Benefits of Yoga for Teenagers
Why yoga is psychologically great for teenagers? by ShareLove.Fund’s Rainbow Women Social Enterprise endeavor and sponsored by your generous donations.
For the longest time, yoga was only associated with adults – and even there it was commonly assumed that only certain categories of adults practiced it. You had to be a New Age hippie or one of the so-called ‘woke’ ones to go for it. You could also be one of the Hollywood crowd latching on to yoga as the next trend to follow. The one group that wasn’t associated with yoga was teenagers. It didn’t seem to be on their radar at all.
In recent years that particular trend has started to change. More than 1.7 million children and teenagers worldwide are discovering what yoga has to offer them both physically and psychologically. Let’s take a look at some scientifically proven benefits that help improve mental health for teenagers.
Better Focus and Concentration – When you practice yoga, you’re essentially practicing body awareness. You have to pay attention to your breathing and your body as you practice different yoga poses and stretches. The more you do yoga, the better your concentration and focus become. Teenagers especially benefit from this since they have to spend long hours studying and taking care of extra-curricular activities. It can help them finish work faster since they won’t be distracted easily and improve their quality of work through better focus.
Lower Anxiety and Stress – Scientific research has proven that regularly practicing yoga lowers the level of the hormone cortisol in our blood. Cortisol is secreted when a person is under a lot of stress. The more the stress, the higher the levels of cortisol. Schoolwork, homework and extra activities such as sports can be quite a lot to have on one’s plate. Handling the high levels of stress can be overwhelming for teenagers. Yoga acts as a chill pill.
Better Sleep – Various studies conducted have shown that yoga greatly affects the quality of sleep. Better sleep results in stronger immunity, better memory and better creativity. Since, teenagers often have to pull all-nighters, which means shorter hours of sleep; the quality of sleep they do get can be greatly improved by practicing yoga.
Boosted Mood – As mentioned earlier, yoga helps reduce the levels of cortisol in the body. It, therefore, also increases energy levels. The result? Much better moods overall. Teenage years are times of emotional and mental angst. School, extracurriculars, prepping for college, relationships – all of these together can take a huge toll and affect teenagers’ moods. Practicing yoga helps deal with the stress these of these realities and can help cheer you up.
Introducing teenagers to yoga can positively impact not just their teenage years but help them later in life too. The teenage years are a crucial time as far as brain development goes and yoga during these years can help them cultivate self-discipline, self-control, creativity and flexibility later on in life. In the meantime, yoga can help mitigate the effects of a stage of life that can be quite difficult to navigate with the pressures and expectations that life throws their way.