Yoga For Teenagers

Yoga with a teenager son

My son is a sensitive, high achiever.  He tries his best and constantly pushing to the limit.  I believe he would love yoga and yoga will truly strengthen, calm and nurture him.  I knew I needed to let him know about yoga. 

As a teenager boy, he objected yoga totally thinking it is feminine.  Any mom out there nodding?  Mostly Instagram posts boast the amazing yoga poses by yogis who practiced for 10 years, they are almost 100% women, the extreme stretching poses become the image of yoga.  Is yoga just for stretching? Yogis unanimously will say yoga is mind and body connection, it is the foundation of wellbeing.  Well, I believe yoga is the BEST AND SHORTEST way to physical and mental wellbeing.

I got him a larger and wider yoga mat, and sat him down.  As he works out, his body craves stretching.  So, he agreed to try stretching, we started gentle neck stretch side to side, then variations of rolling our heads in circles, then changing directions from clockwise to counter clock wise.  Tension in neck melted away.  I saw his face relaxed and eased his doubts. 

As a dog lover, he loves all kinds of animals.  I used down dog pose to ask him to try, with stepping on his feet to ease the tensions on calves and hamstrings.  He did not like down dogs due to his tight hamstrings, but it is a success, he tried and he felt his body accepted and synced with the poses.

We even moved on to the cats and cows, he loved the poses as our spines are stretched in a way that it deeply soothes and strengthens the spines. With years of hard soccer training, his legs and spines had stored so much tensions to be released and it is key point to let go of tensions for better weight lifting and strength training. 

Then with hours of video game playing, the cat and cows gave him a chance to gently shake things up.  Trust me, it is the most effective and easy pose from my experience for anyone with sitting jobs or I should say game playing hobbies.

Love is your Nature

Yoga Brings Out Peace and Love as You Are

The yoga practice started with physical benefits, and I see him with more confidence, more tranquility, and more balance.  In today’s volatile even conflicting world, teaching boys or young adults yoga is undoubtedly very effective method to lead them to a better life!  In my personal experience, yoga has most immediate positive effect just after one hour of yoga practice.  Every mom with boys, are you ready to be on board?  It is so worth it! 

Hatha Yoga as a transformative process. The transformation will not only be on the level of your body but in the way you are." – Sadhguru