Being a teenager can be very tough. As the responsibilities start to build up and with the constant use of technology through social media, the connection to the present fades and the need to have a clear mind escalates. Mindfulness activities for teens help them experience the present, reduce stress, and overcome anxiety. It supports them both in their daily lives and exams such as the Star Math Test. Read our article to learn more about mindfulness for teens and easy-to-apply practices.
What is Mindfulness for Teens?
Mindfulness is the state of mind that allows you to be present. It allows you to realize and recognize life as it is. Mindfulness exercises for teens help them achieve just that.
Especially with the overwhelming need to be popular and the extreme use of social media and technology, teenagers tend to forget to concentrate on the now. For instance, when they share a post on social media they focus on how they look and how many likes that they will get but not on their surroundings. They mimic happiness and joy without actually experiencing it and this can lead them to technology addiction. If you wonder whether your children are addicted or not, you can try to do a technology addiction test.
Mindfulness activities for teens help them concentrate on what is actually happening, recognize their feelings, and enjoy life as it is.
Mindfulness exercises are essential for teens who overuse technology and social media out of boredom. 🧑💻 Entertaining mindfulness exercises can reduce its possible consequences, such as lack of focus and stress.
MentalUP features mindfulness activities for teenagers like 150+ mindful puzzles and brain games, as well as 240+ fitness exercises! 🤸
For happier and calmer teenagers, 20 minutes of mindfulness activities in a day is enough. 🥳🎉
Mindfulness Activities for Teens
Mindfulness techniques for teens can help teenagers in the various ways mentioned above. We listed 10 of the best mindfulness exercises for teens to help reach mindfulness.
All of the following mindfulness activities for adolescent groups are easy to apply and will only take a few minutes to implement them into your and your children’s daily routine to find your Zen.
1. Mindfulness Games for Teens
Mindfulness exercises for teenagers have a good variety to pick from and mindful puzzles are one of the best. They can be a good old word hunt or a crossword puzzle, your pick.
King of The Shadows
All successful detectives must be calm and careful about their judgments. It’s never the first suspect. Let’s observe carefully.
Let's Draw
Drawing is one of the best mindfulness games for teens. All you need is a template… or this mindfulness game.
Messy Room
Cleaning is always satisfying! This is a great choice for those looking for relaxation activities for teens
Find 10
Mindfulness activites for teens? Sometimes answer might be a math game. Don’t you believe it? Then let’s start!
| ✅ Mindfulness Exercises to: | Improving Focus |
| ✅ 150+ Puzzles for: | Mindful playtime |
| ✅ 240+ Workout for: | Wellness |
| ✅ Used by: | More Than 10M Users |
Lack of focus can make life difficult by causing insufficient work, poor grades, etc. That's why strong focusing skill is a must, even for fun mindfulness exercises for adolescent groups. 🧠
MentalUP, which is one of the best mental health apps, can help to sharpen your child's focusing skills! 🎯 With 150+ mindfulness games, teenagers can improve their mental skills while having fun. 🤩
2. Mindful Dancing
Our bodies have a natural inner rhythm. From the beat of our hearts’ to the pulse in our veins’, when we follow the rhythm, we can find some peace in our mind.
Benefits
This type of fun mindfulness activities for teens provides higher levels of emotional and spiritual well-being, increased acceptance of one’s self, and promotes positive feelings.
Duration
You can dance for as long as you want, but aim to go through at least one song.
How to Apply
- Turn on a song or a music genre of your choice. Pop, R&B, jazz, make your pick.
- Close your eyes.
- Listen to your body and dance with the rhythm.
- Concentrate on how your body naturally adapts to the music.
- Dance through the music and keep your focus only on the music and your moves.
3. Mindful Cooking
Cooking has been a mindfulness technique for anxiety for many years now. But mindful cooking is a step even further.
Benefits
Mindful cooking allows you to be present, recognize change, grow acceptance and have gratitude. You might even pick up a skill or two.
Duration
Depends on the recipe :)
How to Apply
- Pick a recipe that suits your taste.
- After preparing the ingredients for the recipe (adult supervision may be required for chopping, etc.), set up your counter.
- As you go on with the process, focus on the food and how it reacts to fire, ice, or other procedures you apply.
