12 Best Mindfulness Activities for Teenagers

We all have been through teenage, and we know how hard this phase can be for one. Your teen is feeling the same that you used to feel when you were a teen. So stop being hard on your teen when they are in a hard time. Instead, this is the time to be close with them and help them overcome this tough phase of their life.

During teenage, there is a high probability of teenagers facing depression, stress, anxiety, and physical and emotional changes. Hence to keep your teen calm and improve their mental health, it's important to teach mindfulness activities for teenagers and encourage them to engage in mindfulness activities.

12 Best Mindfulness Activities for Teenagers

Here I will be mentioning the 12 best mindfulness activities for teenagers that will help teenagers overcome their anxiety and depression:

1. Make a Journal

It's always best to write down your thoughts on paper. Writing down your emotion or sharing it with others is the best way to get rid of the heavy emotions you face. During teenage, teens prefer to hide their emotions and feelings.

They hardly trust anyone during this phase of their life, or may feel people will make fun of their thoughts and emotions. Always encourage your teen to write whatever they are feeling. You need to ensure your teens' journals are private and no one reads their journals.

Let them write their journal freely without any judgment. In fact, to encourage your teens to make journals, you can gift journals to them during special occasions like their birthday, Christmas, New Year, etc.

2. Technology Detox

Digital devices are what teens get engaged in most of the time. During teenage years, teens themselves are battling strong emotional and physical changes and getting bullied on social media; seeing someone's life getting better than theirs will make them feel even more miserable.

If your teens start to get negative energy, then technology detox is also one of the mindful activities. Teens open their social media every one to two hours which can increase their anxiety. You can encourage your teens to take a break from social media or technology at least once a week or one or two hours a day.

At first, your teens might get restless when they are unable to use their digital devices. But once they get used to technology detox, they will find a huge difference in their mental and emotional well-being.

3. Walking

Mindful walking is also one of great mindfulness activities for teenagers. Whenever teens feel stressed or anxious about any situation, ask them to take a mindful walk. Walking somewhere peaceful, like around your garden, in parks near woods, will help you clear your mind.

They will feel mentally peaceful while walking around. It will also help them to appreciate their life, love their health. Even if they do not have enough time, they can perform this activity within 5 to 10 minutes.

While walking, make sure that your teens do not listen to music, as listening to music and walking will not make mindful activities. You either need to listen to music or walk; doing both at once will not be effective. While walking make sure your teen listens to the noises that come from their surroundings. Let your teen enjoy their walk around nature.

4. Dancing

How often do you dance? After dancing for a while, have you ever felt light and happy? Dancing is the best way to relax your body, so you can make dancing one of the mindfulness activities for teenagers.

If your teens are not dancing, people don't worry; ask them to move along with the inner rhythm of their body, and there you go, they will be able to dance. If they feel awkward dancing all along, then encourage them to invite their friends. There is no time limit for this activity; they can dance as long as they want.

Make sure they dance to at least one song. While dancing, teens can make music volume loud; if you feel like they are disturbing people around them, you tell them to use headphones and dance. The louder the music, the more they will be able to feel it.

To have mindful dancing, ask them to choose songs they love; it does not matter if they know the lyrics of the music or not. Now ask them to close their eyes and let their body move in rhythm. Make sure they calm the mind and body to focus on music and the moves.

5. Meditate

After walking and dancing, mediation is also one of the mindfulness activities for teenagers. Mediation is not only beneficial for your mental health, but it's equally great for your body, and it helps teenagers to remain calm and focused on their studies. Also, mediation will help to balance your system by maintaining heart rate and reducing blood pressure.

If we start to talk about the benefits of meditation, the list will go on and on. If your teens are new to meditating at first, they might feel intimidated and do it for 3 to 5 minutes. But once they get used to guided meditation, they can do it for long minutes.

You can also take help from YouTube videos or websites if your teens feel reluctant to meditate alone. Or there are many online guided meditation classes that teens can join along with their friends and meditate together.

6. Mindful Listening to Music

The next fun mindfulness activities for teenagers that we have on our list is listening to music. Right music relaxes the mind and soul and makes the mood light. Listening to music helps to reduce stress and anxiety, and many people even take it as therapy. Music also helps you with energy and helps you to stay focused.

You can do this activity just in 5-10 minutes, and the most interesting thing is that you can do it anywhere, either on public transport or at your workplace, but you need to make sure that the place is not so noisy.

