Growing up as an adolescent can bring about a lot of internal and external conflicts or stress. Studies show that teenagers’ brains work differently than adults’ when under stress especially when making a decision. Oftentimes, teenagers make risky decisions based on rewards system and peer approval.
If you are a teenager, you must be looking for ways to handle stress. Here are some stress management tips for teens to follow:
Breathing exercises
Correct breathing exercise can help you de-stress. It can make your tensed muscles loosen up and relax.
The most effective relaxation exercise is deep breathing. When under stressed, you can feel your heart rate speed up resulting in fast breathing and even hypertensive attack. Breathe deeply to calm yourself. When you do this, the mind tells the body to relax.
Here’s another breathing exercise you can try when you are angry or anxious:
- Slowly breathe through your nose and count to six.
- On the sixth count, hold the air in your lungs, then slowly breathe out after counting to six again.
- Do this several times to supply more oxygen to your blood and brain.
When the brain receives the oxygenated blood, some chemical in the brain will be released to relax you even without using any drugs at all.
A third way to de-stress through breathing exercise is to simply lie down in a dark room and listen to soft music. You can contract and relax your muscles beginning with your toes and moving up steadily to the top of your head.
You can also visualize in your mind a happy place to make you think of something positive.
Try these visualization technique to relax yourself.
Communication
Many teenagers feel misunderstood. Oftentimes, they think that no one understands them and believed that they are alone in this world. For whatever reasons, teenagers are either shy to communicate what troubles them or their approach to resolving conflicts especially with parents seem aggressive and rebellious.
While it is true that adults have undergone the same teenage stage, their experiences may be entirely different. Nonetheless, the adults can in many ways sympathize with what the teenager is experiencing.
As a teenager, you can approach your older siblings, classmates, teachers and other trusted adults simply to talk about what bothers you or to ask for opinions before you decide on an issue.
As a mother, I believe the first persons you must approach are your own parents. No matter how bad or irresponsible you might think they are, they are still your parents and have the right to know what is happening with you. Counselors in school will also be of great help as well as your teachers.
However, teenagers must be very careful when dealing with adults in authority as some of them use their position to sexually abuse teenagers. Be wary and sensitive for any nonverbal cues of sexual harassment. To completely avoid this incident, never be alone with an adult when seeking advice about your problems.
Be yourself
Many teenagers want to belong to a cool group. Many times this means that you pretend to be like others when you really aren’t. So you dress yourself the same way as your friends, or adopt an interest or behavior like your friends. This adds up to more stress in your teenage life.
The truth is, the real path to happiness is just being yourself. Teenagers like any individuals have different talents and abilities and they don’t need to imitate someone just to be happier.
You will have less worries when you appreciate yourself more than when you seek approval from peers. Just be yourself.
Kids may also experience childhood stress but the most stressed out generation is the young adult ages 18 and above. Whatever stage in life we are, the fact remains that we get stressed sometimes. The only difference is how we cope with them.