- Focus on how the taste, texture, temperature or colors change as you cook.
- Listen to the sound as you stir, mix, or cook.
- Breathe in the aromas and scents that release as you go on.
- Appreciate the food.
- Notice each step and process that the ingredients have to go through to form the final dish.
- When you finish cooking, enjoy the appearance of the dish and its taste.
4. Mindfulness Tasting
Now that you have cooked your food, it’s time to enjoy it! The snacks that we have while watching TV or drinks that we have while going through social media can taste so much better when you just enjoy them.
Benefits
This is one of the easiest mindfulness exercises for teens. All you have to do is eat without doing anything else. It can reduce stress and anxiety, promote happiness, improve concentration and allow being present.
Duration
Can take 5-7 minutes.
How to Apply
- Pick a simple aromatic food. It can be a fruit like strawberry or nuts like almonds or cashew.
- Close your eyes, breathe in the scent of the food, see how your mouth waters.
- Try to feel the texture. Does it have a bumpy surface or a wet smooth one?
- Make sure you focus only on the food and that your mind doesn't wander off in this mindfulness activity. Be present.
- Take a small bite of the food. How does it taste? Focus on how you react to it. Do you squint because it’s sour or do you feel heat in your throat because it’s spicy?
- Make sure you savor every bit of your bite. When it’s done, go on and take another bite.
- Repeat savoring each and every bite till you finish.
5. Mindful Walking
As we learn how to walk as a child, we start to not care about it. It comes very naturally to us and we don’t give it a second thought. However, when we just spare a moment to focus on our steps, walking becomes a relaxation activity for teens and may make a huge difference.
Benefits
Mindful walking allows us to clear our mind, reduces stress and anxiety, allows us to be present, appreciate health, and have gratitude.
Duration
You can walk mindfully for as long as you wish but if you’re in a hurry, 5-10 minutes will do.
How to Apply
- Applying these mindfulness techniques for teenagers outdoors is better.
- Find a silent peaceful location.
- Do not listen to music through your headphones; instead, focus on your surroundings.
- Make sure you focus only on the food and that your mind doesn't wander off in this mindfulness activity. Be present.
- Take a small bite of the food. How does it taste? Focus on how you react to it. Do you squint because it’s sour or do you feel heat in your throat because it’s spicy?
- Make sure you savor every bit of your bite. When it’s done, go on and take another bite.
- Repeat savoring each and every bite till you finish.
6. Mindful Breathing
We take hundreds of breaths every day but knowing how to control your breathing is a very important and useful type of mindfulness meditation especially for teens.
Benefits
As you practice mindful breathing, you develop how to manage anger, overcome stress, raise self-awareness of your body and build a presence. It’s the most chosen mindfulness activity for anxiety and also good for the improvement of intrapersonal intelligence.
Duration
This easy-to-apply mindfulness exercise takes about 3-5 minutes.
How to Apply
- Find a quiet spot where you won’t be disturbed.
- Lay down on the floor.
- You can place your hands to your sides or put one of them on your belly to feel your breathing.
- Close your eyes.
- Take a deep breath through your nose. Count “one” as you inhale.
- Feel how the air fills your lungs moving through your body.
- Then, breathe out through your mouth counting to two.
- Notice how your heartbeats neutralize as you breathe.
- Continue breathing, counting each time.
- Focus only on your body and tune out everything else.
- You can set a timer to know when your exercise is over.
7. Mindful Bubbles
Who says you have to be a child to enjoy blowing bubbles? This practice is perfect for mindfulness for teen worry.
Benefits
It helps combat frustration and worry, calms the mind and reduces stress, helps overcome anxiety, promotes peaceful thinking, and gives room for expressing emotions. Great fit for those looking for fun mindfulness activities for teens.
Duration
You can practice mindfulness with this exercise for 5 minutes but feel free to go on, we know how fun it is.
How to Apply
- You will need bubbles for this exercise. If you don’t have one, you can mix some dish soap and water to create a homemade mixture and blow them with an egg mixer.
- Blow a bubble. While doing so, pay attention to how each bubble floats magically away in the air.
- Observe the swirling colors in each bubble.
- Feel free to pop one, feeling the texture on your fingertips.
