This article has been written by parenting blogger and co-author of Be Happy Be You Penny Alexander.
Being a teenager has its own unique challenges and can be a particularly unsettling time to have to deal with big changes or uncertainty. Here are four very simple ways to help teens take control of well-being and boost happiness levels.
Grab some gratitudes
Grab a notebook and get your teen to jot down three things they are grateful for each day. Try and encourage them to come up with three new things they haven’t listed before. This sounds like one more thing to remember do at first, but the science behind it is the interesting bit. It basically retrains the brain to focus on positives and to hunt them down! So overtime you will start to find the brain’s happiness baseline increasing.
Contain your worries
If your teen is feeling worried or anxious, encourage them to schedule in a ten-minute worry session where they write down all their worries and make a time to talk them through with someone who can help them solve these problems. When they come back to their list a few days later, they might find that lots of these worries can be struck off the list which can help make their current concerns seem more manageable.
Register your achievements
Rather than focusing on what can't be done right now, why not try to focus your teen on exploring what they've already achieved? Look back and celebrate progress and successes so far. Get them to make a list of 20 things they are proud of, have done well, enjoyed doing or improved in the last year, and all the things other people like or admire about them. Remember that even the smallest change or surviving a bad day counts as an achievement if we are having a tough time. They can then use this list as something to refer back to when they need a confidence boost.
Resolve to Be Happy Be You
Encourage your teen to take some big deep breaths and take each day at a time. It can help to start the year by rating each day out of 5. You might both be surprised at how the scores improve with time.
For more practical advice for teens check out Be Happy Be You. This positive and insightful guide for teenagers will help to give them the tools they need to build confidence and eliminate negative feelings helping to boost happiness in all areas of their life. Find out more here.