Negative Thinking
Negative thinking does not discriminate. It affects all people without regard to their age, sex, color, religion or nationality. Negativity affects a person’s health, their relationships with family and friends, their job or school performance, and a person’s outlook for their future.
How can you help your teenager remain positive in a world filled with negative influences?
All teenagers must deal with negative peer pressure. There are numerous books and articles to help teenagers develop a positive mental attitude, but almost nothing is written about the effects of negative thinking. Teenagers are in the process of making potentially life-altering decisions on a full range of life issues.
It is essential that teenagers develop good decisions making skills, have a positive outlook for their future, a strong sense of self-worth, and learn how to set and achieve goals. With those tools your teenager will have a much better chance of overcoming the negative influences.
At times we all have negative feelings. Here are some ideas if your teenager begins to withdraw, feel depressed or starts to talk negatively about their surroundings. If your their negative feelings persist it is important to seek the advise of a mental health professional.
- Help your teenager find one thing they do well and build on that strength. It may be skateboarding, cooking or working with animals. Help them find resources – people, books, seminars, etc. to further their passion in that area.
- Change the focus. If you have been frustrated about the nightly homework hassles or their eating habits try a different approach. Build on their positives.
- Put a book of quotes in the family bathroom. Some very smart people have given great advice with a minimum of words.
- At dinner once per week each person has to come with a quote that they thought was meaningful. Then have fun discussing it. Ask your teenager questions about their quote and listen – really listen – to their answers.
- Model the behavior you want them to have.
Please visit goalsettingforstudents.com for more life skills ideas to help children succeed.
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Accent On Success® is a nonprofit organization dedicated to giving parents and teachers the tools they need to help children succeed in school and in life. Their first book, Goal Setting for Students®, has won three national book awards.
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