Here Are 5 Ways We Can Introduce Teenagers to Yoga (Video)

Teen yoga is growing in popularity and we couldn’t be more thrilled about that! Yoga for teens is so important for many reasons, and offers many benefits at a pivotal age.

Let’s face it – being a teenager is tough.

At that age, we’re constantly learning and changing and questioning everything. There’s the pressure of school, of blossoming independence and responsibility, of changing bodies, hormones, and emotions.

As a teenager, finding healthy and positive ways to cope with these changes and challenges is so important. Yoga is life-changing for the better, and you’d be hard pressed to find a yogi who doesn’t have a similar respect for the practice.

For so many of us, knowing yoga and having a yoga practice in high school would’ve changed everything.

Can you imagine having the tools we as yogis learn from our yoga practice – self-awareness, presence, knowing how to consciously breathe, acceptance, confidence and a sense of personal empowerment – in high school or even middle school?!

Obviously, yoga is the perfect companion for any teenager. So the question is – how do we introduce them to the practice?
 
 

Here Are 5 Ways We Can Introduce Teenagers to Yoga:

1. Make yoga relatable

First, it’s important to relate to teens by reminding them that we were once their age, dealing with the same challenges. From there, allow yoga to be an easy, fun, and intriguing way to address these challenges. How can you convey the meaning and importance of yoga in a way that relates to your teen?
 

2. Walk the walk

Next, embody the lessons that you take off the mat – the concepts of self-love, self-acceptance, awareness, presence, conscious breathing, and dealing with challenges calmly and mindfully.

Show teens that yoga actually has benefits far beyond the physical, and that the lessons we learn on the mat can be applied to all of life’s challenges and tribulations.
 

3. Nurture and support

From there, we can nurture the yoga seed that’s been planted by supporting teens in their yoga journey – finding studios and teachers they resonate with, and also resources beyond the mat to help teens continue to cultivate their blossoming practice.
 

4. Find additional resources

There are plenty of amazing resources out there to support you in introducing your teen to yoga. From online yoga classes specifically for (and sometimes even taught by) teens, to yoga books written for teens, articles that offer advice, and even products geared towards teen yoga specifically.

Find resources that resonate with you, and use them to help support your teen’s yoga journey.
 

5. Keep showing up

The same advice you often hear from yoga teachers now applies to you in your ongoing support of your teen doing yoga. Encourage them, help them, and practice with them!

The more you endorse the yoga practice and them doing it, the more likely they’ll be to try it and continue coming back to it.
 

Knowledge is power, and yoga can create a massive positive shift on our youth and society as a whole. Watch YouAligned founder Ashton August discuss her personal experiences as a teenager, and how yoga helped her find balance as an adult. Teens: watch it! Parents: share it!
 


 
 

Teens and Yoga: The Benefits and the Takeaway

As the saying goes, today’s youth is tomorrow’s future.

When they are feeling stressed out or overwhelmed, yoga will teach our teens to take time to breathe, center, and work through it in a healthy and positive way.

To give them the gift of yoga at an early age can only create a better, stronger, and more promising future for us all. Namaste.
 

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