Developed by HRI Program Coordinator, Camila Dos Santos, M.Ed.
We’ve all heard by now how important self-care is if we want to live a life of emotional balance and reduced stress. For many of us, however, implementing a consistent self-care routine is a challenge – especially when our routines are upended and uncertain.
Parents can help their teenagers establish healthy relationship practices by working with them to establish a variety of self-care routines to promote their emotional balance and reduced stress. And since the summer is typically a time of relaxation, this is a great time for teens to explore the self-care strategies that work for them without the pressure of an academic school-year and additional responsibilities that come along with it.
Self-care requires trial and error, practice, and intentionality in order to work for us. Some strategies to help your teen stay intentional and consistent about their self-care routine is to try new activities with them, encourage them to try new things, and involve them in your own self-care.
HRI provides many resources for parents and teens to learn about and discuss self-care together, including the following:
- HRI Toolkit on Parenting Teens provides activities to help teenagers and their parents talk about and plan ahead for self-care activities: https://healthyrelationshipsinitiative.org/community-resources/toolkits/parentingteens/
- HRI Blog Series on Self-Care During Social Distancing: this blog series discusses how to emphasize self-care during a time when we are interacting less with others: https://healthyrelationshipsinitiative.org/self-care-during-social-distancing/
- HRI Relationship Booster featuring Life Coach: How to Maintain a Healthy Work/Life Balance, with suggestions for how to find the balance between work and life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93luUdBlRgU&feature=emb_logo
When we have multiple tools in our self-care toolbox, we are better prepared to deal with stress and emotional situations because we have a number of strategies that have already proven to work for us.
By helping your teenager establish their own toolkit of self-care practices, they are more likely to be proactive in using these strategies when they need them the most. Working with your teen to establish healthy self-care practices will also increase the communication between you and your teen and give you an opportunity to bond over shared interests.