Why Kids Yoga Matters in 2026
Youth Mental Health Crisis & Yoga Intervention
The sun was out, and the grass was dry, so we set up our kids’ yoga class outside. As we sat in a big circle on our mats, we inhaled and exhaled in time with our breathing ball. I looked out and saw smiles on all but one face.
“How did that breath make you feel?” I asked no one in particular. Peace fingers bolted up and gleefully announced, “happy”, “calm,” and “relaxed”. I noticed one child with his hands and eyes in his lap. “How did that make you feel?” I ventured. “Okay,” he replied, “but I’m still sad. My dad died”.
Tread lightly, I told myself. It could be true, but sometimes children say non-real things. It’s like they are trying to work out how they would feel if something unimaginable happened. I looked toward his younger brother. Without prompting, he confirmed his brother’s story. Their father had died in a terrible accident.
As a children’s yoga teacher and, more importantly, as a human being, there is nothing I can do to fix a situation like that. However, yoga is uniquely positioned to help us move through those feelings, give them a place to go, and, hopefully, get to a place where we can live alongside them.
The Youth Mental Health Crisis
Beyond life-altering accidents like the one I described, we find that children and teens in the United States are struggling with mental health at an increasingly alarming rate.
“In 2023, almost 40% of high school students were reporting persistent sadness or hopelessness, 18% had experienced major depression, and 10% had attempted suicide…. The suicide rate at ages 10 to 19 years increased by 85.3% between 2007 and 2017.” – Steven H. Wolf, Department of Family Medicine and Population Health, VCU School of Medicine
According to the National Institutes of Health, more than 140,000 children in the United States lost a primary or secondary caregiver due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This kind of loss is a major adverse childhood experience (ACE), and is linked to long‑term mental‑health challenges, lower academic performance, reduced confidence, and increased vulnerability to risky behaviors, substance use, self‑harm, and exploitation. As we all experienced, the pandemic also caused school disruption, disconnection from peers, and an increase in the use of technology and social media, all of which have been linked to a reduction in mental health.
As reported by Frontiers in Health Services, the mental health crisis is a symptom of much deeper societal pressures. Youth today are carrying the weight of national conversations about racial injustice, climate anxiety, widening income gaps, racism, gun violence, school pressure, and increasingly polarized politics. Together, these stressors create a world where regulation tools and supportive practices are essential.
Yoga As a Mental Health Intervention for Kids & Teens
Yoga gifts kids and teens practical tools to steady their minds and bodies – a powerful support system in today’s mental‑health landscape. Through yoga, youth learn emotional regulation through embodied practices that young people can use the moment stress shows up, helping them shift out of overwhelm and back into a sense of control. Because yoga works directly with the nervous system, it can ease tension, sharpen attention, and strengthen emotional resilience in ways talk‑based approaches alone often can’t. At a time when students are navigating academic pressure, social strain, and constant external stressors, yoga offers an accessible, evidence-aligned path to feeling grounded, safe, and more connected to their inner world.
We can’t fix everything that is wrong with the world or even in the world of one child. What we can do is make the world easier to navigate for children who need it most.
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