This week is Early Years Wellbeing Week, dedicated to improving the mental health and wellbeing of the early years practitioners.
In this blog, we celebrate and highlight the mental health and wellbeing of early years communities everywhere.
Supporting and teaching babies and young children involves an often complex range of activities with associated pressure to deliver each day. Many of us work long hours as a TA, nanny, childminder, or freelancer rushing from one setting to another, teaching music and other topics to the different age groups.
As a committed, extended team we are expected to be all things to our youngest. We take inspiration from their joyful responses to life's experiences and work hard to ensure their welfare, needs and emotional regulation is met. Our professional commitment is unconditional.
Taking a moment or two for a 'YOU' time is critical at any stage throughout a busy term. How can we do this? A good start is to take a calm, slow, deep breath. "I don't need therapy!" I hear you cry. But conscious breath can help you far more than you might imagine. Allowing a moment to take slow, deep breaths will help you enjoy a moment of silence, feel a sense of personal space and get a realistic perspective of your tasks ahead. Breath will re-energise your thoughts, connect your brain with your body
and put a little calmness into your life.
Say the following acronym out loud when you have five minutes:
Pause Respite Adapt Me-Time - PRAM!
So, here and now, stop reading and be still. Breath in through your nose. Pause. Breath out through your nose slowly and surely. Do this a few times. Feel your tension slip away, through the floor and dissolve into the air.
Giving yourself the space to enjoy a moment of stillness is harmony for your babies, your colleagues and most of all, you.
#EYWellbeingWeek #EarlyYearsMusic #MusicForBabies #MusicForChildren #EarlyYearsMentalHealth #TeachersMentalHealth #EducatorsMentalHealth #NanniesMentalHealth #ChildmindersMentalHealth #ParentsMentalHealth
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