Routines help teens feel grounded, secure, and provide stability during a time of change. It helps develop basic work skills and time management. Having a regular bedtime helps set your teen’s body clock so their body ‘knows’ when it’s time to sleep; and having an important job in their daily routine (such as feeding and walking the dog) can help teens develop a sense of responsibility.

So how do you create a good routine for your teenager? The key is to involve them in the planning so they feel ownership. Have your teen:

• Set a daily schedule with the same wake-up times and bedtimes for each school day - and stick to them.

• Include study time as part of their daily routine.

• Factor in time off—knowing there’s a reward for all that hard work is a great motivator.

• Make it visual—draw up a chart, keep a day planner on the fridge, record the routine on their phone or computer.

• Practice - it might sound obvious, but the only way to make a routine stick is to be routine about it!

• Don’t worry if you miss a beat. No one’s perfect. If the day does not go as planned, just smile, stay positive and start again the next day.

It is normal for adolescents to misbehave when they are tired, hungry, afraid, or learning independence. And they can drive us crazy when stuck at home. Consequences help teach our children responsibility for what they do. They also allow discipline that is controlled. This is more effective than hitting or shouting.

• Give your teenager a choice to follow your instruction before giving them the consequence.

• Try to stay calm when giving the consequence.

• Make sure you can follow through with the consequence. For example, taking away a teenager’s phone for a week is hard to enforce. Taking it away for one hour is more realistic.

• Once the consequence is over, give your child a chance to do something good, and praise them for it.

One-on-One time, praise for being good, and consistent routines will reduce negative interactions with your child. Give your teens jobs with responsibilities. Just make sure it is something they are able to do. And praise them when they do it!

Pets come with some powerful mental health benefits. Pets can reduce stress, anxiety, and depression, ease loneliness, encourage exercise and playfulness, and even improve your cardiovascular health.

A pet doesn’t necessarily have to be a dog or a cat. Even watching fish in an aquarium can help reduce muscle tension and lower pulse rate.

Caring for an animal can help teens grow up more secure and active. Perhaps most importantly, though, a pet can add real joy and unconditional love to your life.

• Fostering or adopting shelter animals is one way to connect with animals. Shelters want to move as many animals as possible off the premises and into foster homes, in case they’re hit with staffing shortages as employees and volunteers get sick or need to self-quarantine.

Volunteering and helping others doesn’t just make the world better—it also makes you better. The very act of giving back to the community boosts your happiness, health, and sense of well-being. Some ideas of what teens can do include:

• Helping seniors who are isolated - check in with them to see what they need, then run errands, deliver food and medication. Make a phone or video call to alleviate social isolation and loneliness.

• Donate blood. As the number of individuals with coronavirus increases, fewer eligible donors will be able to give making it extremely difficult for inventory to recover if we get to shortage levels. Red Cross Blood Donation

• Spread kindness throughout your community. Create positive messages through sidewalk chalk art, or a joke of the day posted where people can see it and smile.

• Volunteer to help sort fresh produce, package bulk foods, assemble grocery boxes for seniors or those in need, sort donations, or deliver groceries.

Journaling is a great way to relieve stress

Journaling gives teens the opportunity to put away the constant pull of electronics and take time, to self-reflect.

Taking some time to write down what they’re feeling and processing those feelings can help your teen get through difficult feelings.

Any writing practice can raise a person’s vocabulary, syntax, spelling, and general language usage. This can, in turn, lead to better grades

Writing in a journal can help unleash creativity, and this different way of thinking about events and situations can lead to problem-solving prowess. Doodling, drawing, and other creative pursuits can have the same effect.

• What is the focus for my day?

• What are my intentions for today?

• What am I grateful for today?

• What three things do I want to get done today?

• What are my three affirmations? I am…

All of us are experiencing some common emotions as a result of our shared experiences being quarantined. Take this as an invitation to spend part of every day to just 'Be' instead of 'do.'

