"Tweens and teens, aged seven to 16, are dealing with significant stress and anxiety at school and elsewhere in their lives," says Abby Wills, Program Designer of the new DVD from Shanti Generation, "Yoga Skills for Youth Peacemakers". Just in time for the Holidays, "Yoga Skills," Shanti Generation's first DVD, features seven teenagers teaching the basics of yoga.
"Some teens are emotionally shut down, which is a very dangerous state of being," says Wills. "'Yoga Skills' offers these kids a way to cope, to find inner peace, and to develop skills for dealing with and unfolding their lives with resilience."
Yoga has swept the U.S. over the last twenty years with an estimated 16 million adult Americans currently practicing. But the phenomenon has not caught hold among the teenage population. Yet.
A talented Los Angeles-based production company intends to change that by supporting today's tweens and teens with this new DVD and the broad Shanti Generation outreach concept. "'Shanti'" means peace," says Wills. "So the Shanti Generation equals the Peace Generation."
Wills, Michael Kuehnert, Jose Delgado, and Pablo Garrahan are the creative and marketing forces behind Shanti Generation, and the "Yoga Skills" production team. Along with Aaron Wills (aka P-Nut), bassist of the rock band 311, who supplied the DVD's positive music grooves.
Abby, a successful yoga instructor in Los Angeles with more than 15 years' experience teaching youth, was inspired to conceive this teen-based project in 1997 during a Sivananda Yoga Teacher's Training in India. "There was a children's yoga camp going on at the time," Wills recalls. "I was so moved by the whole experience, I was inspired to share yoga with children when I returned to the States."
Why yoga? According to Wills, "Yoga is a practice that awakens people to a deeper, broader perspective on life. The world is in crisis. Today's youth, who are inheriting this confused and perilous global situation, need tools to manage their emotions, to help them find clarity, to help inform their choices with wisdom and meaning.
"We don't listen enough to our youth. Especially to the guidance they can provide on such issues as compassion, peacemaking, and embracing diversity. They really have a lot to teach us."
Wills developed the Shanti Generation concept by first interviewing teenagers. She wanted to discover what was important to them, the visions they held for their lives and the world; as well as their fears, doubts and other concerns. She wanted to find out what they needed.
"Yoga," says Wills, "is more than a set of poses. It's a way of being, of meeting life. It imbues a sense of personal power, of control of one's own mind. People who do yoga discover that they can choose how to think, and that that choice will influence how they feel."
What Abby learned from interviewing the teens helped give shape and content to the "Yoga Skills" DVD. It features four main sections: the "Library of Poses," with 18 yoga poses for Focus, Energy, and Calm; a section called "Choose Your Path," with features titled Creating Happiness, Energy Amplified, Choosing Peace, Being Sound, and Voice Choice Possibility; one called the "Breathing Room," with five features on stress-management and self-regulation; and the "Self-Connection Room," which features two
mindful awareness exercises. Special Bonus Features include interviews with the seven teen yoga students performing on the DVD, and Spanish and Japanese translations.
"Yoga Skills" producer and co-director Michael Kuehnert met Wills in 2001 at a monthly meditation gathering in Los Angeles. "We were peace activists looking for a way to express ourselves peacefully." Together with a group of friends, they formed Humanity at Peace, which hosted events merging yogic practices and activism. "The slogan of Humanity at Peace was Peace In, 'Peace Out," according to Kuehnert, "and we've applied that notion to 'Yoga Skills' and Shanti Generation. The peace they find, they'll take out with them into the world, into life."
In 2007, after three years of trying to find funding or sponsorship for the project, Wills and Kuehnert said, "Let's just do it ourselves." So, with Delgado and Garrahan, Kuehnert's associates in the Los Angeles production company WSR Creative, the foursome committed "Yoga Skills" to video.
Co-director Delgado has a vision for the brand – Shanti Generation – becoming a cool identity in teen culture. "I hope the kids will want to show it off, on their tee shirts, caps, and backpacks," he says. "Then their schoolmates can ask them about it. Truth is, yoga is a great way for teens to keep their edge."
The intention has always been to make "Yoga Skills" attractive to youth – from its original conception, born of Wills's conversations with the teens themselves, to the interviews of the teen yoga practitioners on the DVD, to Aaron Wills's music score, to the cover design by Shephard Fairey's design studio – Studio Number One; Fairey's designs for the Obey line of clothing and collectibles has great current teen cachet.
Garrahan, who directed the featurettes on the DVD, notes, "all the major religions -- as well as shamanism, Native American spirituality – they've all identified ages 12 to 14 as a rites of passage time for young men and women. 'Yoga Skills' provides tools for these youngsters to successfully navigate that critical time in their development. This is a generation that wants more out of life. They're asking the big questions."
But Shanti Generation is more than the "Yoga Skills" DVD. According to their website, "Shanti Generation is a movement to empower youth with peacemaking skills to build a world that respects and celebrates difference on the way to discovering unity." "Yoga Skills" is just the first in a series of educational experiences that bring ancient and modern practices to youth in relevant, innovative formats.
The nonprofit Shanti Generation Foundation is offering a Youth Peacemakers Training, a monthly six-hour workshop for youth which teaches a constructive curriculum of peacemaking practices including: yoga, compassionate communication, mindful awareness training, peer teaching techniques, and techniques for conscious social action.
Sessions are held in a democratic educational forum. Themes emerge from the life experiences of the participants. The teens interact in small groups and dyads for project-based learning experiences. Each session features a guest teacher from the fields of yoga, health and social sciences. Upon completion of the 12-month program, youth leaders are equipped to lead peacemaking workshops for youth in their home communities. The initial training will begin in January 2010.
The Foundation also has a program for training teachers who can spread the program far and wide around the world. Their Yoga Skills for Youth Facilitator Training is aimed at yoga teachers, schoolteachers, therapists, parents, and anyone interested in working with youth to make peace. It's a 40-hour experiential trainingcourse designed to provide participants with critical knowledge in the art of guiding youth through yoga and peacemaking experiences. As a trainer, Wills developed and co-taught the first kids yoga teacher training at YogaWorks in 2001, and has since led dozens of trainings throughout the U.S. and in Jap Tips: Find Street Fashion Online(may be you can find what you want on the oasap.com) an. For more information, visit http://www.shantigeneration.com/ShantiG/Programs.html.
Next year, YogaWorks will offer the Facilitator's Training at their locations in major cities. And the lululemon athletica store in Pasadena, CA, will partner with Shanti Generation to offer free classes to schoolteachers beginning this month.
With social consciousness a primary value of the Shanti Generation, the producers of "Yoga Skills" have housed the DVD in a totally recyclable package, made with 100% recycled board stock, soy ink, and a DVD tray made of biodegradable potato starch! Further, they are donating a percentage of all DVD sales to New Roads School in Los Angeles, and to the Shanti Generation Foundation.
What the world needs now is a generation of young people who are committed to resolving the issues of survival on our planet. In a very real sense, they need to be The Peace Generation, capable of making peace with themselves and each other, peace with all earthly constituencies, peace with Earth herself, and a lasting peace with the future. Shanti Generation is providing support to help make that vision come true.
More information at.
Editor's Note: For a free review copy of the Yoga Skills of youth Peacemakers DVD, email david (at) tvgpr.com.
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