Mental Health Awareness Month: Simple Ways to Calm the Body and Support Emotional Wellness

Mental Health Awareness Month is an important reminder that mental wellness is not only about responding to challenges after they happen — it is also about creating daily habits that help support the brain and body before stress becomes overwhelming.

Preventive mental health can look like:

• slowing down

• creating mindful routines

• building emotional awareness

• practicing movement

• getting adequate rest

• learning healthy coping tools

• taking time to breathe

One of the simplest and most effective calming tools we have access to every day is our breath.

Why Breathing Helps Calm the Body

When children or adults feel overwhelmed, anxious, frustrated, or overstimulated, the nervous system can shift into a stress response. The body may feel tense, thoughts may race, and emotions can feel harder to manage.

Slow, intentional breathing helps activate the body’s calming response.

Research has shown mindful breathing practices may help:

• support emotional regulation

• reduce stress

• improve focus and attention

• calm the nervous system

• increase body awareness

• support self-regulation skills in children

Breathing practices are simple, accessible, and can be used almost anywhere:

• classrooms

• homes

• counseling offices

• calm-down corners

• workplaces

• yoga and mindfulness sessions

Helping Children Understand Breathing Through Shapes

For many children, being told to “take a deep breath” can feel difficult or abstract.

Using visual breathing exercises can help make mindful breathing more engaging and easier to follow.

Shape breathing combines tracing, movement, and breath together. Children visually follow the shape while matching their breathing pattern to the lines and curves. This creates a multi-sensory calming experience that helps children slow down and stay connected to the activity.

Some popular examples include:

Triangle Breathing

Children trace each side of a triangle:

• breathe in

• hold

• breathe out

Triangle breathing can help encourage focus, balance, and mindful pauses.

Star Breathing

Children slowly trace each point of the star while breathing in and out.

This practice can help:

• calm racing thoughts

• support transitions

• reduce overwhelm

• create a mindful reset

Lazy 8 Breathing

Lazy 8 breathing uses an infinity symbol shape that children trace repeatedly while breathing slowly.

This style of breathing is commonly used to:

• slow breathing patterns

• calm the nervous system

• improve concentration

• support emotional regulation

Even small moments of intentional breathing throughout the day can help children and adults build healthier coping skills over time.

At Challenge to Change, we use breathing activities such as shape breathing in many of our mindfulness and social emotional learning activities to help children practice calming strategies in an approachable and engaging way.

🔗 Learn more about our Shape Breathing Bundle here:

Shape Breathing Bundle – Yoga + Mindfulness Printable Worksheets

Mental wellness is not built in one perfect moment. It is often built through small daily practices that help us pause, reset, breathe, and reconnect — one breath at a time. 🌿