Teens have so much more pressure and access to information than we ever did growing up, which increases anxiety and stress and is a leading factor in Youth Mental Health struggles.
Much of this anxiety is self imposed based on belief systems they develop through their peers and what they see in the news and on social media. A bad grade to them has tremendous impact on their future, a broken relationship is perceived as a picture of their self worth. I can go on and on.
It is so important to teach our teens to recognize when they are entering a loop of anxiety and give them the skills to pull back and really look at what is going on and the impact a particular scenario will have on them.
In most cases, the impact is so minimal, they just don’t see it that way unless they are shown how minimal it really is.
Teaching them to ask questions to themselves such as the one quoted in the image, will help ground them and put things into perspective so they can view their current circumstance from a more realistic viewpoint and move through the anxiety as opposed to allowing it to consume them for a period of time.
Life happens, but rarely do life circumstances define us, unless we allow them to.