Teenedge Talks: Recent Episodes
Chaya Nair
Teenedge Talks is all about teens where I focus on the pressure of growing up, coping with physical, emotional, and social changes. Body image has become an important issue for teens affecting self-esteem and s. Teens have to cope with peer pressure, ident, sexuality, relationships, substance abuse, bullying etc and mental health is an important issue. Social skills are of paramount importance to succeed in any field. All these issues will be dealt in Teenedge Talks podcasts and listening and following the tips given will enable the teens to become confident, responsible adults
This is a digital age.Inthe past children spent most of their after-schoolhours running about with their friends.Daily life revolved around playing time. which kept kids and adolescent healthy.
Lack of physical activities can cause obesity,diabetes and heart diseases later in life.Mental issues might also emerge in children and adolescents making college and professional life difficult.
Parents ,teachers and other adults must encourage children and adolescents to take up physical activities
Adolescence is a time to explore new limits. Teens need boundaries and guidelines. With so many things going on in teens, having a parent or guardian set safe boundaries gives an important sense of stability.
Failure is painful for many. There are many emotions associated with failure, like feeling ashamed, disappointed, humiliated, helpless, depressed, etc.
Teens should learn how to deal with failures and reframe their failures.
Considering every failure as an experience builds our resilience. There is no shame in failing and failures are part of life.
Like any other habits, healthy financial habits are important for teens. It is important for parents and other adults in teen's lives to discuss financial matters with their teens and teach them to build strong financial practices.
Adolescents have to make difficult decisions including decisions regarding career, sexuality, boy-girl relationships, etc. Decisions made at this time have the power to influence many aspects of adolescents's futures. Therefore it is essential for them to learn effective decision-making skills.
Social intelligence refers to the ability to understand, navigate, and interact effectively with others in various situations. It involves perceiving emotional clues, demonstrating empathy, and adapting one 's behavior to create positive relationships. Developing strong social intelligence is essential for building connections, resolving conflicts, and collaborating successfully with diverse groups of people.
There are so many things like freezing eggs, In vitro fertilization, and surrogacy which Gen Z should know. This knowledge will help them to take the right decisions at the right time.
As teens go through puberty, there will be hormonal changes affecting their bodies and emotions. It is natural for them to be curious about sex and sexuality.
This podcast is to understand their perspective about sex and sexuality.
This podcast is 3rd in the series Sex and Sexuality for Teens. A qualified doctor answers their questions.
Establishing an identity is an important task for teens. A well-developed identity is comprised of goals, values, and, beliefs to which a person is committed.
Failure to establish a well-developed identity can result in an identity crisis.
This podcast is all about establishing an identity.
Human sexuality is the way you think, feel feel and behave .It is a function of your whole personality and a life long process. It is important for teens to have appropriate knowledge about sex, sexuality and, sexual orientation. Teens have to understand that all of us are sexual beings and the sexual thoughts and behaviour are perfectly natural though the frequency and the intensity of the thoughts vary from person to person.
There are so many myths about homosexuality was considered a mental disorder .In the year 1973, American Psychological association removed it from the list. Many people think that homosexual people are weird. They are not weird.It is their sexual orientation. They need to be understood and accepted.
Parents play an important role in imparting knowledge about sex to their children.
Parents play an important role in helping their cope with peer pressure. Rather than trying to control them, parents should create positive supportive home environment and be involved in your teen's life
Every generation of adults feel that the adolescents of their generation are unreasonable. Generation gap is much wider now than ever before. The world is changing so fast what is true today is not true tomorrow. Today's teens live in a very different world. They are globally connected and influenced by social media.
Apart from that they have lot of pressures and distractions. It is challenging time for both parents and teens.
It is important to make right choice of a career. The right knowledge will build your confidence, boost your morale and overcome barriers easily.In this podcast an experienced career counsellor gives you all the information about career guidance.
Creativity is the most sought after skill in 21st century .Creativity enables alternative views of thinking. It engages mind. It stimulates and motivates, nurtures confidence, instills curiosity.
Creative people are more energetic, open to experience, original, sensitive, flexible.
Positive attitude means being optimistic and hopeful in any situation. When you are optimistic, you are willing to take a chance instead of assuming that your efforts won't pay off. Positivity or optimism doesn't mean denying the adverse circumstances. It is a mind set which enables you to think positively and make you say, "I can and it is possible.
Interpersonal skills are the skills we use every day when we communicate and interact with other people both individually and in groups.
