Authors:

Dr Frédéric Benoit, psychiatrist, and Catherine Malboeuf Hurtubise, PHD, psychologist and teacher

Finding inner calm, taking stock of their emotions, listening to their body and thoughts, and being aware of what others may be thinking can all help teens to nurture their mental health on a daily basis. Below are a few techniques that you can share with your teen and apply in your own life, too.

Mindfulness: a valuable tool🤝 for young people

Practising mindfulness means of focusing wholly on the present moment, on what is going on both inside and outside of yourself. When thoughts and emotions get a bit too heavy, mindfulness techniques can help young people take a break and reflect on the here and now and on their needs.³

Teens can use mindfulness to:

• Handle conflict more effectively
• Stay calm when dealing with complex emotions
• Manage stress on a daily basis,^2,4 leaving them better equipped to face life’s challenges

Mindfulness to the rescue at home 🏡

Adopting a daily mindfulness practice at home has a number of benefits for teens:

– It relieves depression and anxiety symptoms.
– It reduces aggressiveness.
– It helps them take on a positive outlook.
– It promotes increased self-awareness and fosters the development of social skills.⁵

Regular, long-term practice of mindfulness meditation, which stimulates the areas of the brain responsible for thinking and planning, has been proven to have positive, lasting effects on behaviour. Plus, practising mindfulness is an effective way to tackle teen anxiety.

The how-tos of mindfulness meditation

Are you a parent interested in mindfulness meditation? We’ve put together a mini-guide that walks you through how to do mindfulness meditation at home, step by step. You can also listen to podcast episodes on the same topic. 

Listen to our podcast episodes (only available in french for now):

And to increase your odds of getting your teen on board, make sure to read our advice on how to introduce teenagers to meditation and help them reap the full benefits of a good meditation practice. 

How to apply mentalization to social interactions

For many teens, social interaction can be a source of anxiety or negative thoughts. When the teen in your life is faced with a difficult situation, you can encourage them to reflect on the situation and take a moment to observe the thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations that may come up. 

They can ask themselves things like:

• What emotions am I feeling right now?
• How is my body responding to these emotions?
• Why am I reacting this way?

Then, they should consider 🧐 why the other person acted or reacted the way they did and do some detective work 🕵 to think of possible explanations.