{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"S1 Ep44: Self-Kindness Bingo","description":"Welcome to Episode 44. If you\u2019re anything like me and the many friends and family I regularly talk to and see updates from on social media, you are bound to have ups and downs, and particularly get days when you are thoroughly fed up with the current Covid-19 situation, whatever lockdown restrictions are in place where you are.  After months of living with this pandemic, we are all coming to the realisation that life as we knew it won\u2019t exist for quite some time and may, in fact, never quite return to what it was before.  Of course there are some positives to be found in that, but we\u2019re also experiencing a sense of loss, of grief, and of frustration.  Personally, I get hit by waves of sadness and nostalgia when I remember a band I\u2019ve seen live, or a band I\u2019ve always wanted to see and haven\u2019t managed to yet, or think about theatre and musical performances I had booked to go and see, and I weep for the impact on our wider cultural and social experiences that the pandemic is having as theatres and artists are struggling to stay afloat. So if you\u2019re having some hard days when everything just seems unbearably sad, you\u2019re not alone.  I think most of us are going through some form of grief at the moment.  But it is important for our mental health and wellbeing that we give ourselves every opportunity to move beyond those moments and to still enjoy all that life has to offer, and there is plenty of that! Today, therefore, I\u2019d like to share an activity with you that I mentioned in my first book, Recipe for Happiness, and based an entire worldwide project on for International Day of Happiness a few years ago.  The activity centres around sprinkling your life with \u2018Little Happiness Ingredients\u201d, doing things you enjoy.  Doing things you enjoy is also recommended as a wellbeing activity by the UK\u2019s NHS - the National Health Service. In mine and Elizabeth Wright\u2019s book, Character Toolkit for Teachers, we developed this activity a bit further into a self-kindness activity, which we called \u201cSelf-Kindness Bingo\u201d. You can do this for yourself and of course you can ask your own children, or the children you work with, to do this.  Draw yourself a grid with 30 boxes, then write an activity that you enjoy doing (and that you can do with whatever restrictions are in place where you are) into each box. Be as creative as you can - take your time to think of activities that will really boost your mood.  Some could be really quick activities and others more time-consuming.  Bring in some variety.  Some may be solitary, like reading a few pages of a good book, while others may involve other people, such as a socially-distanced or virtual chat with a friend. Once you have completed your grid, display it somewhere prominent so you won\u2019t forget about it, and make sure you do at least one activity per day.  You can, of course, do more than one activity in a day, in which case you\u2019ll run out of activities in under a month, but that\u2019s ok - just create a new grid!  You could even introduce an element of competition with friends and family members and see who completes their \u201cSelf-Kindness Bingo\u201d grid first! You\u2019ll find links to the Little Happiness Ingredients Project, to both books and to the NHS article I mentioned on this episode\u2019s page at forflourishingssake.com I hope you will try this activity out and, as always, do get in touch and let me know how you and your children get on with it!   ------------------------- If you have found this episode useful, please give it a five star rating on iTunes to help it reach more people and please spread the word. Also, if you haven\u2019t already, remember to subscribe so you never miss an episode. For Flourishing\u2019s Sake is available on iTunes \/ Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and Deezer. The book, by the same name, came out on Kindle on 18th June and will be out on paperback on 21st August. You\u2019ll find it on all major online book retailer sites.  It\u2019s jam-packed with evidence-based strategies for whole school positive education with case study examples from a wide range of schools from around the world. So why not order your Kindle copy now, or pre-order your paperback so you\u2019ll receive it as soon as it\u2019s published? If you\u2019d like to get in touch with questions or comments, or to contribute to a future episode, please contact me via Twitter at @FlourishingED.  You can also leave comments on individual episode pages right here at www.forflourishingssake.com (see bottom of this page). I look forward to hearing from you, and until next time, For Flourishing\u2019s Sake, have a great week!   Everyday Hero - 60 second version (Corporate, motivational, you tube, podcast) Music by Pond5 ","author_name":"For Flourishing's Sake","author_url":"http:\/\/forflourishingssake.com","html":"