Stress Management Activities and Tips for Teens and Parents
- Do you feel stressed or burnout often? Are stress and anxiety taking over your life?
- Ever wonder how to live a balanced life again?
- Want to find stress management activities and tips in your daily life?
Whether you are teens or parents, stress is inevitable in your life. In fact, COVID-19 has taken the biggest toll on adolescents. Research shows that teens have more consistent elevations in anxiety, depression and stress during this pandemic. Keep reading to learn more about different stressors people face and find helpful stress management activities.
Importance of Stress Management
Stress is an emotion many of us feel on a daily basis. Many things in life can cause us to feel anxious about our lives. You may have a very demanding job, be a mother, or attend grad school. People from all walks of life and situation can experience stress. Also, many people will feel stressed by different things. For example, something that stresses you out might not stress your friend out. Just because someone else doesn’t find what you find to be stressful doesn’t mean that your feelings don’t matter and they are not valid.
Just say your friend finds math homework to be very easy, but you struggle with it and get stressed over it every night. As a teenager, there are many things to be anxious about in your life, whether it has to do with your schoolwork or your social life.
Your feelings matter, and you deserve to live a happier and healthier life! Stress has no place taking over your happiness and draining your days. Stress needs to be taken care of and dealt with healthily, or the results can be dangerous. Some people can get so stressed that it takes a toll on their physical health, not just their mental health. In extreme cases, stressed people can even have heart attacks from all the pressure. While this example may seem harsh, it highlights the true importance of taking care of your mental health and reducing stress in your life. If you are interested in learning more about stress, its effects, and about stress management activities keep reading!
What is Stress?
According to MedlinePlus, stress is “a feeling of emotional or physical tension.” Many people confuse stress with anxiety. The NIMH states that More external factors cause stress, whereas anxiety usually lives within someone and is chronic. Stress usually goes away after the agitating experience or events pass, whereas someone with anxiety feels anxious constantly. The NIMH states that both anxiety and stress cause adverse mental and physical effects on someone and make them worry, uneasy, Etc. Think of stress as more short-lived and anxiety as more long-term. For example, someone may be stressed about passing their driving test, whereas someone may experience anxiety end red every time they enter the car.
Why Many Teens and Young Adults Feel Stressed
Stress comes from many factors in people’s lives that cause them to feel uneasy, unsure, irritated, or just uncomfortable. People can experience stress for many different reasons. Some examples may include:
Teens can face a lot of stress in their lives. Teen stress is actually very common, or maybe the leading factor to their mental health issues. What are the causes of stress among teenagers? Other than just the stress that school brings, teens can feel stressed over experiences like puberty, dating, learning to drive, etc. Many teens go through many pivotal moments that can cause them a lot to worry about.
As students, teenagers can experience stress from various factors in their education: homework, SATS, GREs, class participation grades, getting to class on time, studying, tutoring, extra curriculums, bullying, etc.
Why Many Parents Feel Stressed
Parents can face stress for many different reasons. Parents can feel stressed at all different stages of their parenting lives. Many new parents worry about what to expect, whether they are doing things right, and how their baby adjusts to new life. New parents may also fear that their child will experience SIDS or face any other extreme health issues. Parents of school-age kids feel stressed over their child assimilating into school and making friends.
Teenagers can stress out their parents because they may rebel or act out. Adult children can put a lot of stress on parents as well. If you want to read more about that relationship, check out our most recent article.
Tips for Teens to Manage Stress
1. Identify the Stressors
It is important to identify the sources of stress teens experience before helping them to tackle the problems. Typical stressors teens may experience include the following:
- Life and school stress: deadlines, exams, pressure, high expectations, etc.
- Problems with confidence and self-esteem
- Family issues like divorce, unsafe situations at home, moving, financial issues
- Life changes: puberty, death of a loved one, changing to a new school
2. Know That Your Feelings Matter
As a stressed teen, you may get the response from others that say, “You are just a teen! Why do you feel stressed?” Know that no matter what age you are, your feelings matter. If you feel stressed about certain things, you are entitled to those feelings and are valid for having them. Stress does not discriminate against any person of any age.
3. Talk to an Adult
Sometimes the pressure of being a teen can get to you, and it is okay to need help. You may want to feel mature and feel like going to your parents makes you seem weaker; this is not true! People of all ages need help from their parents; even your parents might need help from their parents! It is totally normal to need support. If you don’t feel like you can talk to your parents, try speaking to a teacher or counselor at school. Ultimately, go to someone you feel like you can trust and open up to. Chances are, adults can provide some stress management activities and tips for you to use in your life.
In addition, parents can help teens in many ways, for example
- Be aware of the signs of teen stress
- Listen to your teen, validate their feelings, and take their worries seriously
- Offer your support to them in any way they need
- Learn about skills for managing and lessening stress and share them with your teen
If you are a teen stressed out by school, check out our article here. Also, if you are a parent, here are some articles that can help you with your teen’s anxiety or have them open up more.
Tips for Parents to Manage Stress
1. Know That You Will Never Be Perfect (and That’s Okay)
Many parents strive to do the best for their children every day. Their efforts prove how much they love their children and want the best for them. Ultimately, however, being a “perfect” parent is unrealistic. No one is perfect, and even as hard as you try, you will never achieve this feat. Perfect parenting does not exist – what is most important is that you try your best and show love for your children. Your children will probably not remember the night that you burned the dinner (even if they do, it could be a humorous memory), but they will remember the love you showed them and the compassion they felt from you. What truly matters is making a child feel loved, heard, and supported.
