It’s no secret adolescence is the period of peak stress. Rachel Simmons writes a fantastic article in the NY Times about self-compassion for stressed out teens. Unfortunately, anxiety and depression have skyrocketed in today’s teens. Between 2012 and 2015 depression increased 50% in teen girls and college students experiencing overwhelming anxiety reached 62% in 2016. Many adolescents attempt to motivate themselves to succeed with self-criticism; the idea of self-compassion is completely foreign. However, researchers analyzing studies of 7,000 teenagers with high levels of the self-compassion trait report lower levels of anxiety and depression. Previously, researchers discovered self-compassion not only eases psychopathology in adults but bolsters motivation and high performance standards. Self-compassion involves noticing one’s feelings without judgment, self-kindness or talking to one’s self in a soothing way and common humanity, or thinking about how others might be suffering similarly. I don’t know about you but my teenager is going to get weekly lessons on self-compassion.
