CNN national correspondent and author René Marsh has released a new children's book aimed at helping kids navigate life's inevitable changes and challenges.
The book, "The Nature of Change: Lessons of Determination, Resilience and Hope from the Outside World," targets children ages 4 through 8. It uses nature as a metaphor to explain abstract concepts to young minds.
"This is a book that I have told a lot of my mom friends, it is a book for now, because at its core, at a time where I think we all can agree, life and the world is literally changing by the second and it is very dizzying and overwhelming," Marsh said.
The story follows a brother and sister who move to a new home they initially hate. Through encounters with nature, they receive messages of wisdom that create a total mind shift, helping them realize the new home is not that bad.
"It takes things like the spider that is rebuilding its web for the 100th time and showing those young kids what resilience is all about, or the trees that lose it all in the fall down to their bare limbs, but there it is, still standing with that upright stance, that determination," Marsh said.
Marsh advocates for mindfulness and building mental grit early in life, noting that mental health conversations often focus on adults or older children dealing with social media.
"I would argue, as a mom myself, that it's never too early to start laying that foundation, that laying that foundation of building kids with this mental grit so that they are not falling to pieces the moment something changes in their life," Marsh said.
"I do think that is the biggest thing that we can do for our kids, as far as preparing them for life and what's inevitable change and sometimes challenges," she said.
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