Thank you mums and dads for sharing my video blogs with your children, I hope it is adding value to them. And answering the question of this young teenager who says: ‘I feel stressed all the time, please help me!’ I have many teenagers who come to me for coaching sessions; because they’re stressed; because of the demands of the school, because sometimes children are moving schools they have moved internationally, peer pressure, feeling bullied. Or just over-scheduling, trying to do to many things in a day or week. So my 6 strategies for you are:
1) Do take a break when you are studying or doing a project or where you need to focus a lot on. So after every 45 mins take a 15mins break. So whether it is listening to music, having a snack or taking a small walk, reading a book just something to help your relax and unwind and taking a break from your work, will help you to increase your productivity.
I recently was coaching a young girl who moved from London and she came feeling very very guilty one day. She said: “I am not managing my time properly, I get distracted very easily. I was very focused and was studying very hard then on Skype a friend I miss a lot in London called so I chatted with her for 20 mins. I felt really guilty about wasting my time.” Guys and girls take a break, connection with friends and family is very very important and helps to relax you. So, do take those very important breaks.
2) Please enroll yourself in some sort of physical activity whether it is a sporting activity, just some sort of exercise because that helps to move all that stressful energy and hormones and enzymes out of your body. So instead of just thinking and focusing on studying all the time, your using your body to push all that negative energy, move all that stressful energy out. So enroll yourself in something physical on an everyday basis to a minimum of 5 days a week.
3) Know your stress triggers. What is it that gets you stressed out. So if there’s a presentation in front of an audience that your stressed out about, rehearse in advance, ask for someone’s help, join a class where they teach you how to improve presentation skills, practice in front of your friends or family whatever needs to be done before the event. I also know that a lot of times children feel peer pressure and going to school and being with a certain group of friends can also contribute towards stress. Because you are learning about certain values at home and when you go out with your friends there is a combination of another set of values. So its important for you to realize what your values are, discuss them with your family. In case you feel torn and unhappy about doing something else with your friends be prepared with things that you can say to them (like NO) politely but firmly because you don’t want take part in whatever they’re taking part in because that conflicts with your values. So be prepared with your trigger points and develop strategies in advance.
4) Learn relaxation and breathing exercises. So if you just research for videos or audios of abdominal breathing you will learn tools that will really help to calm you and relax you.
5) Break larger chunks of work into smaller chunks of work, bite size. So don’t look at the large elephant as a complete animal, eat it up one bite at a time.
6) Self talk. What are you saying to yourself. Are you running yourself down? Or are you lifting yourself up? Always focus on what you are saying and always encourage yourself to be positive.
So I hope that helps to answer your question. Let’s recap:
1.Take a break after every 45 minutes for 15 minutes
2.Take part in some sort of outdoor activity
3.Know your stress triggers
4.Relaxation and breathing exercises
5.Take larger chunks and break them into smaller bite sized pieces.
6. Listen to your self-talk
Please contact me for any information on my programs for Teens via email [email protected] or Facebook: Athena Coaching Solutions or call me on (+971-56-1399033)