Fit to fit in? Yoga workshops help kids face social tests

Courtesy Robbin Schneider

Fear the bully whose locker nears yours? Or the nasty chick clique that excludes you at lunchtime? One woman is empowering tweens and teens to confront peer pressures using yoga’s time-proven tools.

As a yoga practitioner and instructor for nearly fifteen years, Robbin Schneider, founder and owner of Joiful Life, of Indianapolis, Indiana, leads hour-long workshops at middle and high schools to help combat teen suicide and the stressors of measuring up in our success-at-all-costs culture.

Schneider's theme-based sessions include, “The Meaning of Mean,” and “Real Me or Social Me?” and incorporate mindfulness, journaling, crafting, breathing exercises and yoga postures.

“Questions lead to other questions and discussions about who inspires them and why and the things that they would like to change about themselves. Kids leave a bit calmer and less stressed,” she says.

During a recent one-on-one session Schneider dubbed, “Grounded in Growth,” I talked with a student who lacked self-confidence about the richness of soil, everyone’s unique time to blossom and her nurturing family. We practiced tree pose, warrior poses, half-moon, the cocoon of child’s pose and savasana,” she says. The takeaway? “Springtime is a perfect time to feel at ease in your strength and if you’re ready, to let yourself expand,” she says.