In this article, yoga teachers, parents, teens, young adults and more will learn how yoga can help combat anxiety and depression–especially during the back-to-school period of the year. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS: 

• Back-to-school season can cause anxiety due to changes in routines, social concerns, and academic pressures.
• Anxiety in children appears as irritability, mood swings, headaches, stomachaches, sleep changes, clinginess, tantrums, and nightmares; teachers may notice concentration and memory issues, decreased motivation, and avoidance.
• Mindfulness and movement practices, like yoga, effectively calm minds and bodies by regulating neurotransmitters, reducing stress, enhancing mind-body connection, and boosting self-esteem.
• Physical movement, such as jumping and stretching, helps manage anxiety by releasing endorphins and reducing cortisol.
• Yoga practices like Surfing Warrior, Sun Salutations, and Number Jumping combine movement and mindfulness to ease anxiety.
• Mindfulness exercises, including Pencil Breath, Pencil Squeeze, Rainbow Walk, and Four Finger Mantra Meditation, help children focus on the present and develop coping mechanisms.
• Consistent routines with these practices help manage anxiety, leading to a smoother, more successful school year.

Using Yoga To Tame Back-To-School Anxiety 

It may feel like summer has just gotten started, but the back-to-school rush is already here!

The back-to-school season can be full of excitement and possibility but it can also be fraught with anxiety for students, caregivers, and teachers.

Changes in routines, social concerns, separation anxiety, and academic pressures (real or only perceived) often manifest in the minds and bodies of even our youngest students. 

Parents and caregivers may see anxiety show up as irritability and mood swings, headaches and stomachaches, changes in sleep patterns, clinginess, tantrums, and nightmares. Children’s fight-flight-flee response to anxiety is witnessed by teachers as a difficulty in concentrating, memory and recall issues, decreased motivation, and avoidance behaviors. 

It is obvious that an anxious brain is not going to effectively memorize multiplication facts or analyze poetry. Happily, we can model and teach some simple mindfulness and movement practices that calm bodies and settle minds.

Yoga, specifically, has been used for thousands of years to mitigate anxiety and depression - and for good reason! Yoga works!

The mechanisms through which yoga influences mental health are complex and multifaceted, but some key factors include:

• Neurotransmitter Regulation: Yoga has been shown to increase levels of neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine, and GABA, which play crucial roles in mood regulation. These chemicals help to reduce feelings of anxiety and depression.  
• Stress Reduction: Yoga incorporates breathing techniques and mindfulness practices that activate the parasympathetic nervous system, responsible for relaxation. This counteracts the fight-or-flight response often associated with anxiety.  
• Mind-Body Connection: Yoga emphasizes the connection between the mind and body. By focusing on physical sensations and breath, individuals can become more aware of their thoughts and emotions, leading to greater emotional regulation.  
• Increased Self-Esteem: Regular yoga practice can improve body image, flexibility, and strength, contributing to a sense of accomplishment and improved self-esteem.

Must-Try Yoga Sequences To Combat Anxiety

Movement is a natural way for most children to work through anxiety. Fidgeting and bouncing are often seen in classrooms, so channel movement as a management tool! 

Movement, particularly large motions, release endorphins (the body’s natural mood elevators) while at the same time reduce cortisol levels (the stress hormone).

Jumping, stretching, and balancing also provide a distraction for the brain, shifting focus away from anxious thoughts, providing a mental break. 

Some movement practices, like yoga and tai chi, can help ground practitioners in the present moment, reducing anxious thoughts about the future. If you're thinking about teaching kid's yoga classes, here are some tried-and-true yoga-based movement practices for children of all ages:

Surfing Warrior 

Have kids imagine they are balancing on a surfboard, riding a gnarly wave. Stand in an exaggerated Warrior 2 posture, stretching to touch opposite walls with each hand and pressing their feet strongly into their surfboard. The crown of the head reaches for the sunshine above.

Emphasize being BIG! Ride the wave for a while, maybe leaning left or right or bouncing.

Then, on your signal, jump in the air and spin to land with the opposite foot forward. Get low on the surfboard or reach high on your toes.

Repeat as you'd like, perhaps adding a narration about what a surfer might see or hear on their board.  For older kids and young adults, instead of pretending to be on a surfboard, have them hold Warrior 2 while repeating empowering mantras, either silently or out loud. Encourage them to take up space.

Sun Salutations 

Traditional yoga sun salutations provide a full spectrum of movement, and if practiced regularly can also become a meditative practice as your body moves through the postures and your mind rests in your breathing. There are many variations of sun salutations, and generally, the younger the child, the simpler you make the pattern:

• *Mountain
• *Forward Fold
• *Plank
• *Cobra
• *Downward Facing Dog
• *Forward Fold
• *Mountain

Add lunges, side planks, balance poses, whatever you think the children would enjoy! Making a couple rounds of Sun Salutations part of your morning routine before school or evening routine before bed gives kids the opportunity to release some of their stored up tension.

