5 Ways to Build Healthy Habits
Hey, how are those New Year’s resolutions going? If you’ve lost momentum, you’re not alone. According to a survey by Statista, only 22% of respondents said they kept some of their New Year’s resolutions after about a month. We all struggle to stick with healthy habits, but behavior and neuroscience researchers have recently discovered some […]
Helping Your Teen Manage Social Anxiety
For teens with social anxiety, each day brings a battle inside their brains: a chronic sense of dread, constant self-criticism and fear of humiliation. Their anxiety may be triggered by walking down a crowded hallway at school, being called on in class, talking on the phone, or any other situation that involves interacting with others. […]
How to Teach Your Teen to Trust Their Intuition
We call it instinct, a hunch, or a gut feeling: intuition is when we “just know” something without knowing why. It’s often considered mysterious, but intuition is actually a higher-level thinking skill that can be cultivated. According to author and Intuition Lab founder Kim Chestney, intuition is “our built-in guide, or GPS system” that helps […]
Why Now?
It’s time to get serious about protecting teen mental health. Over the past decade, rates of depression, anxiety, mood disorders and self-harm have escalated sharply among teens. One in three high school students report persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness – a 40% increase between 2009 and 2019. Death by suicide is also now the […]
Teaching Teens How to Set Boundaries
Boundaries protect your teen’s right to feel safe, respected and validated. They help teens create a strong sense of identity, and they’re a part of every healthy relationship. But setting boundaries is not easy, even for many adults. Here are five steps to help you teach your teen how to set boundaries skillfully. Know what […]
Why Confidence is so Important for Teens
Here’s a cool, little-known fact about the word confidence: it comes from the Latin fidere, which means “to trust.” If you’ve used the Lucero App, you might have seen this word before. Hint: It’s the title of Island 2 because the 28-day experience is designed to help improve your sense of confidence. You could say […]
Why Emotional Regulation is so Important for Teens
The teen years are known for intense emotions with good reason. First, the prefrontal cortex – the part of the brain in charge of reasoning, logic and impulse control – is still developing in teens. Second, the hormones that spark puberty’s physical changes also amp up activity in the emotional and reward-seeking centers of the […]
5 Myths About Teen Mental Health
There’s no doubt that teen mental health is in crisis. Since 2007, rates of teen depression and suicide have risen by 60%. Self-harm, anxiety and other mood disorders also rose sharply during the same period. And while the COVID-19 pandemic made things worse for many, teen mental health was in decline before 2020, making it […]
