Help families find a mental fitness focus area that will address their needs

Positive mental wellbeing and our capacity to thrive is underpinned by a collection of mental resources that we can practise and build.

The younger we’re able to begin building them, the better-placed we are to navigate the challenges life throws our way. This is why educating children and families about mental fitness is so important—not just to ensure every individual child has the skills to thrive, but to take the first preventative steps in turning Australia's mental health crisis around.

Led by evidence and existing literature in mental wellbeing, Smiling Mind's Mental Fitness Framework draws on five areas of practice that support resilience, positive wellbeing and enable thriving.

This article takes a deep-dive into each focus area and breaks down the skills the sit within them. When you're talking about mental fitness with families, the key thing to explain is that there's no set order of practice, and the skills don't need to be developed concurrently. The mental fitness framework is designed to be achievable and easy to integrate into daily life.

We all have different baselines for different areas of focus. So when helping families get started with mental fitness practice, you can use this framework to advise them on which focus area or specific skills can be developed to achieve a positive impact based on their child's needs.