This Resilience inner peace activity for kids is a creative way to help children identify things they can control and things that are out of their control. This artistic activity has a personal touch and can be used to open communication regarding ‘letting things go’.
I did this with Miss T (6) because she tends to take things personally… She wears her heart on her sleeve and lets everything get to her. So, I was hoping to build some resilience within her, and teach her to focus on personal-growth and herself, rather than other people and things that are out of her control.
By making a protective inner peace bubble around your child and addressing “things I can work on” in this activity, we reinforce a growth mindset (instead of a fixed mindset) and teach children to think proactively about trying to be the best version of them self. This aims to bring the child’s focus on to themselves… What they can work on, what they can control and how they should aim to improve the things the can control.
This also builds resilience by addressing “things I must let go of”, to identify that sometimes the things we take personally are out of our control. And by worrying about things that we can’t control, we will continue to be let down, hurt, upset or anxious, because they are in fact out of our control and can’t be changed. This aims to promote resilience by teaching children to let go, and not get wrapped up in things they can’t change… The things we can’t control aren’t about us as a person and must not bring us down.
It is easier said than done for many people. Not letting things get to you is quite difficult for sensitive people who tend to take things to heart. Thus, I think it is an important ability to address and work on from a young age.
Resilience inner peace activity for kids
This Resilience inner peace activity for kids is quite simple and a great calming activity that should be done together. The activity opens communication about developing resilience and building inner peace. It also helps build your connection to your child. They need to be able to talk to you about everything. Thus it is beneficial for children to do it with an adult. What you need:
- A photograph of your child
- A printer
- Paints, coloured pencils, or markers
- Scissors
- This Printable File
- Clear Glue
- Something circular to trace
How to make the inner peace bubble
1. First, take a photo of your child. This will be central inside the “inner peace” bubble, so you want it to be relaxing, happy and positive.
2. Print – Have them cut themselves out. Discuss how they are their own person, how only they can make themselves happy and so forth.
3. Then, ask them to make an inner peace bubble by tracing something circular that is larger than their photo, and big enough to fit in the labels. We did this on a large A2 art book page.
Continue on to colour or paint the inner circle in beautiful happy colours. Colour the back ground in darker, gloomier colours.
Or you could try incorporating the Zones of Regulation by doing the inner peace circle green (optimal learning and calm state of alertness) and the outside background in red (anger, elated, terrified, out of control), blue (bored, tired, slow, down) and yellow (anxious, worried, elevated emotions, frustrated).
Resilience – Growth Mindset Discussion Tip’s
This is a nice activity to do with your child. As you are colouring or painting, discuss the premise of making yourself happy and not letting things get to you… You can discuss the inner peace bubble as being a protective happy bubble that helps children feel at peace with them selves and their world. When the inner peace bubble is strong, the child is happy. The inner peace bubble gets strong when children learn how to let things go, and how to improve things in their control. This can be seen as something the child needs to build up and work on.
Then you might like to discuss what happens to our “inner peace” bubble and our happiness if we worry and get upset about things we can’t control. How these damage and weaken our inner peace bubble, and leave us feeling hurt, disappointed, upset, ashamed, angry ect. And since we can’t control them things, we can’t change them.
4. Print this image file and cut out the thoughts and the labels. Alternatively, you can print this blank one, and get your child to make up their own, personalised titles. Or just click on the picture below and print.
5. Glue the photograph in the centre of the inner peace bubble. Glue the “things I can work on” label inside the bubble. Note, this is green to align with the zones of regulation, which views green as a calm state of alertness when a child is happy, content and focus.
6. Read out and glue in all the green thoughts. There is also this blank pdf, if you would like to discuss and identify your own things that are in the child’s control.
7. Glue the “things I must let go of” label on the outside. Note, this is blue to align with the zones of regulation feeling slow, sad, sick, tired and not able to learn.
8. Read out and glue all the blue things that children should try and let go of. As you’re doing this, you might like to ask them open ended questions such as ‘why should we let go of that’, ‘how would you feel if you had to worry about that all the time..? now let’s let it go!’ or ‘what can we do to help our self let go of…’
Our Inner Peace Bubble’s
Here are the ones that Miss T and Dimples made. I also made one. For the purpose of sitting with them and doing the activity together while discussing inner peace and how to let things go that are out of our control.
Remember…. It is about the process. To create this art work, it is a process. It mightn’t turn out what you expect, but it is all about the process, the connection with your child, and their learning experience.
Also be aware that the cutting of the thought bubbles can be a tad tedious. So, if you are doing this with a younger child you might think about cutting most out for them first. Miss T, has great fine motor and has always loved cutting, so she managed. However, it was pushing her to her limits as it was time consuming and she jus wanted to paint and colour….
To make it easier
If you are not up for the entire process, use mine… I took a snap of my background, where I tried to utilise the colours relating to the zones of regulation. It isn’t brilliant, but if you dont have time to do the entire process, or you just want to use the idea as a wall poster, feel free to print and use my background with the blank thought bubbles so you can personalise it to your child/children’s experiences.
Here it is, after doing it with the kids.
I hope this helps your child develop resillience and inner peace, while learning to let go of things that are out of their control. Id love to see your creations. Feel free to leave a comment or share with my by my contact page or in our facebook group 🙂
Sometimes it isn’t easy to let things go, but for our children’s mental health we need to address resilience, growth mindset and mindfulness early and make it a life skill. Good luck, and god bless.
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