From Mood Swings to Mindful Moments: A Parent’s Guide to Raising Resilient Kids
How movement, breathwork, and ancient wisdom (backed by neuroscience) help your child self-regulate
Insight on the Mat
I remember a quiet moment that hit me harder than expected. My son and I were in the car, and I glanced over to see him completely absorbed in his phone, unaware of the mountain view just beyond the windshield. I said, “Just look out the window for a minute,” and when he did, it was as if he had forgotten how. That was my turning point.
I could feel it in my body tension of time slipping by. His body was growing fast, but I knew his brain, especially the prefrontal cortex part responsible for planning, decision-making, and emotional regulation still under construction and would be for years to come. What I was witnessing wasn’t laziness or defiance, was a brain developing bad habits in real time. And it made me anxious.
As a yoga therapist and mindfulness teacher, I could see the disconnect, and as his mom, I felt a responsibility, a calling to intervene. It wasn’t always graceful, and sometimes not with the most patient tone, but with deep love and intention. I realized that if I, the adult with a fully developed frontal cortex and decades of self-regulation tools, didn’t step in to offer new skills, how could I expect him to navigate his inner world with confidence?
This article is for parents like me,
trying to raise emotionally resilient preteens and teens in a world that moves quickly, overstimulates their senses, and leaves little room for stillness. What I’ve found helpful—and honestly, surprising—as both a parent and a therapist are simple, time-tested yoga tools, supported by modern neuroscience. These practices can help our kids slow down, regulate their emotions, and reconnect with inner steadiness.
The Emotional Storm of Adolescence
The tween and teen years are a whirlwind. Hormones surge, peer pressure intensifies, and identity begins to shift. One minute your child is laughing; the next, they're slamming a door or dissolving into tears. While this is normal, it can leave parents feeling helpless or reactive.
Neuroscience explains a lot: the limbic system (emotional brain) is fully online, but the prefrontal cortex (thinking brain) is still developing. That means kids feel deeply, but they lack the wiring to consistently manage those feelings.
Rather than trying to "fix" their emotions, we can help them build tools for understanding and regulating what they're experiencing. Have you noticed how hard it is for kids to just be bored these days? for understanding and regulating what they're experiencing. That’s where yoga comes in.
Asana: Movement That Grounds and Energizes
When young people move their bodies with purpose, they not only release tension but also build self-awareness. Yoga postures (asana) offer a way to physically feel grounded (Mountain Pose or Child's Pose), express strength (Warrior Poses), or invite calm (Forward Folds).
Movement increases dopamine and serotonin while decreasing cortisol (the stress hormone). It also improves interoception ability to sense what’s happening inside the body-which is linked to emotional regulation.
Try this: Invite your child to do 3-5 slow yoga poses after school. Keep it light, not performative. Maybe you stretch together on the floor or do a silly version of "yoga freeze."
Pranayama: Breath Is the Bridge
One of the most supportive practices for this age group is a breath-based technique called coherent breathing. It’s simple to learn, accessible anywhere, and highly effective for calming the body and mind.
In coherent breathing, we slow the breath to around five to six breaths per minute, with each inhale and exhale lasting five to six seconds. This steady rhythm has been shown to increase heart rate variability, stimulate the vagus nerve, and help shift the brain and body out of fight-or-flight mode.
This simple practice tells the nervous system, "You're safe. You can settle."
Slow breathing helps regulate the amygdala (emotional brain) and strengthens the prefrontal cortex's ability to pause and assess before reacting. In other words, it builds the bridge between feeling and thinking.
Try this: Practice one minute of Belly Buddy Breathing with your child before bed. Place a small stuffed animal on their belly and watch it rise and fall with each breath. It’s a simple and comforting ritual that gently encourages body awareness and calm.
Try a 4-minute Coherent Breath Practice with Amy - Link Below ⬇️
Pratyahara: Learning to Unplug
Pratyahara, or sense withdrawal, is about turning inward deeply relevant practice in our tech-saturated world.
Adolescents are constantly stimulated: notifications, streaming content, social media scrolls. Their nervous systems rarely get a break, which can lead to chronic low-grade anxiety and poor sleep.
Research shows that screen overexposure negatively impacts sleep, attention span, and emotional regulation.
Try this: Encourage short periods of intentional unplugging. It can be as simple as 5 minutes of sitting outside, lying on the floor with eyes closed, or listening to ambient sounds. The goal isn't silence, but space.
Dharana: Building the Muscle of Focus
Dharana means "concentration." It's the practice of gently training the mind to focus on one thing at a time. For adolescents, this might look like tracing their breath, watching a candle flame, or counting down slowly from 10.
Mindfulness and focused attention practices have been shown to increase gray matter in brain regions linked to empathy, decision-making, and emotional balance.
Try this: Introduce "Mindful Minutes" at home. Set a timer for one minute of quiet focus on breath, a sound, or even chewing a bite of food slowly. Make it playful, not pressured.
The Chakra System: A Map for Emotional Awareness
While not scientific in itself, the chakra system offers a symbolic and embodied way to explore emotions. Here’s a quick peek at what each one’s about:
(safety)
(emotions and creativity)
(confidence)
(love and empathy)
(expression)
(intuition)
(connection)
Using the chakras as a guide, kids can begin to ask questions like:
What helps me feel safe?
How do I express my feelings?
Where in my body do I feel tight or heavy?
Practices associated with chakras (movement, breath, visualization, sound) align with therapeutic methods that stimulate the vagus nerve, build interoception, and promote emotional regulation.
Try this: Introduce one chakra theme per week through color, movement, journaling, or conversation. For example, wear red and practice grounding poses for the root chakra. Ask: “What helps you feel steady today?”
Learn with Amy on June 1st! It’s happening in Snoqualmie, Washington. Click the link ⬇️
Bringing It All Together: A Simple Movement and Breath Practice
Here’s a 10-minute emotional reset practice you can do with your child:
3 grounding poses (Cat/Cow, Downward Dog, and Child’s Pose)
Amy’s 4-Minute Coherent Breath Practice
Choose one theme, like confidence, and talk to your child using the following prompt: "Where do you feel that in your body today?"
My Closing Insights
That moment in the car didn’t just change how I parented reshaped how I taught, too. I began to weave small, science-backed yoga practices into our home life and into the work I share with other families. Not as a fix-all, but as a way to offer tools our kids can actually use- when emotions rise, when focus slips, or when everything just feels like too much. These practices aren’t about perfection. They’re about planting seeds now that will help our children grow into emotionally aware, self-regulated adults. And it starts with something as simple as a breath or a glance out the window.
