A focus on breathing is one of the first steps in yoga and mindfulness classes being taught among children and teens and their teachers in schools throughout the Pittsburgh area.
“It’s empowering, using your own body and your own breath,” says Yoga in the Schools founder Joanne Spence. Explaining how something so simple can be helpful, she said, “Practice allows us to be present and accountable … in the midst of ups and downs in life.”
Indeed, the class aims to help students focus, control impulsive behavior and frustration, and it can help ease the heightened stress that any typical high schooler faces in academics, test-taking, extracurricular activities and the dreaded college or job search. They learn skills and tools to help them flourish and improve resilience.
Although others have started programs independently, schools that have worked with Yoga in Schools include Pittsburgh Public Schools; Urban Academy of Greater Pittsburgh Charter School, Larimer; Pittsburgh Urban Christian School, Wilkinsburg; Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, Edgewood; the Penn Hills School District; the Falk School at the University of Pittsburgh, Oakland; the Environmental Charter School, Regent Square; and Woodland Hills School District. Ms. Spence also started the ongoing yoga program at Shuman Juvenile Detention Center in Lincoln-Lemington.
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