Public speaking is one of the most and most dreaded form of communication. If you want to win over the crowd, encourage, motivate and inspire people. you have to master the art of public speaking. This podcast is all about public speaking.
Habits can play an important role in our lives. We are what our habits are. This video is about tiny habits making remarkable changes.These concepts are from the book "Atomic Habits.by James Clear."
Habits Play an important role in our lives. Aristotle said and I quote "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is a not an act, but a habit."[unquote}Habits shape our lives. Like anything else in life, you have to choose your habits. You must choose the ones that can make a difference to your life. This podcast is about choosing tiny habits that make remarkable changes in your life. All the concepts are from the book "Atomic changes."
Listening is the most important aspect of communication. The most basic need of human beings is to be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them. Most of us at any given time listen with 25% effectiveness. From that we can understand our capacity to understand people. Listening connects people and they feel understood. Good listeners are respected and valued.
Life skills can include the ability to manage your emotions, your health, your school performance and relationships and your ability to master these things has a direct impact on how you feel about yourself, your emotional balance, your physical health and your independence.
Handicapped, disabled, differently abled are the words used to describe physically challenged people. I Wonder whether we can use the word" Resourceful" to describe them. You can decide after listening to this podcast.
Suicide is when a person purposely causes his or her own death. Before committing suicide, a teen may be entertaining thoughts of committing suicide and it is known as suicidal ideation. Teen age is a stressful period when teens undergo physical, emotional and social changes. Majority of the teens go through this period successfully, but some find it difficult due to various reasons. Parents, teachers, siblings, and friends should be able to notice changes in a teen's behavior like loss of interest in usual activities, changes in eating and sleeping habits, pull away from and friends and family, talk about feeling hopeless or feeling guilty etc. Many teens who attempt suicide would have given some type of warning to the loved ones. Parents must pay attention to the teens when they notice any changes in the teen's behavior this episode, we discussed about everything teens, parents and, other adults would like to know about the suicides.
A paradigm is a perspective or a set of ideas. It is a Greek word which means to show. It has been in use in English since 15th century. It comes up in all the fields like business, science and academics. A new paradigm in academics is brought about by Covid 19 when the world has lockdowns and shifted to online education from offline education. A new paradigm in business means a new way of reaching customers and making money.E commerce is a typical example of reaching customers in a new way.
All of us have our own paradigms at personal level. Some of them are positive and some are negative. We have to shift our negative paradigms if they are holding us back. An important change takes place in the usual way of thinking about or doing something is replaced by a new and different way.
This episode is about our personal paradigms and how to change them.
It is important to build self-esteem and there are many ways to doit.
1.The most important thing is to accept yourself.
2.Listen to your self-talk and make it as much positive as you can
3.Identify and write all the positives about you.
4.Do not compare yourself with anyone. Believe that you are unique
5.Be more assertive and learn to say no.
6.Take on challenges
7.Affirmations and visualizations play an important role in building self esteem. I explained about affirmations in this episode and will explain visualization in my next episode.
Self-esteem is an important topic to understand. It influences life in many ways like academics, relationships, decision making, emotional health and overall, wellbeing. It is important for teens to have healthy self-esteem.
Teens of today live in a rapidly changing and highly competitive world. The pressure of growing up, high parental pressure to do well in academics their own expectations, internet and social media are contributing to their stress and mental health issues are assuming great importance. Depression, anxiety and behavioral disorders are common among teens, and they affect school attendance and academic performance. It is crucial to address the needs of adolescents with mental health conditions. There are many counselling centers and teens should be encouraged to seek help.
Many people all over the world especially teens have body image concerns. Various factors like culture, media, society and social media shape their views. Negative body image will affect the self-esteem and all other aspects of life. This episode focusses on positive and negative body image and provide tips to deal with body image concerns. Real life examples are given to make the talk interesting.
Teenedge Talks is all about teens. The focus is on growing up, coping with physical, emotional and social changes. Body image has become an important issue for teens affecting their self-esteem and self-confidence. They have to cope with peer pressure, identity, relationships, bullying etc. Mental health is an important issue. Social skills are of paramount importance to succeed in any field. All these issues will be dealt with in Teen Talks, and I will keep the talks interesting with real life stories, examples and anecdotes.
Listening to Teenedge Talks and following the tips given will enable teens to understand various issues and bring out changes in them to become confident adults ready to deal with various situations.