Students in Years 7 to 10 have continued to learn about the ‘Five Ways to Wellbeing’ – five things we can all do every day to improve our mental health. Conveniently, the five ways can be easily remembered by using the acronym MAGIC: Mindful, Active, Generous, Interested, Connected. 
 
Being mindful means taking time out of our days to simply be. Stop worrying about the past and the future and just be present. Take in the world around you and notice things that perhaps you haven’t noticed before. Being active is about doing exercise – not so you improve (only) your physical health, but so you can improve your mind too. Exercise encourages the production of ‘happy chemicals’ like serotonin and dopamine, and simply getting up and doing something will make you feel a sense of achievement. Of course, generosity should be easy. Being kind and helping others takes almost no effort, and the best bit is you are making someone else feel good whilst simultaneously making yourself feel good. Open a door for someone; say “please” and “thank you”; pay someone a compliment. Taking an interest in things, whether it be learning a new skill or discovering new facts, is another way of improving how you feel. You are taking your mind off things that might be bothering you and putting it to good use, and the more you do it the easier and more engaging it becomes. Finally, staying connected: spending times with people who you love, as one student put it, whether that be friends, family or both, is invaluable to your self-esteem – and you will not just be helping yourself, but those people who are special to you, too.