Teach Kids About Mindfulness and Self-Love Thanks to this New GWD Initiative

Global Wellness Day (GWD) has launched a new initiative that will focus on children in the coming year. The GWD Kids Project aims to implement a five-minute, morning wellness circle time at preschools around the world, and one-hour wellness classes at elementary schools once a week. The non-profit org wants to provide breathing exercises, mindfulness techniques, and self-love classes for 2 to 7 year olds across the globe.

Global Wellness Day founder Belgin Aksoy Berkin announced the new initiative by inviting 40 kids on stage with her at the recent Global Wellness Summit in Palm Beach, FL. “Can a two-year-old change the crime rate in the world?” Aksoy Berkin says.  “We go to school from the age of two, hoping that the education system is going to help prepare us for our future, but nobody is teaching us how to live, how to breathe, how to be mindful and how to love ourselves as these are things that are essential to be a happy adult in the future. Kids never learn in schools the fact that people can’t love others without loving themselves first. We believe that focusing on physical and mental wellness at such an early age is so important that it can even help decrease worldwide depression and obesity rates, even crime rates.”

GWD has already been in contact with universities, clinics, and international wellness leaders developing the curriculum for the young students. The program will focus on three main concepts: self-love, breathing, and mindfulness. Students will learn how to let go of shame and anger and will learn to accept themselves and others and to feel at peace through self-love; they will learn breathing exercises to improve their health and to help manage stress; and they will learn how to be mindful in a number of ways, from healthy eating to nature walks, to improve their emotional and physical wellbeing.

“It’s time for those in the wellness industry to take action,” Aksoy Berkin added. “In an era where global consumer culture is mostly damaging the concept of childhood and raise unhappy and unsatisfied kid consumers. With the GWD Kids project, children will learn how to integrate wellness into their lives on a daily basis and to carry on those practices throughout their lives.”

The GWD founder plans to engage the organization's 86 volunteer ambassadors from around the world to help get the new Kids Project started, and to remind people that feeling good has no age.

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