If you want your teens to exercise mindfulness practices by listening to music, first of all, they need to choose a piece of music they like listening to. Teens can even listen to music that they have never listened to before. Next, ask them to take their headphones or earbuds, which shuts external noise, and they will be able to listen to music only.

While mindful listening to music, teens can either close their eyes and focus on music or go to some peaceful place like a garden or terrace and enjoy the music.

7. Blow Bubbles

You might think blowing bubbles is just for teens, but it's not. You do not need to be a kid to do this activity. Blowing bubbles can be done by anyone who enjoys it. Blowing bubbles is also a perfect mindful activity that your teens can do whenever they feel down or demotivated.

Blowing bubbles do have their benefits like reducing stress and frustration, calming their mind. You can join your teen in this blowing bubbles activity. Once teens start blowing bubble activity, they can do it for any minute they like, as you know how fun it is.

To perform this activity, they can purchase a bubble tube from dollar stores or make it on their own. For making a bubble, you will need dish soap and water to mix them, and your bubble gel will be ready.

8. Bubble Bath

The next mindfulness activities for teenagers that we have is mindful bathing or bubble bath. You might know that water is soothing and helps one relax, so why not just take a hot bath to relax one's body.

If your teens are stressed or are overwhelmed with their studies and other workloads, ask them to take a bath; trust me, this will help them to relax and feel refreshed at the same time. Fill the bathtub with warm water and add some soaps to create bubbles; you can even add some bath bombs which helps to improve their mood and sleep.

Bubble bath activity can be done for 10- 20 minutes. While taking a bath, you can even instruct your teens to take a deep breath, pay attention to breath, close your eyes and focus on the warm water. To make the bath more fun, you can even play some music which is soft and relaxing.

9. Cooking

If your teens love to cook or bake, you can do these activities and use this cooking activity. Cooking helps to reduce stress and anxiety, and at the same time, improves their cooking skills. Cooking is not just a hobby, but it is also a life skill that one needs to learn, so there's nothing better than learning cooking at an early age.

The time duration of cooking or baking depends upon what you are cooking. If your teens are new to cooking, make sure that you supervise them. Let your teen cook whatever they like to cook; provide them with the ingredients they need. Teens should enjoy every step of cooking for mindfulness technique cooking practice.

If you do not have much time to supervise your teen with their cooking practice, you can ask them to join cooking classes. Make enroll your teens into online cooking classes.

10. Coloring

Ask your teen to get some coloring books, colors, and paints and let them color or paint whatever they like. Let their emotions come out through color; this will help them to relax. Mindful coloring is also one of the mindfulness activities for teens to relax and express their hidden emotions.

The time duration for coloring depends upon what you are coloring or painting. If you are coloring some mandalas or swirls, then it can take some time. But if you are coloring some simple pattern, it can be done within 10-15 minutes. While doing this activity, let your teens do it in a peaceful environment with no noise.

Before your teens start coloring, instruct them to bring all their required items around them so they do not have to keep moving to search for their materials. It would help if you made sure that while painting, your teens are practicing deep breathing while coloring or painting.

11. Have Some Tea

If you are a tea person, you may agree tea time is the best time for relaxing. After a hectic day, having a cup of tea will help reduce stress and calm the mind and can be one of the best mindfulness activities for teenagers. Many people even believe that tea is the best soothing beverage one has.

If your teens love tea or are used to having tea, you can give them some tea or ask them to make it themselves and enjoy their tea time. You do not need much time to make tea; it can be made within 3 to 5 minutes. It also depends on how you are making your tea.

While your teens make tea, ask them to observe how the tea is getting boiled, focus on the aroma of tea while pouring it on the mug. Enjoy every warmth of the tea; let its warmth make their body warm. While having tea, choose peaceful spots and no one to disturb them.

12. Solve Puzzles

Puzzles are also a fun mindfulness practices and mindfulness exercises for teens that helps teens improve their thinking skills and reduce stress. You can find puzzles for people of all age groups, but you need to choose suitable puzzles for tweens and teens.

If your teens are new to solving puzzles, you can try it with simple puzzles, but if they are into puzzles, you can bring some 3D puzzles that take a long time to complete. The time duration for solving a puzzle depends on what kind of puzzle you are solving.

After completing the puzzle, you will get a sense of accomplishment and energy at the same time. Solving puzzles can be a great mindful activities for teens during the weekend.

Conclusion

So these are the 12 best mindfulness activities that teens should practice to protect their mental health. If you also want to read about mindfulness activities that you should teach your kids. Click here.