Amy Saltzman M.D.
Still Quiet Place: Mindfulness for Teens
Simple practices to decrease stress and increase happiness.
Sometimes being a teenager sucks. You are juggling schoolwork, friendships, and other interests. You get endless messages everyday- instant messages from your friends, and repeated messages from your family, teachers, television and advertising about who you could and should be. Sometimes you just need a place to chill, and just be yourself.
The Still Quiet Place can be that place. It is a place of power and peace inside you. The best thing about the Still Quiet Place is that is always with you- when you are taking a test, playing sports, hanging with friends, performing on stage, arguing with your parents, listening to music, when you are feeling heartbroken, happy, angry, afraid, bored, stupid.
One of the best ways to access the Still Quiet Place is to practice mindfulness. Mindfulness is paying attention to your life, right here, right now with kindness and curiosity. Thirty years of scientific research has demonstrated, that practicing Mindfulness offers relief from the worries, fears, sadness, loneliness, jealousy, self-doubt, and anger we all experience. So often we look outside ourselves for relief from the stresses of daily life – we think that we will be happy if we get good grades, date that certain someone, make the track team, get the lead in the play, or if our parents would just leave us alone…. Sometimes when those things don’t work we look for relief in drugs or sex or self harming behaviors.
The secret is that real relief is always available inside of you. You don’t have to go anywhere or do anything, or be any different than you are right now. Don’t believe me, give it a try and find out for yourself. Experiment- for the next 11 days listen to a one track each day and see if you feel less stressed and happier. Feel free to email me with any comments or questions. dramy@stillquietplace.com
Spoken Word: Instructional