Teens worry about their school work and exams, appearance, family relationships, friends. This is the age where being your true self or creating an image to protect the self is most visible. Teens age is when they begin to feel the impact that things may not go according to the image in their head, where every person has a different opinion. And feeling empowered to speak up in a way that is respectful, truthful to themselves and others is a challenge.
I still remember in school when we were discussing the “meaning of life”, our opinions was being challenged, sitting there as an Asian girl and observing how another culture experienced the meaning of life, for me was strange. We considered our opinions “wrong” but was it? Or is it that we were experiencing for the first time different ways of communication and perception. What was right or wrong and why?
This is still happening, we are also afraid of saying something that may offend another. How do teens feel empowered inside to express themselves in an equanimous way?
It may seem small in, but in that moment It's hard to understand sometimes as an adult how important this is. Weren't we teens once upon a time too? The older we get,the more we experience, we begin to tell ourselves the worries we had as a teen was not bad. We get caught up with many more responsibilities, it’s not as easy.
We often forget how much we experienced as a teen. For teens, we forgot, on a deeper layer, it’s an experimental time to discover how opinions or concerns are voiced. Do you remember those moments? When you may have said something but didn't realize it hurt another and you didn’t mean to? Remember when the process of decision making on certain issues that are no longer very clear cut?
While on the surface mindfulness is very ideal, it's the ability to also to accept the self as they are, which is a process in itself. But we got to take one step further and train the muscle of equanimity. Tools to communicate and maintain a mindset on having the patience and ‘skillfullness’ to choose their words wisely and not based on “artificial , this is how am suppose to say it” to manage the worries and the anxiety that accompanies it.
In our program befriendurmind, our book was designed to give the teens and young professional the tools to handle the “ I don’t know how” to deal with….xy and z.
Empower them to manage the social anxiety to speak and manage the attitude in day to day life, can reduce their level of stress and listen to what they are feeling without surprising or reacting to it and most importantly, how to respond.
With our photo experience we encourage girls to look at their appearance and be able to open up not to us but more to themselves as a way to strengthen muscle of acceptance and have a mindset of equanimity.
Would you like to discover more, connect with me on how this innovative way can empower you in parenting as well as your teen