31 Mental Health Hacks to Relieve Your Holiday Anxiety
Anxiety. It’s a totally natural, normal, expected response to the dizzying blur of activities that happen each holiday season. Of course, that doesn’t make it any less painful or convenient. But with an arsenal of grounding exercises under your belt, you can bring down your anxiety to a manageable level before the point of no […]
Living in the Age of Teen Loneliness
Our teens live in a world of unparalleled entertainment opportunities, yet they still experience disturbing amounts of teen loneliness. Every cell phone they carry doubles as a computer filled with applications, entertainment, and social media platforms. They can watch movie trailers or go to the movies with their friends. They can indulge in unlimited TV, […]
Why Self-Esteem is Critical for Teen Mental Health
What is self-esteem? Self-esteem is defined as your subjective sense of overall personal worth or value. Having a healthy amount of self-esteem can benefit your mental well-being, your motivation, resilience, and more! Having too little or too much self-esteem can be problematic and manifest in various ways. While some of us might think that self-esteem […]
Social Media and Our Perception of Reality
While social media can help build relationships, encourage connection, offer support, motivate young people, and spark one’s creative side, it can have negative implications if misused. Social Media Self-Perception vs. Reality There is no question that social media can negatively impact a person’s self-perception and mental health. Typically, this is caused by comparing ourselves to […]
“Man Up!” The phenomenon that affects young men across America
“You aren’t man enough.” “Man up!” “Come on, don’t be a ______.” What do these phrases have in common? You guessed it: They all reinforce toxic masculinity. Toxic masculinity is one explanation for male violence and sexism. This term distinguishes “toxic” traits, like aggression and self-entitlement, from “healthy” masculinity. It has grown to the point […]
11 Real Issues that Teens Face Every Day
“What a relief! My teen is back at school, finally, and everything is good again. No more Zoom classes and complaining.” Does this sound familiar? Now that public health officials have deemed it safe to return to school, your teen must unlearn what they were conditioned to believe for almost 270 days — to keep […]
It’s 2021: Time to Reunite With Your Teen
New reports say teens are now spending 9 hours of their awake time consuming media. For tweens, the average daily screen time is 4 hours and 44 minutes. For teens, that number spikes to 7 hours and 22 minutes. These numbers are reported by Common Sense Media, a nonprofit focused on helping children, parents and […]
How to Talk to Someone Going Through a Hard Time
It’s the most wonderful time of the year… … Except when you have the winter blues, the pandemic has disrupted your lifestyle, and you’re feeling lonely, sad, or anxious. Even though it’s common to feel sad around the holidays, it doesn’t make it any less challenging to deal with, or even talk about. Looking at […]
7 Tips for Keeping Happiness in the Holidays
The holiday season is upon us once again. You might find yourself balancing your time between schoolwork, spending time with friends, hanging out with family, and maybe even attending a holiday gathering or two. At some point, you might start feeling a little stressed out from: Overscheduling, overindulging, and overspending Too much time with family […]
7 Tips for How to Thrive—Not Just Survive—this Holiday Season
Lots of people love fall, and it’s easy to see why. Cozy sweaters, the smell of sweet cinnamon and burning firewood, and the crisp autumn air on a chilly morning all prompt us that fall is here and the pace of life is slowing down for some time. But others may start to feel a […]
