Yoga in the Schools

Project History and Description

Yoga in the Schools (YIS), a curriculum based on Kripalu Yoga, is committed to improving the mental health of adolescent students. Over the past decade, educators have seen a rise in stress levels and mental-health concerns in their students. Moreover, adult mental-health disease is often rooted in adolescence. While some programs have been developed to address these concerns, few have focused on researching yogic practices as a preventive measure. Since 2008, the IEL has been collaborating with Monument Mountain Regional High School (MMRHS) in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, to study the effects of yoga taught during physical education class. Thus far, senior Kripalu Yoga teachers have worked with 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th graders for a total of 500 students who have received yoga classes.

Project Summary

A short-term study (currently ongoing at MMRHS) and a long-term study (now in the planning stages in Boston) exploring the effects of yoga on the mental health and performance of adolescents in a secondary school setting-providing yoga within the school curriculum. This study is done in conjunction with Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Research measures currently being used to evaluate students include acceptance and mindfulness, emotion regulation, mood, sleep, perceived stress, self-esteem, anxiety, anger, and grades.

Research Highlights

Initial results suggest that after only one semester, yoga prevents increases in stress, anxiety, and other negative mood states compared with students taking regular physical education class. The yoga students also showed improvements in stress-coping skills such as resilience, relative to controls.

Future Goals

The IEL plans to continue work within MMRHS, allowing the yoga teachers to further refine the yoga curriculum. Our efforts and success with the students will be pivotal to our work as we expand into the Boston public school system and furthermore into schools across the United States. Beginning in fall 2010, the IEL will expand the project out to a Waltham public school, near Boston, where we will continue to measure mental health, mood, and academic performance in high school students. Over time, the YIS curriculum will become standardized and scientifically validated for use in every education institution. This goal supports the mission of Kripalu to change the world through yoga and transform the health and well-being of individuals, including adolescents throughout society. Long-term plans are underway to develop and run a randomized, controlled longitudinal study.

Personal Stories and Testimonials

Yoga was very helpful in strengthening my body and refreshing me for the start of the day. It helped me relieve a lot of tension and feel very relaxed.
—Anonymous MMRHS student

What I liked: Relaxation poses, learning new things, lowering my stress, being introduced to yoga, strengthening my body, going home and showing what I learned.
—Anonymous MMRHS student

I now have techniques to de-stress and calm myself during the day, especially during tests and times I am feeling burnt.
—Anonymous MMRHS student

Meet the Principal Investigator and Project Leader

Sat Bir S. Khalsa, PhD, is an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in the department of sleep medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. His projects have focused on the therapeutic applications of yoga in a number of settings, including public schools, and for several conditions, including insomnia, performance anxiety, and PTSD. Dr. Khalsa is one of the most active, skillful, and experienced researchers in the yoga world today.

Jessica Noggle, PhD, is a member of Dr. Sat Bir Khalsa's lab at Brigham and Women's Hospital/Harvard Medical School. Dr. Noggle holds the first postdoctoral research fellowship funded by a yoga institution (Kripalu) in the United States. She currently directs the IEL's research project on yoga for mental health of students at Monument Mountain Regional High School, and she is also writing grants to expand this project to urban adolescents in Boston.