Our tweens and young teens are on adventures that ideally require a collection of skills to head forth into this phase of their life, as they become the architects of their own journey.
Yin yoga is a practice that activates the rest and digest aspect for our nervous systems. Our workshop for young people is designed to help develop a practice for creating spaciousness and experience tangible tools and strategies to support these adventures. Our Yin Yoga workshop will develop another resource for young people to use - like choosing the right surfboard for the right waves, or the most ideal paint brush for the canvas.
Benefits for Tweens and Teens:
Improved sleep / Activate Parasympathetic Nervous System / Tool for stress management / Improve Flexibility to support other sports, dance, life.
What is Yin Yoga: Yin yoga is the style of yoga developed in the west that takes yoga style poses and holds them with an intention to sit for a few minutes exploring the stretch found in that shape. Our Yin focus is on the ligaments and collagen filled fascial network of the body and is concerned with the movement of Qi, or energy/electricity/animating life force and getting into the para-sympathetic (rest and digest) nervous system.
It has roots in both Yoga and Taoist philosphy, with a nod to QiGong, TaiChi and other eastern modalities.
At its most simple, it’s a mindful stretch that’s spacious and not filled with a lot of content. Its additional gifts are perhaps the chance to practice sitting with experience and allowing the body to deal with and let go of energy, without necessarily attaching words and stories to that process, as we notice that we can feel differently in each new moment.
Like meditation allows us to practice letting thoughts and feelings float towards the horizon, Yin yoga can allow energy to return to the earth and/or energy to be gathered and reorganised into the body in new ways.
What will Tween Yin Yoga be like:
We will sit (in a settled manner) in yoga poses, laying on yoga mats, maybe with pillows, bolsters and blankets, in a group setting. We come into a pose for between 2 and 5 mins, with a rest in a neutral laying down way in between each more ‘shaped’ pose.
It’s not a dynamic experience, it’s more a restful experience. Possibly, it’s boring! Nah Jokes! Even adults are challenged by Yin Yoga because they are so used to moving so much, or prefer to move so much, that it’s strange or boring to be still. Hence why we practice! It turns out we possibly we actually crave this space in our busy day.
What’s the optimal age range for this Tween/Teen Yin Yoga workshop:
We’d suggest 10 year olds to 15 year olds? School Grade 4 or 5 to Grade 9.
We wouldn’t recommend it for children younger as they need to approach yoga in more playful ways and discover the yoga basics. This is a workshop further along the journey than kids yoga, but it similarly aims to help kids chill out, shake it out and then cultivate a rest & process/digest experience.
What to wear/what to bring/where is class at:
Tweens and teens can wear comfortable exercise clothes they feel happy to be in. They can bring their own mat, or borrow one of ours. They may like a water bottle. Ideally arrive around 5-10 mins before class.
Our practice space is inside a homewares store called Driftwood Living 1403 Anzac Pde Little Bay, surrounded by lovely objects like shells and picture frames, furniture, lamps and books. It could feel like a home space, not a stark ashram like vibe. This creates a more familiar feeling of comfortable.
Parents are encouraged to come into Driftwood Living and say hi before class and then again when we conclude.
It will vary greatly to an ‘open/adult’ class, if you are familiar with that. Here’s how:
We will practice for 45 mins.
We will encourage talking and lots of questions as we go into a pose and look for our 60% - 70% range of effort, to be trying a bit, feeling a stretch but not pushing too hard. We’ll offer lots of alternatives depending on what is needed. (much like in grown up classes.)
We’ll talk through ideas and approaches to Yin Yoga that are targeted and shared in a way that’s ideal for this age group of people.
We will talk a lot about finding the middle path. For in Yin Yoga, we encourage students to explore their own range of moment and support this practice with lots of blankets and props. (This is like an open class, but we’re guiding tweens to allow a voiced dialogue in this search, where as open classes are usually conducted in hushed tones respecting the focus of other students sharing space.) In this class, these insights, if appropriate, may seen as wisdom to be shared.
In future workshops we may convert to ‘family’ classes where a carer can join, depending on demand and feedback so then we’d have all children have their own carer present. In this particular workshop, we are creating a tween chill out zone :-) so carers can drop off and pick up inside the store.
Our teacher: Amy Weidlich has been teaching Yin Yoga for over 5 years and practicing it for 10 years and has put together this workshop at the request of the Lotus Bay Yoga community of families. Along with being an advanced trained and experienced yoga teacher, she has a significant research interest in traditional chinese medicine and philosophy. Amy is also the parent of a tween; and an aunty, friend and community cheer squad member :-) to the children and teens in her life who inspire her every day with how they approach this phase of growing up. Amy Weidlich hold a current working with children check.
Workshop Cost: $20. Once you’ve completed the following enrolment form, a link will appear and you can pay for the class via our Pre Pay Class page.
NB: Our system sends a receipt email once we’ve approved the payment, we don’t issue further email confirmations of class enrolment as we are easily able to resolve enrolments when students attend class.
For more information or to chat to us about your further interest in our Tween Yin Yoga workshop fill in this form or call Amy on 0425332490 - spots are limited to 8 for this workshop: