In today's society we are used to being busy, being productive and always working towards something. While being productive and goal oriented is healthy .. what isn’t healthy is never slowing down! When one continuously is busy or in a rush to get stuff done they can easily get overwhelmed and stressed. Being overwhelmed and stressed is not good for one's mental health so imagine your adolescent who is already struggling with their mental health .. imagine how  being stressed and overwhelmed can negatively impact their mental health further. Every person should live a balanced lifestyle but this is especially important for adolescents struggling with their mental health. If a balanced lifestyle isn’t promoted or maintained this can lead to chronic stress, burnout and worsened anxiety. What is a balanced lifestyle and how do we create one? A balanced lifestyle is incorporating and making time for all aspects of our life. Think about what is important to you .. make a list with your adolescent of what is important to them. When you make that list think of how you can incorporate these important things into your everyday life. An example of a balanced lifestyle is: making time for yourself, making time for social interaction, working towards a goal, eating nutritiously, doing something you enjoy, taking care of a responsibility and looking after your mental/emotional health. If there are more things you can think of then WONDERFUL include that into your everyday life. Everyone's lifestyle is personal to them but we all have physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, individual and relationship needs we need to check in on. 

Create your own balanced lifestyle by creating a structure to your everyday life:

• Plan out how long you need to do everyday activities, make time for all aspects of your life by planning ahead 
• Don’t put all your berries in one basket .. meaning don’t put all your energy into one aspect of your life and neglect another
• Create a daily checklist to make sure you are keeping on top of your daily needs
• Take more breaks 
• Celebrate rest with your adolescent .. don’t push them to always do more, encourage them to slow down and have a fun day
• Take out any unnecessary or overwhelming tasks/activities that aren’t working for your adolescent 
• Release any pressure you are putting on your adolescent to complete ALL their chores.. Sometimes they need a break and need to slow down
• Ask for feedback daily/weekly from your adolescent on what is working/not working for them in their lifestyle and making the according changes 

Be patience, kind and understanding to your adolescent. Just like you they are human and imperfect .. we all need a little break sometimes from our busy lifestyle. When we prioritize a balanced lifestyle we are prioritizing our adolescents mental  health! A balanced lifestyle creates long lasting positive change on all aspects of one's life.

Check out Inventive Minds Family Centre for additional resources: https://inventivekidz.com/events