Jeffrey Bernstein - Mindfulness for Teen Worry: Quick and Easy Strategies to Let Go of Anxiety, Worry, and Stress

Inspired and inspiring. This gentle and tender gem of a bookwhich includes numerous easy-to-follow try this! exercises specifically designed to tame the reacting brainwill prove to be an invaluable treasure trove for all teens committed to letting go of their anxiety and worry.

Martha Stark, MD, faculty, Harvard Medical School

Bernsteins book is an invaluable resource for both teens and parents. He distills complex issues with a sensitivity born of experience, offering sage advice as well as practical exercises, to help ease worry and anxiety during these years of intense change. Superbly researched and deeply insightful, every sentence rings true.

Leah Kaminsky, physician; author and winner of the Voss Literary Prize for The Waiting Room

I am very excited about Jeff Bernsteins new book, because it fills a critical gap in an area that has been begging for mindful attention. This book is written in a voice that teenagers can easily relate to. Mindfulness, as Bernstein points out, is not a panacea, but it is a tool. The mind-body connection that Bernstein discusses in the book is quite important to kids in their formative teen years. As a public school superintendent, I understand that mindfulness can stop the cycle of a worried mind and stressed body by changing how you respond. I am looking forward, with eager anticipation, to sharing this book with those who need it most: kids and those who spend lots of time with them. Thank you, Dr. Jeff!

Ivan Katz, superintendent of schools for the Fallsburg Central School District in Fallsburg, NY

Chock-full of practical, helpful, and fun ideas for transforming your relationship with worry now, and for the rest of your life.

Christopher Willard, PsyD, author of Mindfulness for Teen Anxiety, and coauthor of Mindfulness for Teen Depression; Cambridge Health Alliance/Harvard Medical School

If you are looking for a practical, relatable, and easy-to-read book that will teach your teen how to cope with stress and anxiety, this is it! Bernsteins latest book is a wonderful and comprehensive new resource for teens that teaches basic mindfulness strategies and shows how they can be applied to various types of common adolescent struggles. As a clinical child psychologist, I will definitely be recommending this book to my anxious teen patients.

Stephanie Margolese, PhD, clinical psychologist, and author of Sams Big Secret and When Monkey Lost His Smile

With his easy and accessible tone, Bernstein shares his experiences working with teen clients on how mindfulness has helped them let go of worry and gain inner resources. This book is filled with mindfulness practices specific to the very situations that most often cause teens to worryschool pressures, family relationships, body image, and social dynamics. This is a great book for any teen who has ever worriedor will ever worry. In other words, a great resource for all teens!

Karen Bluth, PhD, author of The Self-Compassion Workbook for Teens, and assistant professor at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine

Mindfulness for Teen Worry provides a treasure trove of mindfulness-based practices to kick worries to the curb. Teens today are managing so much with social media and other pressures, that worrying is a natural and normal response. Bernstein shows teens a positive and healthy way out of worrying. I wish I had this resource myself when I was a teen!

Gina M. Biegel, MA, LMFT, psychotherapist; author of The Stress Reduction Workbook for Teens, Be Mindful and Stress Less, and Be Mindful Card Deck for Teens; and founder of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Teens (MBSR-T) and Stressed Teens programs

Our teens are more stressed than ever before. Easy to read, Bernsteins book gives teens simple, practical tools to transform stress into positive energy. From deep experience with teens, Bernstein offers insight and a path with clear structure using brief exercises in awareness, breathing, and visualization to help cope with external conflict, mixed emotions, and everyday pressures. A must-read for teens, parents, and teachers.

Richard P. Brown, MD, associate clinical professor in psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and coauthor of The Healing Power of the Breath

Jeff Bernsteins book on teen worry is superb: equal parts educational and inspirational. A must-read for teenagers and everyone in their livesparents and therapists alike!

Shannon L. Delaney, MD, MA, child and adolescent psychiatrist on the faculty of Columbia University Medical Center

Publishers Note

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering psychological, financial, legal, or other professional services. If expert assistance or counseling is needed, the services of a competent professional should be sought.

Distributed in Canada by Raincoast Books

Copyright 2017 by Jeffrey Bernstein

Instant Help Books

An imprint of New Harbinger Publications, Inc.

5674 Shattuck Avenue

Oakland, CA 94609

www.newharbinger.com

The exercises Gaining Acceptance through Self-Compassion and Self-Acceptance Hug for Self-Compassion are adapted with permission from the work of Kristin Neff.

Cover design by Amy Shoup

Acquired by Elizabeth Hollis Hansen

Edited by Will DeRooy

All Rights Reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

To Marina, the love of my life, for broadening my world by inspiring me to keep learning and growing.

To my lovable children, Alissa, Sam, and Gabby, for the valuable lessons you each taught me through your teen years and the lessons you continue to teach me as adults.

And to all my teen clients, for sharing with me your personal stories of resilience and mindful wisdom.

This book is for every teen who worries. In other words, this book is for almost every teen, because worry is a very common problem for both male and female adolescents. As a teen, you frequently face new situations and pursue different and more challenging goals as a part of growing up. What with school demands, social pressures, physical changes, and family stress, you may have some big-time worries on your plate.

Ive been a child and teen psychologist for more than thirty years, and my teenage clients tell me that worrying makes them feel weighed down, distracted, stressed out, and even miserable.

Some teens tell me they just cant stop worrying or that their worrying keeps bad things from happening. Since youre reading this book, you may feel the same way. But you can soon learn to see your worries in a different way and not feel so weighed down by them. This different way of seeing is based on some simple mindfulness practices. Teens tell me this mindfulness stuff really works, helping them to feel less uptight and even happier. Mindfulness can help you effectively manage your worries both now and lateras you enter into college, the working world, or even parenthoodleading to more opportunities and a more fulfilling, meaningful life.