Number Jumping

If practicing math facts makes your kiddo start spinning out, try Number Jumping. Take turns saying math problems out loud (4+2 or 3x5, for example). Answer the problem by jumping the correct number of times. So for 4+2, a child would jump 6 times. Jumping could look like jumping jacks, hops, or even burpees!

Adding  silly sounds also ups the fun factor. The bigger or sillier the jumping task, the less they’ll be “in their head”, worried about the correct answer.

Need to practice for the spelling test? Another idea: Instead of kids just writing the words, have them make the letters with their whole body! For older students, taking movement breaks during long study sessions works in the same way. For every 40 minutes of study or work, take 20 minutes to (ideally) get outside and jump, stretch, jog, dance, or just shake it off. 

Mindfulness practices have helped people find calm and presence for thousands of years. Mindfulness is a powerful tool for helping children learn to focus on the present moment, observe their thoughts and feelings without judgment, and develop successful coping mechanisms.

With consistent practice, children learn to recognize and name their emotions and sensations, thereby halting anxiety in its tracks. Mindfulness helps children regulate their emotions and improve concentration.

Pencil Breath

This tactile reminder to breathe and be in the present moment is a super-portable practice that students can do.

Simply hold a pencil (crayon, marker, pen, etc) in one hand and use the other hand’s pointer finger to trace up and down the pencil. As you trace up from the point to the eraser, breathe in through your nose. As you trace down the pencil, exhale slowly through your nose.

Trace and breathe slowly for at least three rounds. This practice is perfect before a test or writing assignment to settle nerves and introduce more oxygen to the brain. You could also use a spoon and try this practice before dinner!

This practice suits college classrooms, as well. Rather than use a pencil to time your breathing, trace the outer edges of your laptop, breathing in as you move up and down the short sides and breathe out along the long edges. 

Pencil Squeeze

While you have the pencil in your hand, add a squeeze! In one hand (or both), squeeze the pencil with all of your might. Squeeze with your fingers, your arms, your toes, your jaw, your earlobes … use all your muscles to squeeze the pencil and hold it tight for a few seconds.

Then, so slowly, release the tension starting with the parts closest to the pencil and moving to the furthest points of the body. When everything has released, stay soft and breathe three deep breaths.

Try this squeeze before you get out of the car, before bed, or anytime that you notice little bodies looking tight and wound up. 

Rainbow Walk

Sometimes you just need a break, physically and mentally. When you feel yourself or students getting worked up with anxiety and you see an explosion on the horizon, take a Rainbow Walk!

If possible, get outside for this mindfulness practice. Simply start walking and look for each color of the rainbow in turn (good ol’ ROY G. BIV). Make it simple for younger kids, perhaps focusing on just one or two colors.

Challenge older kids to find the colors only in natural objects like flowers or birds. For high school and college-age students, look for objects in alphabetical order.

Encourage long, deep breaths. This practice is a great way to unwind after school as you walk home from the bus stop (or make it a Rainbow Drive) or to settle nerves on the way to school. If looking for colors gets too routine, try looking for textures (smooth, slimy, bumpy, etc.) or listen for sounds! The idea is to keep the mind occupied with current observations so it doesn’t just run in anxious circles. 

Four Finger Mantra Meditation

This classic meditation practice is simple enough for the littlest students but powerful enough to make a difference to even skeptical adults! First, demonstrate how to touch your thumbs to each finger, one at a time, starting with the index finger and moving toward pinky.

You could say that the thumbs are kissing each finger - and make the sound! If children’s dexterity isn’t developed enough for this fine motor skill, kids can simply open and close their hands, touching all fingers at once to each thumb. Once you’ve practiced the movement a couple of times, add a four word mantra.

Anything empowering or comforting will work: I’m a smart girl. My mom loves me. I’m a good reader. I have many friends. I’m a good leader. For young adults, Four Finger Meditation mantra examples might be: I’m prepared for this. My best is enough. Peace begins with me. I’m calm and prepared.

Now put the movement together with the mantra. Sit up tall, and start touching thumbs and fingers, saying one word per finger out loud. Repeat many times - as many as your child can focus for. The pattern of movement and words is like a warm blanket for our brains, allowing us to settle and rest.

Like many other of these practices, this is a beautiful one to try before getting out of the car at school, before bed, or anytime anxiety rears its ugly head. 

Consistency

Because consistency is often key to taming anxiety, it may benefit your family to create morning and evening routines utilizing these movement and mindfulness practices. These routines will become so ingrained in the minds of your children, teens, and college students that they’ll learn to recognize when they feel anxiety creeping in, and more importantly, how to quell it all on their own.