Children's Mental Health Week - Guest Blog

About 11 months ago everything was ‘normal’ we were all at school and working hard for our Sats - until a new virus came around. It was not that bad at first, England was just sad for China and all of the other countries that were first affected by it, until we started watching Boris Johnson on telly about it reaching us and watching the news on how the people in infected countries were being affected. Then one day the virus struck England, hospitals got busy, we kept hearing 'the NHS were busy' and about 'positive Coronavirus tests'. At school we were watching it all unfold on Newsround and watching tutorials on how to put a mask on; it all changed.

Just when we thought things could not get any worse - schools shut down, our clubs got shut down and we could not buy our favourite things or go on holiday. After a while of lockdown our parents started telling us to be ‘positive’ and that we needed to smile through it and be grateful for everything we have; learn to be positive about our 'new normal'. At first, I thought being positive was useless and that it would not make me smile, until I gave it a try. I started doing little bits of positive action like self-care and forgetting anything negative. My Mum loves Crystals, she told me all about how they help people be positive and happy. I now love crystals and learning about them! I have a worry stone that I hold when I feel anxious. We did other positive things like clapping for the NHS, celebrating Captain Tom's achievement, we all learnt how to use Zoom and got back to our clubs online, we enjoyed going for a walk much more than we ever have before! 

In my opinion all we need in lockdown is positivity. We are getting through it together, smiling and being happy.  

Madison - Guest Blogger - Aged 11