5 Tips to Building Mental Wellness in Kids and Teens

The world moves very quickly these days, and the interactive nature of cell phones and other technologies means that kids are under a lot more pressure than they were even ten years ago. Many teens and kids report feeling of anxiety and stress surrounding interactions with friends, time spent at school, and in other areas of their life.

There are many ways to help your kids or your teen to develop mental wellness. Stress is just part of daily life, and everyone needs to learn coping mechanisms to help them handle it. Both kids and adults can benefit from knowledge about mental health and wellness. Having these tips and tricks in mind when your child is feeling stressed can help both of you navigate bad days or times of increased pressure in your child’s life.

Tips for Mental Wellness in Kids and Teens

1.      Somatic Therapy

Somatic therapy is often highly beneficial for kids and teens and it can be a great way to help them with everything from daily stressors to PTSD and trauma release work. Somatic therapy uses a variety of treatment modalities, all aimed at changing the trauma/stress response to allow the body and mind to move past a state of fight or flight.

Somatic therapy can utilize dance and other forms of movement, as well as meditation techniques like breathwork, to help children to control their fight or flight response and reframe their response to stressors and stimuli. This is a highly effective treatment modality for kids who are struggling with routine stress.

2.      Take a Break

It can be easy in today’s fast-paced environment, to push both you and your child to keep moving forward, even when you are both exhausted. Sometimes, the best way to take care of your mental well-being is to take a rest. Providing your child with permission to take some time to just relax and calm down can be invaluable when it comes to managing stress and improving mental well-being.

This break could be as simple as sitting down with a good book for half an hour, going for a walk, or going around the corner to get some ice cream. You could also set up a weekend getaway or some other kind of adventure to help provide your child with an opportunity to be at peace and have fun. Kids need to have fun while they are meeting their goals, and taking a break can be a great way to help them calm down and center themselves.

3.      Talk About Mental Health

For many generations, mental health was never discussed in public. People who were struggling with mental health issues were often publicly shamed or told to keep these matters to themselves. Thankfully, we have moved into an era where mental well-being and mental health are frequently discussed in the open. If your child seems to be struggling with stress or if they have a mental health diagnosis like PTSD, you should talk with them about mental health and their own emotional well-being.

Often, bringing the discussion surrounding mental health out into the open is the best way to normalize these struggles. You can also find out more about what your child is experiencing, which can make it much easier to access the resources that they might need to handle their stress more effectively.

4.      Accept Change

As humans, we tend to resist change. Most people feel entirely confident in their current situation, but when the smallest factor changes, they can become upset and feel imbalanced. Kids and teens suffer from this kind of reaction to change, just like adults. Often, accepting change is the first step in handling daily stress with ease.

Teaching your child that sometimes change happens and it’s not necessarily a bad thing when it does can be a key factor in their lifelong mental health. While they might not like the change that has taken place, unless they can alter the course of other people’s decisions or remove themselves from the environment that has changed, they will need to accept that a change has happened and adapt.

Being adaptable can help people of all ages to avoid mental health crises and long-term stress. It is important to make it clear to your child that they do not have to approve of, or even like the change that has taken place, they just need to accept it and cease to fight against it.

5.      Empower Them to Help

Many kids feel like other children will not welcome their advice or support. This is actually usually the furthest thing from the truth, and lending a helping hand can make both your child and the kids around them feel better and more balanced. Empowering kids to help each other can make everything from social stresses to the pressures of school and family interactions much easier to cope with.

As with any other skill, kids will learn how to regulate their own stress by helping their friends or classmates to talk about and work through their own worries and fears. Teaching can often be transformative for the teacher as well as the student.

Building Mental Wellness in Kids Can Help Them Thrive

Teaching kids more about mental health and offering them a forum to discuss their own feelings and fears can be an ideal way to make sure that your child is thriving. Treatment modalities like somatic therapy can also make a great companion aid to help your child feel their best and regulate their stress when life gets challenging.

Daily life has never been more stressful than it is today. How we teach our children to cope with this new, stressful world is up to us. Always remember that there are many resources out there to help you and your child handle stressful times. You and your child can enjoy long-term mental health and well-being with the help of these tips and tricks.