Wellness Matters: Our Future Leaders

In this podcast episode, Brooke and her sister Lauren discuss the pressures and stresses that young people face today. They talk about how school, extracurricular activities, and social expectations can contribute to stress. They also discuss positive coping strategies like cutting back on activities and spending time with friends, as well as negative strategies like procrastination. They emphasize the importance of taking care of one's mental health and finding ways to be happy. They also discuss the impact of technology on stress levels, noting that while it can be a distraction, it also comes with its own set of pressures and rules. They believe that young people will continue to mature and learn how to navigate these challenges in the future. Hello, and welcome to Episode 1 of Wellness Matters, Pressure on Future Leaders. In this podcast, we talk about the importance of our health in general, physically or mentally. I am Brooke, a freshman in high school, here to tell you guys about the pressure and stresses that our future leaders face today. Today's episode is focused on young people, their stresses and pressures they face today, and how they cope and react to it. We will also slightly touch upon the topic of how to live our best mental lives, and what the correct and incorrect ways are to approach certain things. I am joined by a special guest, my sister. Please introduce yourself and tell us what you do. Hi, my name is Lauren. I'm a sophomore, and I play soccer, I swim, and I also dance as well. Awesome! Having Lauren here will help you guys relate to her through the roles she plays in her life that are similar to yours. Just to explain, I will ask multiple questions, evolving around our main theme, Pressures and Stresses Our Future Leaders Face Today, and we will spark a short discussion based on that. Alright, let's get started! Topic 1. What things today can create the stresses and pressures in young people? I feel like there's a lot of things that can cause stress, especially school. Even if you're taking all easy classes, or you have a lot of downtime, school can still get very stressful. And even if you don't have downtime, like you're busy with sports practices, or extracurricular activities, or hanging out with friends, like that's not really stressful. But I'm talking more like practices, or like meetups for like clubs or something, those are always stressful too, especially when you play like a really big role on a team, or like you're a captain of a club. It's just really stressful trying to balance both school and your normal like social life with all of that as well. And another stress is like exception or rejection. Like everyone wants to be like accepted, whether that's in like a friend group, or on like a team. It's also about the expectations that other people put on you, and sometimes it's technology, and that you have to like follow the trends and stuff. Why do these things happen? These things happen because... Ooh, that's kind of a... Yeah, I know. Well, these things happen, they can happen if you're like overloading yourself, if you don't know how to like balance everything out. Because like having a lot of stuff to do along with school is also super stressful. Just balancing it, and being able to get all your schoolwork done, and make sure you have good time management, that's like really key. But these things happen just from overworking, and from underestimating how much time you have, or overestimating it, to be fair. But yeah, that's pretty much it. That's what happens. And it's also about your mind, and what you like make stressful sometimes, because there's situations that really aren't. I know this is a big deal to you, and trendsetting, as I said, and how you have to do this, because it's like the thing right now, and it's really important, but it's kind of not. Especially now when social media and technology is so big, and there's more and more people on these websites, and you're seeing other people posting stuff, and you're like, well I need to go with this, or I need to do this, or make this video, or make this post, and it's just kind of stressful trying to be a person that you might not even be. Like just post stuff just because other people are. You've kind of got to know when to stop, and when to just leave it be. Yeah. Okay. What are some positive and negative coping strategies that young people use in times of stress? I feel like a positive one when you have stress is realizing what is making you stressed, and cutting back on stuff. Like if you're loading yourself with so many practices, and clubs, and other things you do after school, then you might want to take one away. Yeah, something along the lines of that. But that's mainly the only positive one I can think of. Just finding stuff that you think are pushing you over the edge, and making you even more stressed, and taking them away, and giving yourself more down time or time to yourself. And especially socially as well with friends. If you don't get time with friends, I feel like that's really helpful as well. Like if you're super stressed, if you hang out with people, I feel like it just helps relieve that stress. And the negative ones are just procrastination. That's a big one. I would say that. Yes. I will admit I do procrastinate a lot too. Me too. And I mean stress can kind of just build up, and it can become like worse problems. And people cope with those problems negatively by not addressing them, or not realizing that you have them. Or just by pushing everything back. Just pushing stuff back. And then all of a sudden that due date is coming up, and you realize how much stuff you pushed back on yourself. I would say positive. Definitely think professional health. Please see someone professional. That's really important. Also, for me, a lot of times it's listening to music. For others, it's sleeping. And for others, it's actually technology, because you can zone out. Bad, or like negative coping strategies, one would be blaming yourself, or blaming others. It's just harsh to do something like that to yourself, because you feel really, really guilty, but it's really not your fault. How can we live our best mental life? Obviously, like how you're going to talking. Using positive coping strategies for stress, or just trying to get rid of stress as a whole. Stress is a very prominent thing in people's lives, especially if you're a young teenager, or if you go to school, or you have a lot of things on your plate. It's there, no matter what you do, but you've got to do the best of what you have, and the best to get rid of it. And also, just do