2. Find Other Parents
One great thing about parenthood is that you can meet so many other parents going through the same things as you and relate to them. When your children go to school, there are many opportunities for you to meet different parents and become friends with them. Try joining parent groups if you don’t vibe with any people in your child’s school. Having a group of parents is helpful because you all can relate to each other and support each other. You can exchange advice and share stories with each other.
3. Take Time for Yourself
Parents dedicate their lives to helping and raising their children. As much as you care about your children, you also need to care about your own mental and physical well-being. Make sure that you set time aside to care for yourself and decompress.
It is not selfish to take some time away from your kids, even if it is only half an hour to care for yourself. If you are a working parent, know that putting your child in daycare or getting a babysitter is okay. You are working for your child, and you shouldn’t feel guilty for doing what you have to do. Maybe you like working and find it fulfills you – none of this makes you any less of a parent. Besides, doing some stress management activities can help you to be a role model for your teens to better take care of them.
10 Stress Management Activities and Tips
Whether you are teens or parents, certain activities and habits can help you to better cope with stress. Here are some activities and tips:
1. Examine Why You Feel Stressed
Sometimes you can be stressed and not understand why you feel this way. When you identify triggers, you can learn what makes you stressed and find ways to cope in these situations. For example, if you feel stressed when a test is coming up, you can find different habits to help you feel better when an exam is upcoming. One great way to explore how you feel is through journaling. Journaling allows you to explore your thoughts and see them written in front of us on paper. When you can see your thoughts and visualize them, it helps you dig deeper into yourself and learn new things about who you are.
Here are some journal prompts to use when you feel stressed:
- When did I start feeling stressed?
- Who was I with when I felt stressed?
- What would make me feel better right now?
- Who can I open up to about my worries?
2. Exercise is an Effective Stress Management Activity
As mentioned in our past article, certain exercise helps regulate people’s emotions. Exercise can also help to decrease stress in people. Working out allows us to channel our feelings into whatever activity we wish to complete. The great thing about exercise is that you can do it and so many different forms. You may dislike lifting weights and running on the treadmill, but dancing makes you feel happy and energized. Find what works for you! You can try:
- Dancing
- Swimming
- Running
- Joining a team – this helps you get fit while socializing with others
3. Practicing Mindfulness and Yoga
Mindfulness practices can help you decompress and de-stress. Mindfulness helps us center ourselves and find inner peace. You can practice mindfulness by doing meditation, a guided meditation, a mindful walk, mindful eating, etc.
Yoga helps people feel less stressed. Try different yoga poses and do what makes you feel comfortable. If you are a beginner, start with beginning poses. Allow yourself to work up to the more challenging position.
4. Aromatherapy as a Stress Management Activity
Aromatherapy is the use of essential oils for therapeutic purposes. Research shows that essential oils could potentially help lessen symptoms of depression, anxiety, and sleep problems. For stress relief, keep some essential oils next to your bed or in your bag to use in moments of stress.
5. Take Breaks and Time Away
Once you can explore your feelings, as mentioned before, you can find what triggers you. If you are doing something stressful, you can benefit from stepping away and taking a break. For example, if you feel stressed over an upcoming test, take time to step away from studying and give yourself a break to nap or practice a relaxing hobby.
If you are a parent who stresses and has the resources, try to find someone to babysit for a few hours while you take some time for yourself. If you are in a couple and you feel stressed out about an argument, take time to step away and think for yourselves.
6. Be With Loved Ones
If you feel stressed, find someone you feel supported by and spend some time with them. Vent to them and allow them to give any help or advice. Do something you both enjoy together! You guys can even engage in stress-relieving activities like yoga or fun exercise.
7. Take Care of Your Body
The NIMH suggests that good sleep habits and putting nutritious things into your body can help you feel less stress. When you are stressed, you can forget to treat yourself with care. You get so focused on what you are worried about that you can’t think of anything else on time. Remind yourself that you deserve to be taken care of! Eat nutritious food, drink enough water, take breaks, lean on support, etc.
8. Spend Time With Animals or in Nature
As mentioned in our other article, during a mental health day, you should think about spending time with animals outside in nature.
If you have pets or know someone with a pet, engaging with them when taking a mental health day can bring you a sense of happiness and peace. Being with animals is an excellent reminder of the simple joys of life – pets don’t have to go to class or worry about a job!
Being in nature can also be very peaceful – take a mindful walk and engage your senses as you look at and appreciate the world around you.
9. Put Down Your Phone
Many times, technology and social media cause us stress in our lives. For example, if you worry about not having a job or being married yet, logging on to social media can make you upset if others are doing these things. Social media also causes people to stress over how many likes/comments they get, how they look, and how others perceive them. To lessen some stress in your life, try reducing your time on these platforms.
10. Consider Therapy
If you notice that you feel stress more and more and it is lingering, you may have anxiety. If you find yourself experiencing endless stress every day, this is not healthy. Talking to a mental health professional can help you deal with your stress or anxiety. You will find ways to cope and deal with stressors in your life while still taking care of yourself and living a healthier life.
Mind Connections is here to help! Our therapists offer support for all of the services mentioned above. If you need help, our team is here for you. You don’t have to face your worries alone!
Content Creator, Victoria Gallo; Reviewed by Dr. June