You probably eat healthy foods and enjoy playing games or sports to keep your body healthy. But do you know how to keep your mind healthy? Looking after our mental health is really important as it makes us feel happier and able to cope with worrying thoughts.

Click on the pictures below to find out more about your emotions and feelings and how you can give them a boost with CBBC’s Mood Boosters.

             Boost                                   Connect                                  Imagine                                 Recharge

Here are some things you can make or try at home to boost your mental health, especially if you are feeling sad or worried.

Make a 'calm down kit'

Find a medium sized box and fill it with things that make you feel happy. It could be a fidget toy, a picture, a game or a toy. You can even decorate the box with your favourite colours or stickers.

When you are feeling sad have a look in the box and chose something to make you smile.

Breathing exercises

Concentrating on your breathing can help us to feel calm when we are worried. Here is an easy exercises to try.

Blow away balloon

Close your eyes and imagine a big balloon, what colour would it be?

Attached to this balloon is your worry. It doesn't matter if your worry is big or small the balloon can carry it.

Now using your imagination, let go of the balloon. Then take a deep breath in through your nose and blow out through your mouth. Did you hear a whooshing sound? Every time we breath out the balloon blows further and further away carrying our worry with it. Keep doing deep breaths until the balloon has blown out of sight.

Grounding exercise

When we are worried or afraid these thoughts can feel very big and sometimes it is all we can think about. A grounding exercise helps to distract our brain from these negative thoughts by finding different things for it to do such as looking for things or listening to things. 

Next time you feel worried or afraid try and find:

5 things you can see,

4 things you can safely touch,

3 things you can hear,

2 things you can smell,

1 thing you can safely taste.

If you are feeling worried or sad, talk to someone who can help such as: 

• A family member
• A teacher
• A friend

If you don’t want to or feel you can’t talk to any of the people mentioned above, there is a charity called Childline that you call. Childline was set up for children and you can talk about anything whether it is big or small and a trained counsellor will offer you support. Childline is free, confidential and available any time, day or night.

Updated April 2023