About the project

The Flow Your Own Way Project
Programme Overview

At the project’s core are uncompromising hopes for the young people it nurtures. We are very aware that sessions will land differently with every child. We encourage each participant to feel comfortable in the knowledge that there are no expectations. This is an individual journey to promote confidence building, connection and nurture personal coping skills. Each child is supported in the belief that they are good enough as they are.

To find flow helps us assume our position in the now, casting off the what if’s and oh no’s of future and past events - we live in the moment. Immersed in activities that bring joy and satisfaction children often become calm, suspended in time and stress-free. It is in this place that they are more able to access inner wellbeing and resilience which in turn may help them realise their full potential in life.

This programme explores the importance for young people of understanding where their emotional and mental experience comes from and how their own psychology operates to help them navigate the challenges of everyday life. The Flow Your Own Way Project directs children and young people towards inner contemplation to harness their own power as they look within, trust their guts and believe in themselves.

Our programme is underpinned by the core teachings of the Three Principles developed by Banks (1998) and Pransky (1998), which now forms the basis of an understanding at the root of a successful and expanding international mental health platform.  Some British schools are already implementing its related programmes. It has been employed in many different fields including the business world, within educational establishments, to rehabilitate broken inner-city communities, offer a different path for reoffending prisoners and even support patients recovering from chronic health problems. 

The central theme is that our mental state or psychological experience is often thought driven and influences our ability to harness wellbeing and emotional resilience (or not). Thoughts usually lead to feelings, feelings to behaviour and so understanding their impact is key to the quality of our experience.

Thoughts come and go like trains, which, when left alone, can be fleeting. However, we sometimes attach ourselves to them emotionally, arriving at less than promising destinations.  Attachments to other thoughts have happier outcomes. With awareness, we may jump off the more negative trains of thought and choose to move in a more positive direction. 

This way we may begin to positively influence an individual’s mental health. The relationship between thought and feeling has a bearing on the cause and continuation of challenging mental health concerns or robust emotional resilience.

The programme identifies with these principles and is delivered in engaging and entertaining ways that help children to experience and embed the learning.

Human beings have a spectrum of attributes including joy, self-belief, love, wisdom, resilience and gratitude to name a few. This useful toolbox is ever present but sometimes early experiences, difficult relationships, trauma, poverty, having our needs ignored or more mundanely the demands of very day life on families may cause us to forget our own strengths. Ignoring their inner power, children may look externally for support, mood elevation and a fast fix. When this falters they can often blame the external world for their problems and wait for it to change instead of tapping into their own inner wisdom and support system.  Such externals may become obstacles to their feelings of wellbeing. 

Children who feel vulnerable, reactive and guarded may become overwhelmed and defensive. At this point, their inner resources seem inaccessible and life becomes a pattern of moving in and out of defensive states. 

But, when we help children to find alternatives, they are given the opportunity to investigate their own inner resources, to access common sense and insight. 

Our programme helps children become confident at identifying moments of unguardedness. When children are unguarded and therefore, unrestricted they are often more able to achieve their true potential. They can more easily locate feelings of self belief, motivation, resilience and wisdom in a calm, more relaxed state.

It is by noticing and paying attention to these episodes of flow that they can embrace their own resilience and discover for themselves that these experiences are real. 

Sessions

Connect – the importance of friends and relationships for good mental health.

Movement – physical activity and somatic principles to help shift from busy heads to more grounded states.

Learn –strategies to tap into valuable inner resources, encouraging self-regulation through fun activities and breath work.

Awareness – of the present moment through relaxation techniques and mindfulness.

Thoughtfulness – being kind to ourselves and others, affirming gratitude and leaning  towards life’s positives.