A wonderful anecdote from senior yoga teacher Patricia Walden has stuck with me since I first read it some years ago in a post at Yoga Journal. She recalled a statement BKS Iyengar made to her when she struggled with depression: “If you open your armpits, you’ll never get depressed.” She was in her early 20s then. She never forgot that statement. “Of course, what he meant,” she says, “was that if you stand straight and your armpits are lifted, this opens your chest, and it will affect your mental health.” Yoga teachers know that the way we carry our bodies affects how we feel – and the way oth ..read more

One of the most indelible and defining moments in my training to become a yoga teacher began with a loud POP! At first, I thought it was my classmate’s back adjusting as our instructor led her into an advanced pose, but the look on her face said, “This is serious.” Maybe she was predisposed to such an injury. Still, I couldn’t help but think that our teacher – naturally flexible and well-respected in the yoga community – was a little too attached to the student “getting” the pose. Perhaps you’ve been in a yoga class where you sensed a competitive vibe or peer pressure to “keep up.” Or you’ve ..read more

By Lynea Gillen It was clear that the young men in the psychiatric unit weren’t much interested in yoga. Struggling with addiction and mental health, they appeared cautious, wounded, apathetic. Lounging in their hospital scrubs, they shot us suspicious glances. “We know you’ve had challenges,” I told them. “And we know that you’re very strong because of them. We’d like to hear about your strength. Tell us your stories.” And as they did, the atmosphere in that room shifted. The young men transformed from victims into young warriors. By the end of the class, we knew them as musicians and poets a ..read more

Physical education is a crucial part of a child’s overall education. It presents limitless opportunities for instilling healthy habits while supporting their growth and cognitive development. Yet ask a random group of adults what they remember about PE class, and you’re apt to hear more than a few horror stories. Being chosen last for team sports. Being mocked on the field or teased in the locker room. Every day dreading the 50 minutes devoted to gym. Judging from the title of an article over at The Atlantic, it seems not much has changed – at least in some schools around the nation: “Gym Clas ..read more

Talking about climate change is difficult. And it’s even harder to talk about it with children. While we are responsible for helping them learn about it, we don’t want to leave them with a sense of fear and apathy akin to the freeze response to stress. Nor do we want to fill them with despair at the thought of a world without life as we know it. Envisioning a Positive Future I was co-teaching a children’s yoga class on a summer day when the temperature here in Portland, OR, reached a record high of 116 degrees. Unprompted, the kids started talking about climate change. “I’m mad at the factorie ..read more

It’s a familiar idiom on social media: I feel some feels. I’ve got all the feels. This hits me right in the feels. Shorthand for the word “feelings,” Know Your Meme describes “feels” as a word used to describe an intense emotional response, such as sadness, excitement or awe. The term is also commonly associated with the phrase ‘right in the feels,’ which indicates that something has deeply affected the speaker. Context is often enough to at least give you a rough sense of the type of “feel” that’s been felt. Other times, though, the emotion remains vague – as if the speaker may not be abl ..read more

We all know school is about so much more than just academic learning. Yes, the knowledge gained in reading, math, history, science, writing and the like is important. The academic foundation gives them the necessary tools to keep learning and growing their brain power. But school also helps children develop socially and emotionally. Interacting with classmates, teachers, and staff lets them practice important people skills like communicating well, working together, solving conflicts, and understanding others’ perspectives. Every day brings new opportunities to learn how to be responsible, disc ..read more

While the youth mental health crisis doesn’t discriminate, some populations have taken a harder hit than others. According to a four-year study out of DePaul University that explored pre- and post-pandemic mental health among elementary and middle school kids (age 11 – 14), “Latino students are up to twice as likely to be at risk for depression and anxiety. This was even more pronounced among Latina girls and…nonbinary students.” That’s the bad news. The good news is that research has also shown that “Latino children have less stress and more classroom success in programs that mix regular phys ..read more

Watch a baby at rest, and you’ll see a good example of healthy breathing. The pattern is relaxed, slow, and wavelike. Every bone, muscle, and organ moves with each breath. Unhealthy breathing, by contrast, is rigid or inappropriate to the situation and often exhibits excess muscle tension. The breaths are often high in the chest, overly fast, and shallow. Often, there’s no pause between breaths, or there may be breath holding or gulping. Such habits reinforce feelings of tension, agitation, and anxiousness. By contrast, a healthy breathing pattern elicits a relaxation response, shifting the ne ..read more

If you’ve witnessed stressed little ones find calm or hyperactive preschoolers grow focused thanks to a simple yoga flow or even a couple minutes of following a breathing sphere, you understand the power of mindful movement. You’ve seen it first hand. What you’ve witnessed is backed by science. In fact, since we first began developing Yoga Calm nearly 25 years ago, a wealth of research has confirmed and built on what we observe every day: yoga and mindfulness help improve self-regulation, mental wellbeing, and learning readiness, leading to better academic outcomes, even for the littlest learn ..read more