Name That Feeling
This feeling happens when you want something that someone else has.
Jealous
Jealousy is wanting what someone else has, like a new game, attention, or a skill. It's a normal feeling, and noticing it can help you figure out what you really want.
When you're scared, your heart pumps faster to send extra blood to these, so you're ready to run or fight.
Muscles
Your body is getting ready to run or fight, so it sends extra blood and oxygen to your arms and legs. That's why you might feel shaky or tense when you're nervous.
When your body senses danger, it goes into fight, ______, or freeze.
Flight
Fight, flight, or freeze is your body's automatic survival response. Fight means standing up to danger, flight means running away, and freeze means staying still. It happens before you even have time to think.
Writing your thoughts and feelings down in a notebook.
Journaling
Getting thoughts out of your head and onto paper can make them feel smaller and easier to sort out. There's no right or wrong way to journal.
Just because your brain thinks something doesn't make it true. Thoughts are not ______.
Facts
Your brain makes guesses all day long, and some of them are wrong. A helpful question to ask is: "What's the evidence that this thought is true?"
You trip in front of the whole class and your cheeks turn red. You probably feel this.
Embarrassed
Embarrassment is that "everyone is looking at me" feeling. The good news: other people usually forget awkward moments way faster than we do.
This hormone, also called epinephrine, gives you a sudden burst of energy when you're scared.
Adrenaline
Adrenaline kicks in within seconds. It makes your heart race and your breathing speed up. It's the jolt you feel when something startles you.
A very strong fear of something specific, like heights or needles.
Phobia
A phobia is more than just not liking something. It's a fear so strong that people go out of their way to avoid the thing, even when it isn't really dangerous.
Breathe in for 4, hold for 4, out for 4, hold for 4. This breathing trick is named after a shape.
Box breathing
Slow, steady breathing tells your body it's safe and helps turn off the fight-or-flight alarm. It's a trick people like athletes and soldiers use to stay calm under pressure.
The thought trap of assuming you know what other people are thinking about you.
Mind reading
Unless someone tells you, you can't really know what they're thinking. Catch this trap by asking: "Do I know that for sure, or am I guessing?"
You counted down the days to a trip, and then it got canceled. This feeling means being let down.
Disappointed
Disappointment is the gap between what you hoped for and what actually happened. Feeling it usually shows how much something mattered to you.
This almond-shaped part of your brain works like a smoke alarm for danger.
Amygdala
The amygdala's job is to spot danger and sound the alarm. Sometimes it goes off for things that aren't truly dangerous, like a test, kind of like a smoke alarm going off when you burn toast.
The fear of spiders.
Arachnophobia
It's one of the most common phobias in the world. "Arachnid" is the animal group spiders belong to, and "phobia" comes from the Greek word for fear.
The 5-4-3-2-1 trick uses these to bring you back to the present moment.
Your five senses
This trick is called grounding. Noticing what you can see, touch, hear, smell, and taste pulls your attention away from worries and back to right now.
The thought trap of predicting the future will go badly, like "I just know I'll strike out."
Fortune telling
Nobody can predict the future. Worry often says the worst will happen, but most of the time things turn out better than we expected.
You've tried to beat the same video game level 20 times and keep failing. This is the feeling.
Frustrated
Frustration builds when you keep trying and keep getting blocked. Taking a short break and coming back often works better than pushing harder.
This "stress hormone" sticks around longer than adrenaline and can mess with your sleep.
Cortisol
Cortisol helps your body deal with stress, but when it stays high for a long time it can make you feel tired, cranky, or wide awake at bedtime. Exercise, sleep, and relaxing help bring it down.
If you avoid something scary every single time, does the fear usually get bigger or smaller?
Bigger
Avoiding something scary feels better in the moment, but it teaches your brain that the thing really is dangerous. So the next time, the worry comes back even stronger.
Paying attention to what's happening right now, on purpose, without judging it.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is like pressing pause and noticing what's going on around you and inside you. It can be as simple as really paying attention while you eat a snack or shoot hoops.
The thought trap where something is either perfect or a total failure, with nothing in between.
All-or-nothing thinking
Also called black-and-white thinking. Real life is usually somewhere in the middle: getting a B isn't failing, and one bad game doesn't make you a bad player.
The ability to understand and feel what someone else is going through.
Empathy
Empathy means imagining how someone else feels, like stepping into their shoes. It's a big part of being a good friend and teammate.
The front part of your brain that helps you plan and make decisions. It isn't fully developed until your mid-20s.
Prefrontal cortex
This is your brain's thinking and planning center. When the amygdala's alarm is loud, it's harder for this part to do its job. That's why calming your body first helps you think clearly.
Facing a fear little by little, one small step at a time, is called gradual ______.
Exposure
Exposure means facing a fear in small steps, like climbing a ladder one rung at a time. Each step proves to your brain that you can handle it, and the fear starts to shrink.
Tensing one muscle group at a time and then letting it go is called progressive muscle ______.
Relaxation
Progressive muscle relaxation helps you feel the difference between tense and relaxed muscles. Squeeze for about 5 seconds, then let go. Lots of people use it to fall asleep.
Turning one small problem into the worst-case scenario, like "If I fail this quiz, my whole life is ruined."
Catastrophizing
Catastrophizing is like a snowball rolling downhill and getting bigger and bigger. Try asking "What's most likely to happen?" instead of "What's the worst that could happen?"