Lesson video

Hello there everybody, my name's Miss Shaw.

I'm really pleased you're joining me today to look at how we can take action to minimise mental well-being concerns in other people.

So, as I said before, today we're going to be focusing on taking action to minimise mental well-being concerns in other people.

So, we're going to focus on empathy and kindness and the impact that our words might have on other people.

Now, mental health can be a very emotive subject so as we're talking about mental health, if this is a particularly sensitive topic to you, we really need to make sure that we know where our trusted adults are before we start doing the lesson.

Before this lesson, you are going to need an exercise book or some paper and you're going to need a pen, and as usual, you're going to need your brain.

Now hopefully, you've already completed your intro quiz.

Firstly, we're going to be looking at what kindness and empathy are.

We're then going to consider our use of language and our actions.

And then the impact that our language and our actions might have on other people.

Finally, we'll summarise with some key points and you will complete your exit quiz to consolidate your learning.

So let's make a start.

What I'd like you to do is to- So let's make a start.

Just to recap from some prior learning in other lessons, I'd like you to take a look at the screen and choose two of the key words that we've covered in previous lessons.

Now, two of them are correct, please choose these two.

Going to give you a few seconds just to read through and see which ones you think are right.

Did you get them right? I hope so.

Endorphins are the chemicals we produce in the brain which make us feel happy and positivity is the tendency to be optimistic in attitude.

Now, the other two, kindness and empathy, we're going to look at more in detail today.

So the key words for this lesson are empathy, now this is the ability to share or understand the feelings of other people.

So, it's a bit different to sympathy, where you feel sorry for somebody.

Empathy is actually being able to feel how they feel.

Kindness is a caring behaviour towards other people without expecting praise or reward or any sort of return.

And the endorphins are the chemicals produced in the brain that make us feel happy.

So, just to recap, what is mental health? Can you remember? That's correct.

Our mental health is our emotions, thoughts, feelings, moods and as we said previously, looking after our mental health is just as important as looking after our physical health too.

So, what do you think it means to be kind? And why do you think kindness is important to our mental well-being? I'd like you to generate a list of any ways that you think kindness can support your mental health and other people's.

I'd like to pause the video here to complete your task and then come back when you're ready.

So how did your list compare with mine? Well, being kind can help improve our support networks.

We'll have more people who want to spend time with us and we'll be able to reach out and help other people as well.

It can have a positive impact on our anxiety and stress, because it boosts our self-esteem and increases our feelings of well-being in ourselves, and then in turn, with other people.

It can also improve our feelings of confidence and optimism and we said last lesson, that being positive and happy and kind can make us feel a lot better about ourselves.

So next, we're going to consider what empathy is and why it's important.

I'd like you to take a few seconds just to consider those two questions.

Well, empathy is the capacity that we have to understand or feel and experience within somebody's frame of reference and put ourselves into their position so we can truly feel what they're feeling and we can understand that.

And it's actually really important because it helps us to understand how other people feel so that we can respond appropriately in any given situation in order to help.

So for this next task, I'd like you to consider what empathy actually is, and then make a list.

So, some examples of how you can be kind and empathetic.

And then, say why it's important.

So, what does empathy mean, why is it important, and a list of how you can be kind.

I'd like you to pause the video while you complete your task and then come back to me when you're ready.

So how did your list compare with mine? Well, some ways you can be kind and empathetic are to just basically show someone that you care about them and you are concerned about their well-being.

Try not to judge people, we all have our own frame of reference, and we all have our own different feelings and moods and thoughts, but just offer them some support or spend some time listening to what their problems are.

Don't forget to smile, remember we said smiling is contagious.

And we can put ourselves in somebody else's shoes.

It's also a good idea to practise some random acts of kindness.

So these are just generally, random acts of kindness.

Not something that you plan or want any sort of reward for.

But just something that you go out of your way to do to make somebody else's life easier or someone else's life happier.

Now there are three different types of empathy so we're going to take a closer look now.

The first one is cognitive, and this is to do with your brain.

And it's basically empathy where you are able to put yourself into somebody else's place and see it from their perspective.

Then, there's emotional empathy, which is quite literally when you feel the other person's emotions alongside them as if you've caught their emotions.

And then there's compassionate empathy.

And that's what we usually understand by empathy.

Feeling somebody else's pain and taking action to help them.

Now I'd like you to pause the video in a second and make a list of some positive and negative ways that our words and our actions can affect other people.

So a list of positive and a list of negative.

So pause the video now and then come back to me when you're ready.

So how did your list compare with mine? Well, some positive ways that our words and actions can affect others are we can make them feel happy, we can help build some good, strong, positive relationships.

We can offer encouragement and support and we can help heal people when they're feeling really vulnerable or low.

Now this, if you remember, has a ripple effect.

So they then pay that forward.

Some negative ways are that we can make people feel sad or bad and that then contributes to poor mental health within themselves.

It can ruin the relationships that we have with people and it can really cause serious harm in the long term.

So it's very important to consider what we say, when we say it and how we say it.

So it's really important just to be kind.

Just like happiness and positivity can spread, so can kindness.

So take a time out to think about the ripple effect that you have on people, try practising some random acts of kindness and remember about the law of attraction.

Now this kind of implies that what you give out to the universe you get back.

So, if you give our positivity and happiness, and kindness, that's what you'll receive back.

Whereas if you're a bit of a mood hoover and you're grumpy and you're horrible to people, you'll get that negativity attracted back to yourself.

Some ways we can make our words and actions work for the better, are to really think about the words that we use.

Don't name call or criticise anybody and stop putting yourself down as well.

Be positive, be grateful for what you've got and all the good things that you've got in your life.

Don't say horrible things about other people, or gossip.

It doesn't do any good.

Go on a negativity diet.

So stop being negative, just think about positive things and happiness and kindness and all the optimistic things that you can think about in life.

Boost the positive energy of your words, so just say a lot of nice things.

Don't focus on the bad things and the negative or about negative things that other people might be saying about you.

You have an inner voice and it's you that listens to you.

So don't tell yourself bad things about yourself.

It's only going to make yourself feel bad.

Try not to be a mood hoover.

So what I mean by that is if other people are in a good mood, you just go around sucking all the fun and enjoyment out of everything, being negative, down.

Surround yourself with positive and uplifting words and remember, to be positive and kind.

So the key learning from this lesson is that kindness is a really important behaviour to adopt.

That empathy means feeling with someone.

And that kindness and empathy can spread like a ripple effect.

So the more we practise them, the better we'll feel because the more of our endorphins will end up triggering and releasing in our bodies.

Don't forget, talking to a trusted adult really does help.

So make sure that you surround yourself with people that can support you if you really need it.

Now, I'd like you to complete your exit quiz to consolidate what we've learned in this lesson and to ensure that you understand the content.

And well done on completing the fourth lesson in this unit, really impressed with you.

Looking forward to seeing you next lesson, bye for now!.