Teaching Teens to Cope with Stress, Interview with Marianna Chambers. This post is running concurrently on Ultimate Homeschool Radio Network.
Teaching Teens to Cope with Stress, Interview with Marianna Chambers
One things teens know about is stress. For that matter, we moms know about stress, too! Marianna Chambers joins Vicki for a discussion about helping teens (and ourselves) deal with stress.
Marianna, like Vicki, is a counselor by profession and a homeschool mom. One of her passions is helping people manage anxiety and stress. Marianna is also a fellow podcaster here on Ultimate Homeschool Radio Network. Her podcast is the Peaceful Mom Talk. You’ll love this episode of her podcast: 4 Reasons We Struggle to Parent Peacefully.
To get you started, here’s a fun HSHSP episode on managing your own stress.
We have another blog post on Teens and Anxiety.
One of the most important ways to help teens cope with stress is helping them take control of their sleep.
Here are some tips:
Set a timer.
Set a timer for 10 minutes and spend that 10 minutes really thinking hard about all the things you’re stressed about. Believe it or not, when we give ourselves permission to think it through for a limited time, stress actually becomes easier to control. GREAT thing to do before bedtime (not when you are in bed).
Get thoughts down on paper.
Our brains do so much better if we do a “brain dump”: get all those thoughts on paper (or note pad on your phone). Do not make it a proper essay (no one is grading this)! Create a bullet list, make a scribbled mess, whatever…just get everything out on paper.
Make your to-do list for tomorrow before you get ready for bed.
It is a good idea to make your plans and figure your tomorrow’s schedule out before you get ready for bed.
Talk it out with a friend.
If your friend was upset about something, would you want her to talk to you? Of course! Well, the same applies to you, right? That’s what friends are for, and it helps! (If your teen doesn’t have a friend like that, it is a good idea to pray about God’s wisdom on finding good friends.)
Talk to a counselor.
Talking to a counselor or youth pastor is a great idea. It really helps!
Shift your thinking to something else.
After you do the exercises above, shift your attention to something else. Here are some ideas:
- Do a word puzzle.
- Make a list of people to help.
- Practice a mindful activity. (Here’s an excellent post from Vicki’s coaching site with mindful ideas for people who aren’t naturally mindful.)
Put your thoughts in a box.
It sounds goofy but it works, try it. Using your imagination, think about a beautiful box, think about what it would look like. Then tell your brain that you are now putting your thoughts in a box. Tell your brain you can get the thoughts back out later but for now they will stay in the box. This is something that, although it is unusual really helps!
Join Vicki and Marianna for a discussion on dealing with stress. Also, look for more from Marianna Chambers at FindYourMomTribe FB page and FindYourMomTribe.com.
Want more ideas? Our friend, Susan Evans, can help with all the ideas in this post.
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