How to Practice Kindness and Mindfulness as a Family

It's important to take care of your mental health, find ways to extend kindness and empathy to others, and stand strong together. Try these creative ways to extend kindness or exercise mindfulness!

Extend Kindness

• Write a “thinking of you” card to a friend or family member that you haven’t talked to in a while. Send it in the mail.
• Listen. When someone needs to talk, listen with your full attention without chiming in or offering advice.
• Make a donation to your favorite charity.
• Write a note to a teacher. Express gratitude for something specific they taught you or helped you with, and explain how much it meant.
• Make a ‘Family Kindness Jar.’ Brainstorm ideas as a family, sharing and discussing ways to be kind, both in and outside of the home. Take turns drawing an act of kindness out of the jar and completing them as a family!

Exercise Mindfulness

• Take a mindfulness class through Mindfulschools.org.
• Engage in daily mediation exercises. Green Child Magazine has great, free resources.
• Journal. Kids can journal by drawing photos or writing words.
• Try yoga as a family.
• Learn how to control and focus breathing. Make a breathing wand with materials at home or try simply blowing bubbles.