Being With Our Feelings teaches children how to be with themselves and each other with acceptance, kindness and compassion. By providing the tools for children to mindfully embody and be with all their feelings, this unique set, consisting of a comprehensive, practical toolkit, accompanied by four beautifully illustrated rhyming storybooks, is designed to develop children’s mental, physical and emotional wellbeing, in a way that it can grow strong, flourish and endure for a lifetime.
Structured around seven key principles designed to focus on the felt sense of feelings in the body, rather than as thoughts in the mind, the Being With Our Feelings approach teaches children to get to know their feelings as energy waves, to allow their feeling waves to flow and move, to understand them as transient, and to accept them with kindness in the place of judgment.
With clear, easy to follow activities and lesson ideas linked to each story, the Being With Our Feelings: A Mindful, Embodied Approach to Wellbeing Toolkit provides a supportive, progressive framework to develop learning and understanding (with suggestions for use across Years 3-6) as well as the flexibility to suit the needs of any school, group or individual.
Sensitively written, with a refreshing burst of honesty, humour and a strong youth voice, the four storybooks: I Don’t Want To Be Me - Amelie’s Walk, I Just Can’t Decide!, The Red String and What If All The Trees Blow Away? are uniquely designed to support the Being With Our Feelings approach by similarly focussing on the felt sense of feelings in the body. Each book explores a key theme: accepting yourself, making independent choices, being with strong feelings such as anger and feeling anxiety and fear.
With no need for prior training and suitable for primary teachers, educational therapists, social workers and all caring adults, Being With Our Feelings is a vital resource for adults and children to read, talk, listen, reflect, and create together to make a positive impact on their entire wellbeing. Appropriate for groups, whole classes, one-to-one settings, assemblies, staff training and interactions with parents and the wider community, the Being With Our Feelings set allows children and adults to discover their authentic inner selves, let go of expectations and simply be who they are.
The Being With Our Feelings set consists of:
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Being With Our Feelings - A Mindful Approach to Wellbeing for Children: A Teaching Toolkit
- I Don’t Want to be Me - Amelie’s Walk: Exploring self worth
- I Just Can’t Decide!: Exploring the challenge of making choices
- The Red String: Exploring the energy of anger and other strong emotions
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What if All the Trees Blow Away?: Exploring anxiety, fear and uncertainty
Biography
Anita Kate Garai is a teacher, poet and mindfulness wellbeing consultant and facilitator, with a BEd Hons from Cambridge University and an Advanced Diploma in the Therapeutic and Educational Application of the Arts. She has been a primary school classroom teacher for over 25 years, leading on personal, social and emotional development, and has worked with local authorities as a specialist in behaviour, emotional wellbeing and creativity, developing programmes for pupils and delivering training to school communities. Anita can be found on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at @AnitaKateG.
‘A magnificent resource! Comprehensive and heartfelt.’
Lorna Walker, Wellbeing Writer for BBC, Senior Teacher at Youth Mindfulness
‘Being With Our Feelings will make a huge difference in supporting the emotional health of our children. It must find a place in every school.’
Andrew Cowley, Author of ‘The Wellbeing Toolkit’ and ‘The Wellbeing Curriculum’
‘I am utterly taken aback. It’s brilliant.
Andrew Cowley, author of ‘The Wellbeing Toolkit’ and ‘The Wellbeing Curriculum’
'An astounding and empathetic guide to children's emotional health and wellbeing.’
Andrew Cowley, author of ‘The Wellbeing Toolkit’ and ‘The Wellbeing Curriculum’
‘Being With Our Feelings is a wise and important book. A rich and valuable resource for primary teachers, therapists and parents.’
Adrian Bethune, Author of Wellbeing in The Primary Classroom, Founder of Teachappy
‘These books empower children to know how to look after themselves, and the people and world around them. I cannot think of a more important lesson than that.’
Adrian Bethune, Author of Wellbeing in The Primary Classroom, Founder of Teachappy
‘This resource gives me hope.’
Emma Whewell, FS Lead, Shepherds Down Special School
‘An extremely comprehensive resource, which is never more needed than now. Fabulous for any school.’
Gaynor Price, Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) Advisory Teacher, City of Birmingham School
'This deserves a place in many schools, and if embedded could transform a school community's mental health and wellbeing.'
Nicky Hudson, It's All About Stories
