Intro Note: Consider displaying this page on a tablet, laptop, or TV, so you can see everything together. (No need to print anything out unless you want to.)
If you’ve never gathered together like this, it might feel awkward at first. By laughing through the awkwardness and giving these foundational lessons a chance, you’ll draw closer to each other, recommit to what you want most in life — and have fun in the process.
This no-prep moment pulls from our intentions lesson and our family time lesson. See either of those lessons (or both) to dive deeper.
Families Help Each Other Grow
Watch “Time-Lapse of Baby Learning to Walk” (1-min video)
Notice two things that helped this baby walk:
- She grew bigger and stronger with each passing day. (Nature did its work.)
- She received help and encouragement from family. (She was nurtured by loved ones.)
Discuss:
- Do you know the story of how you learned to walk? (Do any funny moments come to mind?)
We all need support to grow healthy and whole — even grownups.
We Grow in Many Ways
We grow in many ways: Physically, emotionally, mentally, socially, intellectually, and spiritually.
- Physical: Enjoying fitness, nutrition, and sleep
- Emotional: Naming and taming big emotions
- Mental: Managing thoughts and behaviors
- Social: Spending time with friends and family
- Intellectual: Learning with curiosity and humility
- Spiritual: Finding core values, meaning, purpose, and awe
Enjoy Intentional Time
Growing healthy doesn’t happen by accident. It takes intention — living on purpose.
To see what this looks like, name what you do for fun followed by what you do because it’s good for you even if it isn’t thrilling. (If you want, you can write it down.)
- What we do for fun (sports, video games, reading, instruments, board games, dessert etc.)
- What we do because it’s good for us (brushing teeth, baths, eating vegetables, school, etc.)
If you only ever did fun things, you would stink and your teeth would rot. If you never did anything fun, you would feel bored and miserable.
Joy comes from a blend of work and fun.
Intentional Time Helps Us Remember
Without regular intentional time, we all tend to gravitate towards what’s most immediately fun, which today often consists of amusing ourselves on a screen. Too much of that can cause us to forget what we want most out of life.
By setting a regular habit of intentional time, you’ll work together to remember what’s most important to you.
Discuss:
- How do we want to be intentional — both individually and as a family? (Name general intentions, knowing you can refine them in later weeks.)
Individual examples:
- Physical: Get outside and move
- Emotional: Do an emotions check-in with the Uplift emotions cards
- Mental: Think kind thoughts about myself
- Social: Hang out with friends
- Intellectual: Read books
- Spiritual: Live my values, meditate, pray
Family examples:
- Physical: Go on a family bike ride or hike
- Emotional: Play emotions charades
- Mental: Support each other when feeling down
- Social: Eat dinner together, invite another family over
- Intellectual: Read a book or watch a documentary together
- Spiritual: Meet Sunday morning to explore values
You can find joy and wholeness by being intentional about each type of health.
(Note: Normally this is where the “no-prep moment” would end, but this one includes a bit more below to help you set up a habit of meeting together.)
Intentional Time With Uplift Kids
If you decide a weekly lesson is a good fit for your family, discuss:
- What time works best for us?
- What should our format be?
- Who should do what during the time together?
- How can we make it intentional and fun?
We recommend the following:
- Choose the same time each week, such as Sunday morning.
- Start by lighting a candle and setting a timer for ~20 minutes. When the timer goes off, the experience is done.
- Alternate who leads the lesson.
- Don’t worry if things don’t go perfectly. (Messy is okay!)
- Choose one person to highlight by saying kind things to them each week.
- End with a game and a treat to make things fun.
***
One of the most frequent comments that Uplift Co-founder Michelle Larsen hears in her work as a therapist is “I wish I’d learned these skills years ago, when I was a kid!”
Uplift Kids helps you learn (and re-learn) these skills at any age, including:
- How to feel big emotions without blowing up
- How to think kinder thoughts about yourself
- How to make friends that help you feel good
- How to disagree and still be kind
- How to find purpose and meaning
- How to put tech in its place so it doesn’t eclipse life
Over the course of a year, you will practice essential life skills — backed by psychological research — that will make all the difference in adjusting to life.
You can cheer each other on.
Look a tiny sample (below) of the skills you’ll explore with Uplift or see our intentions lesson and our family time lesson — and the additional printables below — for a deep dive on this week’s topic.
