Over the past year, Leaving Cert students have been under incredible strain, with unique decisions to be made around sitting exams.
This stress is exacerbated by attempting to study and learn in challenging conditions.
To address this, the next iRevise Fuelling Mind and Body Webinar will take place tomorrow and will offer free professional advice to young people on how to develop mental and emotional fitness for the months ahead.
Pat Divilly, the trainer, life coach and author, will be one of the speakers appearing at the webinar.
He spoke to Newstalk Breakfast with Susan Keogh about how young people can be armed with the tools to look after themselves.
"We've all got coping strategies in life, things we go to that provide us with hope and purpose and ambition and stress management," he said.
"For many of us, those have been taken away, we're living in front of screens, we're disconnected from the ones we love.
"For young people, I think screen time over the last number of years has been a big issue in general with comparison and the overwhelm of trying to keep up with people around them and now our whole lives are spent in front of screens.
"So there's been huge challenges and simple tools can go a long way and I think it's exciting for the next generation to hopefully get the tools that maybe we found later in life.
"What I'm trying to put across to these guys is here are some daily things you can do so you're not waiting for a crisis, you have this maintenance of your mind and your emotions and everything else."
Pat said most of us live in a state of fight or flight, but he is encouraging young people to instead go to 'rest and digest'.
"For so many of us, we spend our lives in fight or flight, so I put it to people that it's a bit like having the foot on the accelerator of your car, where the response gets faster and more out of control, but you can also put your foot on the break, which is rest and digest," he explained.
This involves a daily practice of trying to slow down the mind and body, and even breathing through meditation.
"I really want people to understand that if I slow things down for myself on a daily basis, I just have a better perspective of life," he said.
"Because when we get stressed, when we get overwhelmed, our attention goes to what's not working, what's wrong and what's lacking, and where we're falling short.
"If we can find perspective in those moments, and we can see the bigger picture, that's where we find hope and that's how we get through difficult times."
Seize the day 🇮🇪 pic.twitter.com/Y3HwbzrMKM
— Pat Divilly (@PatDivilly) March 17, 2021
Pat is hoping to encourage young people that the most important relationship any of us will ever have is the one with ourselves.
Through the iRevise webinar, he intends to offer some simple tools on how to silence the 'inner critic' and how to navigate the "inevitable" difficult times of life.
He added it is important for people to acknowledge their feelings, whether they are good or bad, and consider how they would like to feel and what it will take to achieve that.
For parents hoping to help their children or teenagers develop self-confidence in an age of social media and increased screentime, Pat said listening is more important than talking.
"One thing I do see is from a parent's perspective, there is an expectation that they are supposed to guide their child and the way they guide is to tell them how to fo things and they've got a roadmap themselves and they think if they put across that roadmap, that's their job," he said.
"But to me, I think listening is really important, so asking questions as opposed to making statements.
"So if your child isn't studying and that's frustrating you, rather than telling them what to do, you might ask them more questions like, 'What is it you want to do with your life?', or, 'What are you inspired by?'.
"I think that's really important for teenagers or any of us that are struggling with confidence, something I encourage people to do is to write down a few things every evening that they did well in the day.
"As simple as that might seem, our mind is very good at seeing what's lacking, what's missing, what we didn't get done, where we fell short, and so your mind will do that all by itself, we've got a negativity bias which is actually a protective mechanism that is looking for threats, looking for danger in our lives.
"But pen and paper will allow you to press pause and focus on what you did get done.
"For the teens, kids or adults listening, I would say give yourself a couple of minutes in the evening and acknowledge all that you did well in the day."
You can find out more information about tomorrow's webinar here.
