You can use these 7 Coping Skills for teenagers ANYWHERE (school, work, home, bus + more)

Wouldn't it be great if there were coping skills teenagers could use at school, home, work, on the bus -

literally ANYWHERE!?

Many coping skills require another object or person to use them, but with these coping skills, you just need yourself.

This makes these coping skills some of the most adaptable and helpful since you can use them and take them everywhere you go. Which is pretty useful when you're a teenager!

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If you prefer to read, here’s what you need to know about these 7 coping skills teenagers can use at school, home, work- ANYWHERE:

1. IMAGERY

You've got to be able to visualize or imagine things differently if you want to feel differently about them.

→ You can use this coping strategy by imagining the future outcome that you're working towards and how great and amazing that will feel when you crush your goals.

→ You can also use this to imagine yourself in a more comfortable scenario. For example, if you have to give a presentation for school that can feel very panicky. So one of the things that you can do is practice and imagine the speech is going well and people are receiving it well, everybody is smiling, everybody is having a good time, and the teacher is giving you an A++.

The thing is, once you imagine and visualize this happening, your mind and your brain already believe that it's already happened. So when you're in the situation later it won't consider it a new or different situation.

Your anxiety responses will actually be less because it doesn't have to put on that alert warning that like, "Hey, this is a new, different situation. We don't know how to feel about it yet."

You've already practiced and oriented your mind to how this situation should go. And so it will follow what it's imagined you've already done.

2. MEANING

If you know why you're doing this -and you can think about the impact that it's gonna have (in a positive way, of course) - then it can help motivate you to push through and get through this difficult moment.

→ Do you have a bigger purpose as to why you're doing this?

→ Why this is important and meaningful for you?

→ Is there something bigger that you're looking to achieve and work towards?

Create a positive mantra or affirmation to keep you focused on these responses.

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3. PRAYER/SPIRITUALITY

For some people, prayer indicates a religious component and that may be useful and helpful for you. But this coping skill is really about connecting to something bigger than yourself.

So this could be a spiritual ritual like:

🌙 journaling and reflecting with the new moon

🙏 praying to whatever spiritual guide you ascribe to

💃 expressing yourself spiritually through dance or creativity

4. RESTORATIVE REST

For some reason, rest has gotten a bad reputation, though I don't know I think that we left that behind in 2020- no more apologizing for resting.

We all are exhausted.

We all need rest to restore our energy.

Making the time and space to create that for ourselves, is going to be so useful and helpful in these moments.

Bathrooms are these amazing magical coping skills rooms because you can do so many coping strategies there.

Literally taking a pause and a break in the bathroom can be a wonderful way to implement some restorative rest if you need a moment to collect your thoughts, your energy, your feelings, or reregulate your mood. You can even pause where you are and take a deep breath in through your nose and out through your mouth. 

5. ONE THING

Focusing on one thing, one task, one element in the room will help you cope with whatever is stressing or overwhelming you.

→  Ask yourself the focusing question: if you could only get one thing done on your to-do list that could make everything easier and better and more manageable, what would that be? And then start taking action on that.

Stay open 'cause that one thing might be taking a moment to relieve yourself in the bathroom. For some reason, we forget about that, but that takes a lot of stress and effort.

→  Another way to practice one thing is to focus on a color or an object in the room and just notice and observe what is in the room.

→  You can also use the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding technique which is noticing five things that you can see, four things that you can feel, three things that you can hear, two things you can smell, and one thing you can taste.

I highly recommend that you do this five to one as a countdown because when we go backward or down like that, it signals to our mind and our body to decompress and slow down.

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6. VACATION

You can't always just pause and be like, "I'm going on vacation, I'm going to Aruba or wherever." Can you tell I'm dying to go on a beach vacation?

Okay, so you might not be able to actually take a vacation but you can take a mental break or an emotional break by physically removing yourself from the situation if possible.

You can do this through daydreaming. You can do this through imagining. You can do this by actually just taking a walk around the building with permission, of course.

If you're a teenager you don't wanna just get up and leave your classroom without your teacher's permission. And please don't just get up and walk out of your home without your parents' permission.

That's not taking a vacation that is running away and that could lead to whole other circumstances that you don't wanna deal with.

7. ENCOURAGEMENT

How awesome is it when we hear acknowledgment, praise, and good things about ourselves? We can do that for ourselves too.

The more that we talk positively and encouragingly to ourselves, the more receptive we are from hearing it from others too. So if you are uncomfortable with encouraging statements, I really recommend that you try this one out.

Keep in mind that it can take saying five positive things to yourself to cancel out one negative thought.

You can keep this progress going and get and stay motivated to get your life together, right now by watching the video here: https://youtu.be/RpUrKk9fYe4

I hope that you found this information useful and helpful, and if you did, please share it. You never know who YOU could be helping when you do.

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