It is important to good self-talk to instill resilience in your teen. The teen years are full of challenging experiences and changes and it is easy to become anxious or overwhelmed with feelings and succumb to nerves. Mantras are a great way to reinforce a positive growth mindset and switch the focus to more positive outcomes. What we tell ourselves our brain will believe, especially if we keep repeating it, be that message positive or negative. So why keep telling yourself you can’t when if you set your mind to it, you can.

Here are some statements to help:

• I improve with practice.
• I achieve great things when I persist.
• I stay calm when I make a mistake.
• If at first I don’t succeed, I learn and try again.
• I stay positive.
• I look on the bright side of life.
• I make goals and move towards them.
• I do my best.
• I don’t give up, I stick at it.

Challenging times require good self-talk and coping strategies, here are a few ways to help you remain positive and get through the moment of anxiety.

Imagine your favourite place as vividly as you can.

Give yourself a big hug.

Slowly count to ten.

Make a tight fist and release it.

Take a very deep breath in and breathe out slowly, fully controlling the breath and making a sssh noise as you do.

Look around you and notice and name out loud 5 things that you see, touch 4 different things – notice how they feel, listen and note 3 different sounds, and see if you can smell 2 different smells and 1 taste.

When you need the motivation to do something count back from 5. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, just do it.