Relaxation is still the last part of class with the young people lying in Savasana or sat in easy pose. This can now be longer than with the younger children so aim for at least 5 solid minutes, so start playing Bella’s Lullaby or a relaxing music once they are already lying down and you have made a start to the relaxation technique you are using.

Yoga: Meditation and Breathing

Most people think of yoga as poses and exercises that make the body more flexible and strong. But what many don’t know is that meditation and breathing are important parts of yoga.

Want to manage your anger so you don’t feel you’re always on the verge of blowing up? Want to feel less stressed and juggle all the things going on in your life? Need to focus better in class or while you do your homework? Yoga poses can help. But meditation and breathing really round out those benefits.

Breathing

Breathing is one of the most important parts of yoga. Breathing steadily while you’re in a yoga pose can help you get the most from the pose. But practicing breathing exercises when you’re not doing yoga poses can be good for you, too.

It may seem strange to practice breathing, since we do it naturally every moment of our lives. But when people get stressed, their breathing often becomes shallower and more rapid.

Paying attention to how you are breathing can help you notice how you’re feeling — it can give you a clue that you’re stressed even when you don’t realize it. So start by noticing how you’re breathing, then focus on slowing down and breathing more deeply.

Try practicing these breathing exercises:

Belly Breathing

Belly breathing allows you to focus on filling your lungs fully. It’s a great way to counteract shallow, stressed-out breathing:

• Sit in a comfortable position with one hand on your belly.
• With your mouth closed and your jaw relaxed, inhale through your nose. As you inhale, allow your belly to expand. Imagine the lower part of your lungs filling up first, then the rest of your lungs inflating.
• As you slowly exhale, imagine the air emptying from your lungs, and allow the belly to flatten.
• Do this 3-5 times.

This kind of breathing can help settle your nerves before a big test, sports game, or even before bed.

Alternate Nostril Breathing

This breath technique can help you feel more balanced and calm:

• Sit in a comfortable position.
• Place the thumb of your right hand on your right nostril. Tuck your first and middle fingers down and out of the way.
• As your right thumb gently closes your right nostril, slowly exhale through your left nostril, as you count to 5.
• Now, keeping your right thumb on the right nostril, slowly inhale through the left nostril, as you count to 5.
• Lift your thumb, use your ring finger to close your left nostril, and exhale through your right nostril for 5 counts. Then inhale through your right nostril as you slowly count to 5.
• Change back to putting your thumb over your right nostril. Lift your ring finger from your left nostril, and repeat the whole process — exhaling through your left nostril for 5 counts, then inhaling through the left nostril for 5 counts.
• Continue this pattern (exhale, inhale, change sides) for three more cycles.

Breathing techniques go hand in hand with relaxation. Here are a few more examples:

• Breathe in the blue, breathe out the red. This goes hand in hand with the work on anger management. In one lesson plan, the young people choose their colours that represent how they feel when they are angry and when they are calm. You could then use these colours to breathe in the calming colour (or use blue for a shorter exercise) and breathe out the angry colour (or use red for a shorter exercise).
• Square breathing. Breeathing in for 4, hold for 4, out for 4 and repeat. Nice and slow.
• Breath counting – slowing the breathing down by taking a breath in for 3 our for 3 and keep increasing the number.

Meditation and Visualisation

Meditation is a way to get quiet, calm, and focused. It trains your mind to slow down, relax, and stay positive. Meditating for just a few minutes a day can help you feel centered, balanced, and more in control — even during the times when you’re not actually meditating.

Making meditation one of your daily routines (like brushing your teeth) can help you feel more grounded when it seems like you’re being pulled in a million directions.

Here are some meditation exercises to try:

Focus on the Breath

Try this as soon as you get home from school:

• Close your door, set a timer for 3-5 minutes, and find a comfortable place to sit.
• Close your eyes and focus on your breathing.
• As you inhale, think about your lungs inflating, your ribs expanding, and the breath moving through your nasal passages.
• As you exhale, think about your lungs deflating and the breath rushing out of your nasal passages.
• If your mind starts to wander, calmly say to yourself “thinking” and then turn your attention back to your breath.

