Self Care Checklist for Teens

Self-care refers to the activities that we do to meet our physical, emotional, and mental health needs. Many adolescents are overburdened with school assignments and extracurricular activities, and it’s hard to maintain a balance.

Teens are preoccupied with keeping up good grades and joining many clubs and teams to stand out for college applications. And on top of all these, they are also going through physical and emotional changes. During teen years, puberty is kicking in, due to which they have a lot of changes going in their body. They haven’t experienced many of these emotions before, so it can be difficult for them to cope with overwhelming feelings of sadness, loneliness, anxiety, etc.

When adolescents practice regular self-care routine, including relaxing themselves by adopting Yoga and meditation techniques, detoxifying from social media, and taking good sleep at nights, it’s less likely to experience stress overload from the daily stressors they face every day.

These are some of the following checklist items categorized in Physical and Mental categories that one can follow and adapt to improve our day-to-day lives.

Self- care checklist

1. Physical: Many Pediatrics and studies suggest that staying active for 30 min or longer every day can improve one’s life and lowers the risk of health and mental problems.

   1. Movement - According to Pediatric recommendations, Doing 1 hour of exercise every day can relax muscles, increase concentration, and bring activeness.

   2. Nutrition - Eating healthy and indulging in lots of greens and fruits in a regular diet provides vitamins and minerals that promote growth.

   3. Sleep - Having an 8 hours sleep routine is essential to refresh and relax the mind.

2. Emotional

   1. Self Positive talk - Staying positive and having good thoughts sometimes helps remove the negativity and bad thoughts from the mind. If required, teens should take help from therapists and counselors.

   2. Digital detox - Although social media has become necessary in our life, it can become addictive if it is consumed in more significant amounts,

   3. Emotions check-in - If you are feeling down, don’t be afraid to talk to counselors, friends, or teachers for any support.