8. Mindful Music
How can we deny the effect of music on our feelings? Melodies have an amazing effect on our soul and just listening to the right music can make a huge difference.
Benefits
Mindful listening to music allows self-observing, promotes happiness, helps overcome anxiety and stress.
Duration
You can apply this creative exercise for as long as you want but if you have other chores to do, giving it 5-10 minutes will be enough.
How to Apply
- Instrumental music works best to develop mindfulness in combating teen anger, but if you have taste for other genres, that will work as well.
- Before starting, tune into your feelings.
- As you listen to the music, notice your feelings without any criticism of what they are.
- Keep in mind that music affects us whether we want it or not. So it’s okay to feel anger if you're listening to heavy metal music.
- Notice how your body reacts to each beat.
- When you finish the exercise, think about the feelings that had surfaced.
9. Mindful Bathing
Water is a miracle of nature that always has a soothing effect on people. Try taking a mindful bath (or shower if you don’t have a bathtub).
Benefits
Bathing is one of the mindfulness exercises that can help you focus on your feelings and reflect on them. It also calms the mind, allowing you to be present.
Duration
You can take a mindful bath for 10-15 minutes.
How to Apply
- As you draw a bath, use additives like Epsom salts and essential oils then inhale the aroma as the tub fills (If you have a shower, you can let the water flow down from the top and light some scented candles for an additional soothing effect).
- Get in the tub and close your eyes.
- Explore the feeling of the warm water on your skin.
- After you have relaxed enough, get out of the tub.
- Visualize any stress or anxiety disappear down the drain.
10. Mindful Coloring
Mindful coloring is one of the creative mindfulness techniques for teens. All you need is a color book and some color. Teachers can use it when their students feel overwhelmed at the beginning period of the school because it is one of the most effective back to school activities.
Benefits
This activity helps you feel more present, appreciate colors and calm your mind while chasing worries away.
Duration
Setting aside 5 to 15 minutes for mindful coloring will be enough.
How to Apply
- Find a peaceful setting that won’t allow disturbance.
- Gather your materials and place them on a table.
- Start coloring as you wish, focusing on the harmony between colors.
- Pay attention to your breathing and how you feel with each color.
- Don’t allow your mind to wander off. When you do, focus on your breathing and bring yourself back to the present.
There are always more teenage mindfulness activities to discover on MentalUP. Freshen up your brain by doing a daily workout, train with lots of fun games and tricky mind exercises, do fitness exercises regularly. It’s up to you.
Mindfulness Techniques for Teenage Anxiety and Stress
A study conducted by the American Psychological Association shows that:
- Teen stress rates are 5.8 out of 10 during the school year
- The average adult stress rate is 5.1 out of 10
- Teen stress rates during summer lower down to 4.6.
These results show that teens are under much more stress than adults. The main reason for that is the responsibilities from school and homework, expectations from parents and teachers and the social relationships at school and with friends.
According to the chart provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),
- 7.1% of children aged 3-17 years (approximately 4.4 million) are diagnosed with anxiety
- 3.2% of children aged 3-17 years (approximately 1.9 million) are diagnosed with depression
- 7.4% of children aged 3-17 years (approximately 4.5 million) are diagnosed with a behavior problem.
These numbers are proof of why mindful activities for teens are crucial. Besides stress, anxiety, and depression, teenagers nowadays experience difficulties when concentrating. Mindful activities for teens can also help to improve their focusing and attention skills as well.
Mindfulness for teenagers:
- Promotes happiness
- Reduces stress
- Helps overcome anxiety
- Helps deal with ADHD
- Enhances learning ability
- Raises body awareness
- Grows patience
- Encourages considerate actions
- Helps defeat depression
- Builds tolerance
- Sharpens memory
- Increases focus and attention
- Builds social intelligence
- Helps evaluate and control behavior
- Helps manage emotions
- Supports mental health
Mindfulness exercises are not boring for teens! There are always unique ways to have fun while staying present, like mindfulness games! 🧩
MentalUP offers 150+ mindfulness games and 240+ physical exercises to support mindful activities for teens. The award-winning app is pedagogically certified and favored by more than 10+ million families worldwide! 👨👩👧
The present time is a present; live this fully with MentalUP's mindfulness exercises! 🎁🙌
