How stationery can help your children’s Mental Health

If you struggle with your mental health as an adult, you’ll know that some days can be an uphill struggle. Most of the time, you may feel as though you could conquer the world, juggle one million things and say yes to every fun event you get asked to! However, as we know, some days may not feel so bright and the everyday tasks suddenly seem quite big.

 

 

 

It’s sometimes hard to acknowledge or remind ourselves that our little ones also experience these highs and lows in their own way. They may not understand why they suddenly feel tired, down or agitated, so speaking about their feelings may not always be easy. It’s so important that children have a release or go-to for when they don’t feel like themselves and arts, crafts and stationery can be an amazing source for this! There are so many benefits and ways to enhance their stationery that can have a hugely positive effect on their mental health.

 

Journalling

 

Writing down your thoughts and feelings can be such a therapeutic way of moving everything from your head and flooding them onto a piece of paper. It allows for reflection and teaches our children a healthy way of expressing and understanding our emotions before lashing out or getting upset. It’s a great way for your children to feel in control of their emotions especially if you’ve noticed signs of anxiety or depression.

 

 

 

Using special pens such as our Helix Oxford colour gel pens for this task, and making it an intimate activity for both you and your children could make this an important and special time. You could even incorporate the idea of colour coding based on their different emotions. For example, if they’re feeling sad about something, they could write it in blue, if they’re nervous yellow or if they’re angry or frustrated red. The overall outcome of this is creating a safe space for them to be able to share their feelings whilst also improving their communication skills.

 

 

Highlighters

 

 

Bright and engaging colours whilst they’re journaling, doing homework or studying in school can have a really positive outcome on their mental health. Studies around the Psychology of colour have shown that the use of colour can heavily influence our minds, emotions and behaviour. Interestingly, each colour can have a different effect on us and therefore, a combination of them all could make for a well-rounded positive impact. For example, yellow and orange can ignite a feeling of joy, positivity and energy. On the other hand, greens and blues create a sense of calm, peace and productivity. All of these qualities are equally important for your children as well as enhancing and improving an activity such as studying, or the art of journaling, that they will spend a lot of time taking part in.

 

 

 

 

 

We particularly love our Maped flex tip highlighters for this. Along with their beautiful pastel tones, the soft nib glides over the paper with a gentle bend, further enhancing the calming and enjoyable moment of colour-coding their work or notes with highlighters.

 

Colouring

 

 

Colouring books aren’t just for children anymore as the popularity of adult colouring books have sky-rocketed as a form of self-care. There is no coincidence that this trend and our openness with communicating our feelings and the discussion of mental health has become so much more normalised and accepted. The benefits of colouring for your mental health have been proven time and time again including reduced stress levels, feeling calmer and safer and less depressed.

 

 

 

 

Colouring can offer a much-needed distraction from life and a chance to let creativity flare. Arts and Crafts activities can promote mindfulness and act as a great chance to express emotions via colours and shapes. Our Maped Color’peps Infinity makes for the perfect colouring pencils for any activity!

 

 

Tree of Strength

 

 

We have discovered an amazing activity created by Carolyn Mehlomakulu, an Art Therapist for children and teenagers, who has created a Tree of Strength. As seen below, using your child’s hand you create a tree trunk and then add branches to the fingertips. Off of these branches blooms leaves in which you encourage your children to add what they believe their best strengths and coping skills are. For example, they may feel they are kind, funny, or good at something in particular and that what makes them feel better when they’re down is family, art, their favourite food etc.

 

 

 

Encouraging them to take the time to complete this with you will allow them to really think about what makes them happy and what makes them special. This will help to make them feel more positive about themselves and hopefully mean that when they aren’t feeling themselves, they can turn to this special tree for comfort and guidance.

 

 

Arts and Crafts

 

Finding a fun arts and crafts activity that you can do together as a family but also on their own can be a great way to separate them from their thoughts and enjoy getting creative! One of our favourites from our Maped Creativ range is our Blow Pens!  Watch our TikTok video below by Cheryl from @creative_mama_che for a fun arts and crafts idea.

 

 

 

Animals

 

Our pets have been proven to make us feel calm and relaxed and actually increase our levels of serotonin and dopamine. This feeling of joy can be carried through into their stationery from our wide range of Maped animal friends!

 

 

 

 

Include their favourite animals into their everyday stationery with our many animal sharpeners such as Ladybirds, Bunnies, Pandas, Penguins, Whales and even Frogs! Our ‘mini friends’ highlighters with animal shaped lids will ignite that same feeling of happiness as they learn, create and play!

 

 

 

 

 

We hope these ideas and suggestions will encourage your children to express their thoughts and feelings and allow them to creatively express their emotions in a healthy way. Stationery is such an important part of a child’s life and can have so many more benefits than we first realise. As we at Maped Helix say, “Empower every child to change the world with their own hands”. We hope this resonates and acts as a reminder that our children really do hold the power to change their lives.