One of the main reasons for constant unhappiness and mental malaise amongst humans is not just that we’re thinking machines, but that we’re overthinking machines.

We humans have tens of thousands of thoughts every single day and the majority of them are negative and repetitive. No wonder our thinking is the source of so much of our worry.

Getting a grip on our thinking through the technique of metacognition is one of the most powerful things we can teach our teens. How to identify negative thinking patterns and change them so that they don’t become negative emotions.

For example, two of the most common negative thinking patterns, stress and cynicism, together contribute to nearly 30 mental and physical health problems and hold us back in life.

And yet we can control and tame both of those thinking patterns through the use of metacognition and some of the other pillars.