Anxiety and depression can begin at a young age, and introducing adolescents and teens to exercise, mindfulness and yoga can be a great way to teach young people how to deal with stress at an early age. Could yoga one day be taught to young children in school?
As Forbes reminds us, kids are more stressed out than ever these days, and a new study says that yoga could be very beneficial for teen depression and anxiety. It could also be very beneficial for kids as young as third-grade level.
According to a new study, third graders who were grappling with anxiety were given ten sessions of what was called Yoga Ed, where they were taught yoga and mindfulness for forty minutes at a time. This was taught to young students before the beginning of the school day. These students were taught breathing techniques, relaxation techniques, and yoga poses.
The children who were given the yoga lessons apparently showed great improvement in their overall social and emotional lives. As one person in charge of the study said, “Our initial work found that many kids expressed anxious feelings in third grade as the classroom work becomes more developmentally complex. Even younger children are experiencing a lot of stress and anxiety, especially around test time.”
Teaching yoga and mindfulness at a young age can also be beneficial as children’s brains start to develop. And as this report points out, with schools taking away recess breaks and art and music, yoga could be a much-needed break for kids when they need to decompress and unwind from the escalating demands of school.