Teens do some floorwork on the mat at Buddha Lounge in Delray Beach.
Students in Jo Boccassini’s class do a pose called rope sirsasana. For some kids, the stranger and more challenging the pose, the better.
Photos provided
By Janis Fontaine
Today, yoga is so mainstream, you’ll find yoga classes in hospitals, schools and even rehab. It’s noninvasive, low-impact, and can be done (to some degree, at least) by everyone, regardless of fitness level. Experts prescribe yoga for ailments ranging from high blood pressure to carpal tunnel syndrome to headaches. There’s even yoga for flat feet.
Now parents — kids, too — are turning their attention to yoga as a means of handling school stress, anxiety, depression, ADD and ADHD, issues with self-esteem, and the physical manifestations of those conditions, like insomnia and stomach problems.
When kids start a class with Jo Boccassini, who teaches at Yoga Sol in Delray Beach, they think yoga’s focus is on the body and the ability to perfectly mimic the teacher’s body shapes. But as they learn the poses, their minds also become engaged and they like the way yoga feels, Boccassini said.
“What they’re really starting to like is the quietness. Deliberate stillness. I’m teaching them larger concepts — how to live, really live.”
Principles that make the world a better place, like nonviolence, not lying or stealing, and not being greedy or taking more than your fair share, come into play. “Then they talk about this stuff at home,” she said.
Some of her students have parents who practice yoga, but “some parents just know their kid needs it,” Boccassini said. She tries to make her teachings “specific to the child.”
She’s observant. If she sees one method or tactic isn’t working, she tries something else. And always, she remembers, it has to be about having fun (but with structure).
“I want the kids to feel supported by the Earth and safe in my class,” Boccassini said. A few years ago, some people wanted to come in and observe the kids in class, so she spoke to the kids about it.
“The next day the kids said they didn’t want anyone watching them,” she said. “They valued that time and felt really strongly that that was their time, so I don’t let people just come in the room.”
Now parents wait in the outer vestibule and they can’t come in without an invitation.
Boccassini, who moved to Boynton Beach from Hollywood a few years ago, teaches kids from ages 5 to 12, but she hopes to add a group for teens ages 13-16 soon.
When a parent pulls her aside to tell her how amazing she is, she always says, “It’s not me. It’s your kid!”
If you can’t wait for Boccassini to offer yoga for teens, don’t worry. Right down Federal Highway, you’ll find YogaFox’s Buddha Lounge and Ganesha Garden, owned and operated by husband and wife team Keith Fox and Kelly Brookbank.
Their free Teen Yoga Program teaches kids yoga while also teaching loftier pursuits, such as being good citizens of the Earth and helping the less fortunate.
The YogaFox Teen Program meets at 4:15 p.m. on Thursdays at the Buddha Lounge or in the garden in the back when the weather’s nice. It’s teens only. No adults except for the teacher are allowed.
“We also make it open for them to come for free to any class, so they often come on weekends,” Kelly said. She says 10 or 15 kids show up every Saturday.
YogaFox is also certifying kids to become yoga teachers, and Lexi Hidalgo is one of the first.
Lexi, who graduated at the top of her certification class at age 13, loves teaching kids and says newcomers are sometimes nervous or afraid that she’s going to be mean or strict about doing the poses, but that contradicts the basic tenets of yoga, she says.
“Yoga is about doing whatever is good and right for your body,” Lexi said in a video blog posted at www.yogafox.com.
But offering free yoga costs money, so Fox and Brookbank had to find a way to finance it. The couple started YogaFest four years ago in Fort Lauderdale to raise money for their teen program.
They were committed to offering more to these kids. They wanted to broaden their horizons, to show them the world outside South Florida, with a community service trip to Costa Rica. The kids planted trees, and picked up garbage, and they made friends with the local kids, teaching them yoga.
When the kids left, they gave away most of their possessions to the friends they made. Headphones, clothing, jewelry all meant more to them in the hands of someone else.
YogaFest 2016 will be held April 2 in Fort Lauderdale, and will fund the fourth teen trip to Costa Rica.
Fox and Brookbank simply can’t turn away some people because they can’t pay for a class. “We offer a ‘by donation’ class at 10 a.m. one morning a week,” Brookbank said. Money raised from YogaFest, which she calls their “karma fund,” pays for those classes, too.
“Every penny we raise goes to fund our work to bring yoga to others.”
Anything less would not be acceptable to a yogi.
If You Go
• Jo Boccassini teaches Yoga Kids at Yoga Sol, 215 NE 22nd St., Delray Beach. Classes focus on life concepts like creating balance and building strength and self-awareness. Info: 954-562-5645 or floatingyoga108@mac.com.
• Kelly and Keith Fox host a Teen Yoga Program at 4:15 p.m. Thursday at The Buddha Lounge, 1405 N. Federal Highway in Delray Beach. No adults allowed. Info: 704-756-9245 or YogaFox.com
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