In this episode we discuss the benefits of journalling. Does your teenager journal yet? If yes - awesome! It’s a great tool to help your anxious child process their thoughts and feelings and to gain perspective. If not, please buy one they’ll love using and encourage them to start by thinking about the negative thoughts they have in their head — ask them to journal whenever they find themselves mentally beating themselves up and what’s happening in their environment at the time.  They’ll soon start to notice a pattern of what triggers these thoughts, and once the pattern is identified, they can begin to break the cycle and do something specific to change the response. This is called a “pattern interrupt”. The pattern interrupt is telling them to stop in whatever way suits your teenager - whether it's a physical or mental way, meditation, mindfulness, a breathing technique—a grounding technique of some sort. Once they have a tool that works their lives will open up for them in so many ways!