It’s a Philly First! A Yoga Workshop for Teens

May 28, 5:29 AMPhiladelphia Yoga ExaminerJonathan Bartlett

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Elizabeth Grecco

“Teens need tools to help manage the big changes occurring in their world,” says program creator and instructor, Liz Grecco. “Yoga can provide them with these tools.”

A yoga workshop developed especially for teens will be held at Yoga Schelter in East Falls on May 30, 2009 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. One of the area’s premier yoga locations, Yoga Schelter is located in the Sherman Mills complex at 3502 Scotts Lane. 

The teen workshop will be led by its creator, Elizabeth Grecco, 26, a certified yoga teacher who has established a presence in the Delaware Valley yoga community with classes led at L.A. Fitness, Yoga On Main, Yoga Schelter and many others. Not far from the teen years herself, Grecco keenly understands the stresses that accompany that time of life.  She has created this workshop to provide those in this age group with tools that will help them deal with the unusual complications that accompany that time of life and a place to go time and again when pressure overwhelms them, no matter what their chronological age.

Teen life is not easy. Think about your life as a teen. Now fast-forward to 2009: You’re 13 to 19 years old, treated like a child by adults but eager to begin experimenting with adult behavior. Why? Because you know you must in order to survive. The first day of high school, boys and girls are quietly but urgently prodded to begin thinking about their futures as adults.  In this frantically competitive world in which we live, it’s never too early they say, but the question beneath the surface that’s never asked (though the answer is vital) is Who Are You?

Instead, most hear hushed, but insistent demands, from themselves, parents, teachers and peers. "College?! YOU BETTER GET GOOD GRADES!"

"No college? What will you do? How will you earn a living?"

"Am I attractive?"

"How do I fit in? Do I fit in ANYWHERE?!"

"Do I have a future??!!"

Meanwhile, inside, the body is reforming and transforming. New hormones are introduced and with them the onset of new instincts with few if any lessons from adults in how to deal with them. 

Today’s teens are also staring at their futures amid a massive economic downturn, one which nobody truly understands; in addition, they are the objects of ubiquitous sense data from TV, the internet, and the radio, and from the allure and tyranny of cell phone connections.

Tools from yoga can help.

Amid the turmoil of just growing up, teens today need a quiet place, apart from the unruly demands placed on them. Tools from yoga can help. Yoga postures were designed to build and strengthen the body. Using gravity as an isometric force, yoga asanas (the Sanskrit word for postures), build muscle body strength. They were also created to stretch muscles and in so doing open the pathways for freer movement off the mat. Stretching muscles also releases tension that the body stores in the muscles.

Unlike exercise, yoga is ‘mindful’ movement. As they do the asanas, students are asked to refrain from holding onto the negative thoughts that may occur to them. Yoga instructors suggest that yogis and yoginis focus their attention in their bodies, to really feel the stretch, to feel the force of gravity as it plays its role in the posture. It’s why yoga is often called ‘moving meditation.’ Doing asanas, whether in class or at home, is an opportunity for a teen to move outside of the turmoil that may be taking place in the mind, to a place of peace and serenity.

Grecco’s workshop will also include a short creativity session, in which participants can express themselves through a ‘stream of consciousness’ approach to discovering their self-expression in a positive way.

For more info: To register, call 215-991-YOGA (9642) or email pamela@yogaschelter.com.