Managing Stress with Mindfulness

School is back in session! This is the time of year I begin to see an increase in young clients due to school stress. According to ADAA (2018,) anxiety affects 25.1% of kids ages 13-18. The middle school population comes to mind due to their transitioning from childhood to teenage years, known as the ’tween’ stage of child development. Now peer-group acceptance becomes very important. Both finding and fitting into one’s tribe with the concerns about identity taken to heart; now self-consciousness and shame are intensified. There is also the academic shift from learning ‘how to learn’ and building a knowledge base to critical thinking and using inferential learning. At this time, kids are asked to employ their independent thinking, adjust to changing classes with varying demands and less teacher availability. Kids tell me they are ‘overwhelmed’ adapting to these novel stressors.

A skill that helps young people to navigate their perceived stress should be in order. This is where mindfulness training can come in handy. These supportive skills to calm the ‘Self’ help to increase executive functioning, aid in sustaining focus and attention, as well as enhancing the capacity to deal with stress. In a recent study regarding effects of mindfulness training on stress and brain plasticity's impact on the developing brain, evidence was found for children reducing stress and promoting functional brain changes with self-calming skills. Proof was also indicated on neurocognitive mechanisms, for both stress and its reduction, by mindfulness training that specifically related to reduced amygdala responses to negative stimuli (Bauer, C., et. al., 2019).

So by learning simple mindfulness techniques, such as paying attention to one’s breath and sustaining a meditative focus, young people can learn how to self-regulate. Lowering perceived stress can improve anxiety and create a better chance of academic success. Now that school is back in session with the uptick in pressure, setting aside a regular time every day to be still, to just sit and notice the breath, clearing the mind and temporarily turning inward may result in a valuable life skill.