Parenting teens can feel like navigating a maze blindfolded – especially when it comes to supporting their emotional well-being. But fear not, here are five creative strategies to help your teen develop healthy coping mechanisms. These can be especially helpful if your teen often gets stuck in anxious thoughts!
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- Create a Safe Space for Expression 🌈 Encourage open communication by fostering a safe and supportive environment where your teen feels heard and understood. To ensure your teen feels you aren’t going to judge them giving them the floor is key. Remember the moment you speak it’s usually to give “your opinion” and a safe space to be heard and understood doesn’t include having to take on other people’s opinions. What they are reaching for there is that you understand what it’s like to be them in this situation. They don’t want to know if you have a better idea to help or a different perspective. This can come later but when your teen is talking about how they are feeling… what’s going on… WAIT for them to ask for your opinion. Be warned tho…This one is much easier to type than do, the instinct to fix, and help change these feelings is strong!!
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- Connect with Nature for Grounding 🌳 Embrace the unconventional! Encourage your teen to try grounding techniques like “earthing” walking on grass barefoot, or cloud gazing to find calm amidst chaos. This isn’t always possible, I get that, but when your teen is finding it difficult to manage their anxiety (be that physical feelings or thoughts) a change in scenery, especially one that steps into nature, can really make a huge difference. Just as a side note if nature isn’t easily accessible around you I have found that for some teens having plants is a great source of comfort and helps with purpose and self-assurance (there is a point because the plant dies if you stop caring) so maybe bringing nature to them can help as a different angle?
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- Laugh Away Stress with Laughter 😂 Dive into the world of laughter therapy! From funny videos to laughter yoga, explore unconventional ways to boost mood and reduce anxiety. All you have to do is try one hilarious activity you and your teen can try together. If you really struggle the belief is that laughter is contagious so maybe you can laugh and see if they catch it? Just make sure your timing for this is well thought through. A much easier way would be to challenge yourself to the “Try not to laugh” videos that are easily found on the internet!
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- Soothe Anxiety with Sensory Stimulation 🎶 Get tactile! From ASMR videos to stress balls, discover sensory tools that can distract and calm anxious thoughts. If you have no idea what ASMR videos are, before you jump to Google might I suggest asking your teen, I reckon they will have an idea. Let them educate you and you can see how they respond to this auditory stimulation. Other ideas could be having easy access to a smell they love (be it a candle, perfume or something sweet) having these things to hand can really help to calm an anxious moment.
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- Reignite Passions and Hobbies 🎨 Encourage your teen to rediscover joy in activities they love. From creative pursuits to sports, help them find motivation and celebrate their efforts. It’s important to keep the focus on efforts here as the perfectionists out there can get quite worked up if things don’t go quite right! The ability you have here is that you can help make it easier for your teen to have a go at doing something like this again. Be it you providing access to materials for art giving a lift to the local footy game or taking an interest and asking about something they used to enjoy doing… who knows you could become a viral superstar once you learn how to make social media videos!! Showing interest, and asking to learn.. are always easy ways to engage your teen in any activity.
Promoting Healthy Relationships Bonus Tip: 💖 Guide your teen in nurturing positive relationships while modelling healthy communication and conflict resolution skills. You support your teen in navigating their relationships by showing them empathy and understanding. When you role model this to them, they then see it can work for them too. Not only this but letting them into the ups and downs you have with relationships can help too. Share how communicating boundaries can be tough, but why you know you have to do it and then how you psyche yourself up to these difficult conversations yourself. Help them learn through your examples and their curiosity.
Remember, patience, support, and consistency are key. By understanding the reasons behind resistance to healthy coping mechanisms, you can effectively guide your teen towards a brighter, happier future. 🌟