Mental health 2025 - Know yourself, grow yourself
This year’s children’s mental health week theme is ‘Know Yourself, Grow Yourself’ which might sound a bit full on but it’s really all about self-awareness and a growth mindset.
Self-awareness is more than just knowing what you like and don’t like. Here are some tips to get you started:
Examine your emotions.
Rather than just saying you’re happy or sad, or depressed or worried, really think about what you’re feeling. Are you worried because you’re nervous? Angry because you’re frustrated? Happy because you’re excited?!
By thinking like this, you might start to see some patterns in how you feel, helping you become more self-aware.
There are lists of emotions here to help you
Journalling
Writing down feelings and the situations that caused them can help you see patterns too. Some patterns might be positive and they’re ones to continue. You might also start to see behaviours that you’d like to change. By writing them down you can look back. Some journalling prompts are
1. What went well today? Your answer should include your emotions and describing the situations.
2. What would I do differently tomorrow? If something didn’t go so well, how could you change your behaviour tomorrow?
3. What was your moment of kindness from the day? Big or small, make sure you recognise it. It could be holding the door for someone or organising a fundraiser - they both count.
Image by Hannah Olinger via Unsplash
What’s a growth mindset?
A growth mindset is a belief that we can improve ourselves. Challenges and difficult situations don’t defeat you! You feel as though you can overcome obstacles, maybe with baby steps, maybe with a big decision but you feel as though you can, and that’s the important bit.
Why being active matters
A good way to get to know yourself is by being active. Set yourself a challenge and see how you handle barriers you come across - like really see and maybe write it down and think about how you could tackle it differently. Join a team and experience what it’s like to work with others towards a goal – do you get on with everyone? If no, why not? What parts of being in a team do you like? Is it being a leader or do you like it when you’re 2-1 down with 10 minutes to go and you have to dig deep? All of these experiences are valuable to help us grow and learn more about ourselves. If you don’t think you handled something well, think about how you might handle it next time and try it out.
Exercise is so good for our mental health whether that’s going for a gentle walk or synchronised swimming or taking part in wheelchair rugby. Here are some reasons why:
1. Regular exercise creates routine and structure. That could be turning up for training several times a week or your watch telling you that it’s run day. Structure and routine can be comforting and reduce anxiety as they’re predictable.
2. We know you’ve heard it before but exercise releases those endorphins, the feel-good hormones sometimes known as ‘runners’ high.’ Endorphins are studied quite a bit but they are released at different times for different people and body types, exercise and duration. Whatever the science behind them, they make us feel gooooood!!!
3. Exercising as part of a group means that you can be sociable too which is good for our mental well-being. Research shows that girls like to be with friends when exercising and there’s nothing wrong with that! Work hard, play hard.
4. And exercising with others can be motivating, challenging and make you accountable – if your friends are going you don’t want to let them down. Challenges and a motivation to achieve them is positive for our bodies and minds.
Image by Ovid Armin via Unsplash
5. Being active can improve your self-esteem and how you feel about yourself. Low self-esteem is when you don’t think highly of yourself and you might lack confidence. Healthy levels of self-esteem are when you feel good and want to try new things, big and small. You will build your resilience which is a fantastic life skill.
6. Exercising outdoors is so good for your mental health. ‘Green exercising’ can boost your mood and self-esteem, and it can really help with depression and anxiety. A walk in a forest, a run on the beach or a cycle on your favourite cycle path surrounded by green fields all count as does a walk in a park – anywhere green is a win.
If you’re not feeling great, if you’re in bad place mentally, a regular walk is a good place to start (read our post on RED January for more inspo) and regular exercise with a friend is even better.
Good luck on your journey and if you have a story to share, let us know. hello@wearegirlsinsport.com
Thumbnail image is Dushawn Jovic via Unsplash