A Tip to Help Your Teen Develop Resilience

There are often teachable moments when we interact with our teen. Parents who deal with teens who are struggling are often so exhausted, so overwhelmed, that they can miss these moments. These are the moments that can help build resilience.

When parents struggle with a teen who has anxiety the key is to help them create a body memory of what it is like to power through a difficult time.

An example of this, would be after a teen manages, despite the battle, to get to school. Should they come home in a good mood, take a moment, have them take a deep breath, close their eyes and create a body memory of what if feels like to have faced the discomfort and come out on the other side.

Another example would be if you could get them to finish all their assignments before the weekend, and as soon as they are done, ask them to identify what they feel, physically and emotionally (hopefully the answer is “relief”!) and have them anchor that feeling in their body to so they remember the reward of getting a hated task out of the way and not having it hang over them like an axe that is waiting to fall.

Look for these teachable moments, moments of small successes, that they can learn to identify and remember physically, in the body, so the reward center of their brain can be tapped and they will be more likely, little by little, to power through the discomfort to experience that feeling.