Anxiety Activities for Teens: Reframing Anxiety
This session includes anxiety activities for teens, helping older students reframe a racing heart and quick breathing as part of the body's fight-or-flight response. Students consider a guiding question, watch a short video, and discuss how to respond when anxious feelings show up. A quick game lets them match situations to helpful responses, building tools they can use before a big moment.
Extension activity
- Skill
- Self-Regulation
- Goal
- Managing Stress
- Grade level
- Middle & High School
Get everything you need to teach the skill
These materials are part of a no-prep session designed by our clinical team, with all the structure, scaffolding, and support you need to teach included.
Engaging materials
Video lessonReframing Anxiety
In this video lesson, students learn how to reframe anxiety as a normal, useful response by talking about it, using positive self-talk and a growth mindset, practicing healthy coping strategies, and having self-compassion.
- Extension activity
Reframing Anxiety
In this interactive flashcard activity, students review how stress affects the body, the difference between helpful and harmful stress, and strategies like positive self-talk and self-compassion to reframe anxiety.
Plus everything you need to teach them
Warm-up
- Video: 4-7-8 Breathing2:13
- Video: Obstacles into Opportunities Visualization1:19
- Video: Yoga Pose Library
Session Opener
Guiding Question: What is a benefit to reframing anxiety?
Practice
- Discussion Question
- Role-Play Activity
- Mini Game
How to use it with your students
- 1Watch Play the video lesson so students see the skill in action.
- 2Practice Try the skill together with a discussion prompt, role-play, or mini game.
- 3Extend Use the extension activity to help students carry the skill further.
What's Covered
In this lesson, students learned that anxiety is a normal part of life and that the fight-or-flight response can actually protect them and help them react quickly in stressful moments. They practiced reframing anxious feelings by noticing their purpose instead of only the discomfort. Understanding this can make anxiety feel less overwhelming and more manageable.
Key Terms
- Fight-or-Flight Response
- Your body's automatic reaction to stress or danger that gets you ready to react fast. It can protect you in real emergencies, but it can also kick in when there's no actual threat, which feels like anxiety.
- Self-Management
- Your ability to handle your own emotions, thoughts, and actions instead of letting them run the show. When negativity tries to take over, self-management lets you steady yourself and choose how you respond.
Sample IEP Goal This Session Supports
-
Managing Stress
Learner will recognize signs of stress in their own body or thinking (e.g., tight chest, racing thoughts, feeling overwhelmed) and apply a self-selected strategy (e.g., deep breathing, positive self-talk, taking a break) to manage the feeling in 4 out of 5 opportunities independently/given X prompt(s).
Send this tip home to support generalization
At home or in the classroom, when a student seems anxious before something stressful, try naming one way those nerves might be helping them, like "That energy can help you stay sharp." Hearing a different angle in the moment can ease some of the pressure.
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More Self-Regulation Activities
Frequently asked questions
Is this intervention free?
Yes, this ready-to-teach session on Reframing Anxiety is free. You can access this intervention free for 14 days through the Everyday Speech Session Library. Every user gets three free sessions, but you can get more or extend your access by sharing the Session Library with friends and colleagues.
What ages is this for?
These materials are designed for middle and high school students.
What's included?
You'll get access to your choice of warm-up videos, a session opener, a core material on Reframing Anxiety, three practice prompts, and an extension activity, Reframing Anxiety.
What skill does this intervention teach?
This ready-to-teach session is on self-regulation - more specifically, managing stress.
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