Visualise Success

This is a great thing to do when you feel stressed about something that’s coming up like a big test, sports game, or performance:

• Set a timer for 3-5 minutes. Find a comfortable place to sit.
• Close your eyes and picture things going well.
• Visualize yourself feeling prepared and in control as you sit down for your test, or kicking the winning goal in soccer, or landing the lead role at your drama audition.

Visualization doesn’t take the place of actual preparation. But it can help you feel confident and manage the negative thinking that sometimes goes with stress.

Love Meditation

This simple meditation is designed for you to be there for yourself and be the generator of your own love when you need it the most. The more we practice cultivating love for ourselves and showing up for ourselves, the more we can help empower those around us.

Remember that you are whole—you do not need to be fixed.

1. Lie down on your back.
2. Take the soles of your feet together and let your knees fall out to the sides.
3. Place one hand on your belly and the other on your heart and close your eyes.
4. Begin to inhale into your hands, feeling your belly and chest expand.
5. Exhale, relaxing deeper into the floor.
6. As you continue inhaling and exhaling, let the sensation of love fill your entire body. Imagine the feeling of love spreading through your head, heart, and belly.
7. Imagine breathing love in and breathing love out.
8. Remember that filling ourselves up with love will help us love others.
9. Keep breathing love in and out for up to five minutes.

Guided Relaxation 

Talking through a relaxation technique to help the body to relax. An example is the Mountain. Imagine standing at the top of a mountain, the cool air blowing in your face. You can see for miles across the landscape. Picture it in your mind. What can see? Really focus on the view. You feel amazing because you have reached the top of the mountain.

A peaceful retreat

If you need to change positions, go ahead and move to wherever or however feels good to you. Take another big deep breath and release it gently.

We’re going to use the power of our minds to go on a peaceful retreat. This will be a place you can visit any time you like – just by using your mind.

Let your imagination take you to a beautiful wooded area. Sunlight filters down through the thick leaves of tall trees.

The air around you is perfectly comfortable – not too hot and not too cool. It’s a safe place, and everything around you is ripe for exploring.

The air smells fresh and as you pay attention to other scents, you notice the smell of moss and maybe even water nearby.

You walk slowly through this happy, welcoming forest, looking all around at the beauty of nature. Small birds chirp and hop around the forest floor and flitter up to the trees. There’s an old fallen tree on the ground, and you watch as a squirrel darts inside to store an acorn.

As you walk further, you hear the sound of gently flowing water. You follow the sound and the smell of fresh water. Then you see it.

A crystal clear spring that flows down into a narrow stream. You’re drawn to the lightly flowing water. It looks so peaceful.

So you sit on a big rock right beside the spring. The rock is warm from the sun, and as you stretch your legs down, your toes dip into the shallow, clear spring water. It feels so refreshing and relaxing.

This spot feels like it was created especially for you – your own personal retreat in the natural world. You lean your head back and close your eyes as the leaves dance above you in the gentle breeze and little patches of sunlight and shadow move across your face.

Doesn’t it feel wonderful to be in this special place?

The stream is constantly flowing – just like good things can always come into your life. And just like you can let go of worries or fears by letting them float away down stream.

This place lives inside you. Anytime you want to visit it, you can simply come here in your mind. Stay here in your peaceful retreat for as long as you like.

When you’re ready you can open your eyes and give your body a big stretch. You’ve done a fantastic job using your imagination.

These breathing and meditation techniques can have subtle but powerful effects. If you keep practicing them, the benefits will build up into real results. This might happen so gradually that you don’t notice it. But you’ll know that a positive change is at work when you don’t lose your cool during a fight with your parents or go into a stress meltdown before a big exam!