Giving yourself permission to be still in whatever state that may look like or feel is brave. By doing so, we allow ourselves permission to notice and feel what is going on in the moment, It can feel uncomfortable to sit and ‘be’, to not distract ourselves with video games, social media, school work, family, friends, or TV. How to just ‘Be’:

1) Self-Talk: “It’s OK to just sit here”, “I can handle this”, “Whatever I feel right now is OK”. “Feelings pass”.

2) Go Outside: notice the sky, trees, or clouds drifting by.

3) Time: Start out at 5 minutes per day. Some days might be more; some less.

Give yourself permission to just ‘Be!’

Wellness Apps:

Head Space

iChill App

The What's Up App

Exercise not only helps us stay physically healthy, it also can make us feel better, function better, and sleep better. Sometimes health benefits begin immediately after activity, so even short bouts of physical activity are beneficial. You can still maintain social distancing by walking (or running with) your dog, trying out Yoga in your yard, or even have fun participating in a free Zumba class with family in your living room! See below for links to free classes, and apps.

Fit on App

Planet Fitness - United-We-Move

Yoga With Adriene

Music has a special link to our emotions, and it can be used to manage stress. Listening to slow music calms and relaxes our bodies, and music can also have the same effect on our minds. Since music is so widely available and inexpensive, it’s an easy stress reduction option.

Below are some playlists to try... or create your own!

Sheltering at home can create a sense of social isolation and loneliness, and staying in touch with others is important to our overall well-being and an essential human need. Luckily, in today’s world there are many creative ways we can get around this. Encourage your teen to:

• Set up virtual connections with friends or family - a video chat that happens every week with a few friends to just chat and have some semblance of normal life.

• Connect to friends, family or elderly neighbors via a regular phone call to let them know they are not alone.

• Try and encourage your teen to talk with others, rather than texting – the human connection makes a big difference in how we feel.

• Take a short scheduled drive and wave to friends or neighbors at a safe distance from the car .

Our lives are rapidly changing on a daily basis due to the coronavirus which causes some degree of stress for everyone. Being able to take charge of ourselves and let go of what we cannot control is how we can reduce stress levels in ourselves and our families, and it focuses us on what we can control instead. It is about accepting what is happening right now, and not worrying about what will occur tomorrow.

Accept that we have to embrace a new normal - life is different now, acknowledge your own emotions, be flexible, be patient, be forgiving.

A great way to encourage your teen to develop positive coping skills is to model the behaviors yourself to show them what positive coping looks like. Share with your teen about times when you’ve found it hard to cope, and the positive strategies that worked for you.

We often forget the importance of spending time outside and underestimate the health benefits it provides.

• Fresh air is good for our health – it helps improve blood pressure and heart rate and strengthens our immune system.

• It makes us happier –sunshine stimulates production of serotonin (a feel-good hormone), and being in nature reduces our cortisol levels (a hormone related to stress)

• Fresh air cleans our lungs – it helps our lungs to dilate more fully and improves the cleansing action of our lungs.

• It gives us more energy and a sharper mind – relaxing by taking a walk in nature increases concentration and numerous studies have linked exposure to nature with increased energy and heightened sense of well-being.

So, encourage your teen to go outside for a walk, breathe in the air, watch the clouds, check out the leaves on the trees, notice the critters scuttling by, and they will feel the difference in their mood.

Teenagers need more sleep than adults (between 8-10 hours) to stay healthy and cope with stress. The good news right now is since teenager’s body clocks are skewed later than that of children and adults they have time to catch some Zzzz’s in the mornings. However, this doesn’t mean our teens should be sleeping all day…

Some habits that can improve your sleep health:

• Be consistent. Go to bed at the same time each night and get up at the same time each morning, including on the weekends

• Make sure your bedroom is quiet, dark, relaxing, and at a comfortable temperature

• Remove electronic devices, such as TVs, computers, and smart phones, from the bedroom

• Avoid large meals, caffeine, and alcohol before bedtime

• Get some exercise. Being physically active during the day can help you fall asleep more easily at night.

• If you have a teen who is anxious and cannot fall asleep, suggest they do something restful (e.g. reading, coloring, drawing), if they can distract themselves, their body will take over when it is ready

Healthy Sleep Habits