a movie on the weekend, letting them indulge in their favorite books aside from those being read in school, and showing them how important downtime is to them is a great place to begin. As with many people, having a relaxing wash time is the best way to take care of your body and mind at the same time. Making time in a child’s day to show them this invaluable tool is imperative. Using natural resources like those from Luvin Life can act as a great source of shampoo, muscle soother, and sleep inducer, and will provide your child with the skills needed to take further into their self-care journey later in their life.
Don’t put too much pressure on them
Many children struggle with self-care if they have abnormal amounts of pressure on them. If they feel as if they don’t deserve to look after themselves properly and make themselves feel better when they are down, then this is something that can lead to much deeper issues as they grow up. Although it is key to show them why it is important to work hard in school, it is more important to show them how proud you are of them when they try hard, even if they don’t achieve the results you were hoping for. Rewarding them for their efforts and expressing your faith that you hope they will do better then next time is the best way for your child to go on and exceed your expectations. If they are not being burdened with such pressure, then they will be able to go about their usual self-care routine without added stress.
Talk openly about feelings
Much of self-care is about the actions you can take in life to look after yourself. Yet the emotional side to it is just as important as the physical side. Usually, actions speak louder than words, but in self-care, words can speak volumes. The key to helping your child learn to deal with and talk about difficult emotions is by providing them with the perfect environment to speak about them in the first place. Having such an environment starts with you. Although at certain ages children can’t know everything, there will be times when they pick up on your emotions, and if you aren’t open about such feelings, they will be conditioned to think that they aren’t supposed to talk about what is upsetting them. Being an ear for them, and acting as their cheerleader in bad times will do a world of good as they are growing up. These aspects to self-care will then be spread onto how they treat they friends through the actions and words they take from you in bad times.
Show don’t tell
You will likely have learned by now that children don’t like doing what you tell them to do, especially as they start to grow up and push your boundaries. Despite this, the one thing they will do is absorb the actions of people around them. You can’t get personality from your genetics, but from being around your parents constantly at a young age. If you practice eating well, exercising, and taking the time to make yourself feel better when you are sad, your child will pick up on such actions and subconsciously take those habits on for their own use.