A Mindful Teen: Helping Today's Teenagers Thrive through Gratitude, Acceptance, Intention, and Nonjudgment

A guide for parents to help teenagers use mindfulness in their everyday lives. The teen years have always been stressful—a time of rapid development of the mind and body, constant downward pressure on self-esteem, and increased fear and anxiety. Added to these age-old issues are the new stressors of social media, smartphones, the internet, school violence, and more. How are teens to deal with this stress? And how can parents support them? In A Mindful Teen: Helping Today’s Teenagers Thrive Through Gratitude, Acceptance, Intention, and Nonjudgment, parents and other “first responders”—teachers, coaches, counselors, and relatives—are provided with invaluable coping strategies for their children. Each chapter takes a deep dive into the challenges and pressures teenagers face and offers solutions based on mindfulness practices that parents and teens can work through together. It also includes a discussion of various parenting styles and points to ways to improve relationships through understanding, empathy, and healthy attachment. Grounded in the GAIN methodology, which emphasizes gratitude, acceptance, intention, and nonjudgment, A Mindful Teen offers a simple yet effective message: we can all learn to be more mindful and aware of our experiences to become happier, confident, and more fulfilled.