Does your teens brain go straight to the negative? Anytime a situation occurs have you noticed that they immediately process the situation as the most awful, no good, horrendous thing that has ever happened? Lets face it as adults we tend to do this too. We can all be saved from this thinking but it actually takes us challenging our brain to make it happen. The more we practice seeing the negative the better we get at, but the same holds true for when we practice positive thinking
The good new is we can train our brain to think differently and parents you can even help your kids to as well. When your child (or you) begins to describe a negative situation, STOP. Put the breaks on and break it down.
First: Facts, what happened without anyones own view point, facts and facts only.
Second: What were your thoughts?
Third: How did your thoughts over the situation make you feel?
Fourth: What is another explanation as to what happened? Come up wth a few, this may mean really looking at a situation from another perspective, or about other probabilities.
Once we are able to look for other explanations we can see a situation differently and many times less negative than we had immediately assumed. This is a great skill to practice at the dinner table when kids are talking about their days.