Emotion Journaling

Today we have an activity for the whole family to take on together. Emotion Journaling! Why? "Encourage kids to keep an emotion journal, providing a safe space for them to express their feelings, thoughts, and experiences, helping them gain emotional insight and coping skills."

Here's how to start:

✏️ Provide a dedicated notebook for them to jot down their emotions. Make it special!

✏️Encourage regular entries, perhaps before bedtime or after challenging moments. Keep

it consistent and you will be more likely to keep it up.

✏️Teach them it’s okay to write without judgment or criticism.

✏️Decide times to review entries together to explore emotions and discuss healthier coping strategies.

STOP!

Today we are bringing you a technique that can help you or your teen to handle anxiety in a healthy way.

So your feeling that familiar tightness in your chest, negative thoughts have gripped you and refuse to let you go. Your mood is tanking and the walls are metaphorically closing in. What do you do?

S: Stop! Stop everything you are doing and press a hard pause on all your thoughts and actions.

T: Take a deep breath. Place your hand on your stomach so you can fill the air filling up and slowly releasing. Bring yourself to the present.

O: Observe. Observe everything, start with your body and what you can see, hear, smell etc. Move on to your emotions, what are you feeling right now. Lastly what is your mind saying right now - is it true? is it helpful? What assumptions are you making? Can you change the narrative?

P: Proceed. Continue on with what you were doing as you try to hold on to this new mindset.

We hope this helps next time you are struggling with some anxiety and gets you back on track with your emotions .

❓ Do you have a preferred technique that helps YOU with anxiety? Share below in the comments.

Set Goals

One way to keep on a positive and healthy track as a family is to SET GOALS! SO get out your notebook or find a note taking app and set some goals. They can be little attainable goals for the week or large overarching goals with smaller tasks. Whatever type of goal you decide to set make sure it's realistic so that you don't get overwhelmed and just give up.

👥 Caregivers: Help your teen set goals by remodeling it with them. Create checklists and cheer them on when they successfully check important tasks/goals off their list.

Suggestions for goalsetting:

✏️ Studies show that writing down goals can increase your chances of achieving them by 42%.

✏️ Break large goals into smaller, daily tasks to help you stay focused and avoid procrastination.

✏️ An action plan can help you stay on track by providing clear steps or tasks to complete.

✏️ Celebrate small wins! Recognizing your successes can give you a sense of accomplishment and motivate you to continue.

➡️ Check out our Youth Toolkit page for more teen resiliency resources:

https://www.standupaj.org/youthtoolkit

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