Does Yoga Help Teens Manage Anger?

If you’re a parent of a teen dealing with depression, anxiety, or anger issues, we know you’re looking for anything that will help your child feel better and, in turn, function better in school, at home, and with their peers.

You probably already know that therapy, family support, a healthy diet, engaging hobbies, and exercise can make life manageable for your teen. But if your teen is still struggling with emotions, like anger or anxiety that comes on suddenly, he may need strategies to help calm his mind and mood quickly. For example, mind-body exercises like yoga could be helpful.

What is Yoga?

You might believe yoga is only about physical poses. But the entirety of yoga includes a wide range of contemplative and self-disciplinary practices like:

• Mantras
• Prayer
• Chanting
• Breathwork
• Selfless action
• Meditation
• Ritual

The word “yoga” comes from the root word “yuj,” which means “to yoke” or “to bind.” Yoga asana is the physical practice and postures of yoga. Yoga can help with strength, balance, and flexibility. It can be practiced by almost anyone, regardless of age, race, or sex.

Research supports what yoga practitioners have known for years: Yoga is incredibly beneficial for overall well-being!

Let’s look at the many benefits of yoga in greater depth and how it can help your teen improve his physical and mental health.

How Yoga Can Help Your Teen

Yoga Helps You Relax and Sleep Better

As with any exercise, some forms of yoga are better for relaxing the body in preparation for sleep. For example, you probably don’t want your teen to practice hot yoga right before it’s time to wind down for bed - the heat will increase heart rate, making it much more difficult to relax before bedtime.

Other practices, such as Hatha, might be more conducive to helping your child calm down and get a better night of quality sleep. It’s not the yoga in and of itself that will get your teen to sleep - more the process of learning how to focus on breathing, winding down the mind, and bringing a sensation of peace to the body, all of which can be excellent benefits of yoga!

Yoga Leads to a Brighter Mood

Exercise in general aids in boosting mood, there is no doubt. Getting the endorphins flowing in the brain is critical for weightlifters to runners. Thankfully, yoga can get those same endorphins moving! In addition, if your teen tends to be stressed out frequently, the practice of learning to control the breath during yoga can also translate over to daily life, therefore helping to make stressful situations less so when the breathing practices are implemented.

Yoga Helps Manage Stress

Between homework, sports practices, after-school activities, time with friends, and chores at home, the to-do list for your teen can often be overwhelming and stressful. However, if they can carve out some time for a few minutes of yoga each day, you might be pleasantly surprised to find that this practice decreases heart rate and blood pressure.

Combined with a lower intensity yoga form and the practice of breathing and meditation, your child can learn to manage stress appropriately. Not only that, but they’ll also be fighting disease, which can also manifest stress levels!

Yoga Classes Foster Community

Even if your child prefers time to themselves, they might find that engaging with others in a like-minded yoga class creates a community they can’t wait to revisit. Breathing and moving in sync with others profoundly transforms and gives your child a common place to reach out and speak to others. Encouragement from others can also be highly motivating, which in and of itself can spark engagement and decrease levels of stress.

Yoga Teaches Breathwork and Meditation That Tame Anger

Anger is a feeling like every other - however, it does manifest itself sometimes in a time and place that is not appropriate or necessary. Thankfully, yoga can give your teen an outlet to express their anger healthily.

Deep breaths that resonate throughout the lower belly have been shown to restore a calm sense of self, which is helpful in those scenarios where your teen might not know how to handle emotions appropriately. In addition, certain poses within yoga can also help relieve stress and tension and aid in decreasing angry outbursts.

What If You’ve Tried Everything?

If you’ve tried every outlet, you can think of to help your teen manage their anger appropriately, but nothing seems to work, give the specialists at Liahona Academy a call.

Not only can the mental health treatment program work with your child one-on-one for the best strategy to improve anger issues, but they also focus on areas of academics, life skills, and provide the support and therapy necessary for your son to navigate their feelings healthily. Give them a call today and find out just how much they can help you and your child today!