what you want to do. If you don't want to do something, don't do it. You've just got to make sure you're happy, and you're taking care of yourself, because once you stop taking care of yourself, and your mind, and your body, and everything, that's when it gets out of hand, and that's when it can escalate to worse things. So just keep yourself in check, make sure you're clean all the time, find things that make you happy. Even if that adds stress, then as long as you're happy doing it, and you don't feel like you have all this pressure to be the best soccer player, or to finish all this thing for your club meeting, or be the best president of this organization, it's just kind of you've got to make sure that you're happy. Love. Love. Yes! For me, it's definitely thinking positive, because when you think, and it's hard sometimes, but thinking positive and feeling positive will change your perspective on everything. Having the perfect mental life, I don't think it's possible. Like perfect? No. But living your best mental life is possible. It's just really up to you, like you have to do it, like no one else is going to push you. So it's kind of up to you. Okay, topic two. In the future, what do you think will happen to these upcoming leaders, based on what's going on now? Like what do you mean upcoming leaders? Like young people. Oh, like people our age? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, okay. Well, obviously, I think, I mean, all young people develop, obviously. They're going to become better people, more mature. But the difference is, from the past, I would say, is now we're growing up with a lot of technology, which will make us smarter, but it will also give us a lot of distractions. So I feel like as we grow up, we'll either be so stuck on the technology, or we will have learned to use it in little ways. Just don't use it a lot. Use it for good and actual need, I don't know. Oh, sorry. Keep going, keep going. But I feel like as we all grow up, we're going to get more mature, obviously, and we're going to learn to use technology to our advantage a lot. And we're going to learn to cope with a lot of things, especially like harder situations. Like we're going to learn how to get through those. And, yeah. Yeah, I agree with that. My seventh grade self was a lot worse than what I am mentally now. Because I was so stressed on, like, getting people to like me. And now I, like, realize that people just like me for, like, who I am. So I just don't have to, like, force that, you know. And it's a lot about maturing. Like, a lot of people change for, like, the better a lot. Definitely. Do you think technology plays a big role in the stress levels of young people? Why or why not? Yes. But definitely now because we're growing up with it. Like, I feel like a lot of us probably had iPads when we were little or we got phones at a younger age. And it's just now we're so used to it that it's going to be difficult to get rid of it. Like, we use technology so many times in a day. And especially when you're trying to, like, cope with stress, it's like the first thing that comes to your mind is a distraction. Like, oh, I'll just, like, watch TikTok for five minutes or I'm going to go look up this Instagram page really fast. And all of a sudden you've been on it for, like, 30 minutes and you just didn't know where you were. For hours. Yeah, for hours, hours, hours. So I feel like it just really contributes to stress levels. And especially being stressed to be, like, the perfect social media star, like, posting, like, the right pictures on Instagram or, like, oh, my God, I can't like that person's picture because of this and this and this. There's a lot of, like, rules. I feel like there's a lot of, like, unsaid rules that you have to follow. And if you don't, like, fit into it, you're, like, not what people want from social media users. Yeah, I, like, that was my positive or my negative reason. Like, there's a lot of unsaid rules and... I'm going to put that in the video. I think it's positive because people use it as, like, a coping, like, thing. Like, playing your favorite video game or, like, watching your favorite, like, YouTuber or listening to music. Stop! What are you doing? Keep going, you rude. But that, like, really helps sometimes. I'm done. And as my mom always said, she always, like, used to tell me that it's, like, frying your brain and it's, like, making you like a zombie. But sometimes it's frying your brain, but it's healing your soul. That was really deep. This one is for you specifically. As a student, sibling, friend, teammate, leader, and much more... Thanks. Gee, thanks! What do you think other people with similar roles should take away from this podcast episode? They should definitely take away... I feel like people with similar roles should take away that, like, stress is in everyone. And I feel like people are pressured to be the best or be perfect, but no one can be perfect. Like, I feel like people just need to remember that, that you can't be this perfect image because no one's the same. And especially when you're looking at other people and, like, comparing yourself to other people, I feel like that's something you should move past and realize that you will never be like the other person because you can't be them, obviously. And then with stress, I feel like stress is something super important that we talked about in this video, podcast, project. I don't know what else to call it. But stress is definitely a main topic, and if you have... You should go back and listen to it if you missed it or if you zoned out, because maybe you're listening to this while you're supposed to be doing your English homework. You never know. Like, exactly. But I feel like stress is another big thing that contributes to, like, your self-image. But you just got to make sure you cope with it positively, and you find things that make you happy, and you do that instead of making yourself feel really bad. And keep up with your body. Be clean and make your mind and body happy. The end. To recap, today we talked about the stress in young people and how they and others around them can live a healthy mental life. This episode was directed to the younger audience, but it can also be relative to other listeners and how they can help with their mental lives and others. And that about wraps up our time together. Thank you to all the listeners, and a special thank you to Lauren for being here. Of course! I was not forced to do this at all. I totally consented and said yes. In the end, these are our future leaders, so we must make sure they are cared for. Bye-bye! Transcribed by https://otter.ai