5 Ways to Lift Up Girls During the Holidays
By Leah Berdysz, MSSA, LSW, Founder of Empowered & Poised
Empowered & Poised has compiled a list of ways to lift up girls during the holidays!
1. Be That Adult
Spend quality time with your children. Take a moment to pause from the busyness of the holidays and really listen to each other. You can do this by setting a goal to sit down together for dinner at least a few times during the holiday season. At the dinner table, each child can have a turn to share something about their day or how they are feeling. This school year has been extremely challenging for many students and more often than not, children are yearning for undivided attention from their parents or guardians.
2. Give New Experiences
Exposing your children to new opportunities and experiences during the holidays is a great way to build long-lasting memories and help build new skills and interests. Some activities you can try with your girls are going ice skating, having a snowy picnic, or visiting a museum. COVID-conscious activities might also include baking or cooking something new together, completing a jigsaw puzzle to challenge your minds, or getting creative with a new craft. This winter Leah’s mom had her and her siblings create their own wreaths for the first time! It was a fun, festive, and affordable activity where everyone had the opportunity to add their own flair.
3. Affirmation & Gratitude
In today’s culture, social media can cause young people to get a little too caught up in what other people are doing and focus on what they don’t have or catch FOMO (fear of missing out). Find some time during the holidays to encourage setting the phone aside and participating in gratitude and affirmation activities as a family. Gratitude is proven to improve mood. A couple of gratitude activities may include making thank-you notes to someone you are grateful for or writing a list of all that’s good in one’s life. Positive affirmations also can help girls remember their blessings and the good in their own lives. One affirmation activity we love for girls consists of leaving sticky notes on the mirror with words jotted down about what they love about themselves.
It has been proven that gratitude positively benefits the mind. In the Berkeley article linked below, researchers share how practicing gratitude actually reflects a difference in the human brain and contributes to improved mental health over time.
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_gratitude_changes_you_and_your_brain
4. Being Seen
Give your child the opportunity to suggest an activity of their choice that you can complete together. This can help promote leadership skills and teach them more about themselves and their passions.
5. Sports & Fitness
Taking a walk as a family during the holiday is a great way to spend time together while being active, not necessarily to “burn calories” but to bond! Joining a 5K or playing a game of family football is another great way to get active together. Fitness can be a great way to de-stress and release endorphins (the happy hormones!).
Check out Leah Berdysz below as she discusses these 5 ways to lift up girls on New Day Cleveland!
