Description

Shanti Generation: Yoga Skills for Youth Peacemakers – Ages 7-16 (2009)Yoga Skills For Youth Peacemakers, a DVD from Shanti Generation, teaches yoga as a path to inner calm, emotional mastery, self-esteem, and resilence. The teachers on the DVD are seven teenagers who use yoga for their own personal development and wellbeing. The DVD is ideal for tweens and teens, ages seven to 16, and includes 18 yoga poses for focus, energy, and calmness; five techniques for stress management and self regulation; mindful awareness exercises and interviews with yoga teens. Abby Wills, a Los Angeles-based yoga instructor with more than 15 years’ experience teaching youth, is the project creator; her husband, Aaron Wills (a.k.a. P-Nut, the bassist for the popular rock band 311), supplied the DVD’s upbeat grooves. –Yoga ChiYoga teacher and New Roads School faculty member Abby Wills has teamed with the filmmakers at WSR Creative to create a visually inventive Yoga DVD program that captures the visual aesthic of young, hip, urban cool. Wills has drawn on her background and training in Yoga and childhood development to provide engaging instruction for breathing and meditation practices and guide the Shanti Warriors – the students on screen.The introductory screen combines images of youth with a background evocative of shanti (Sanskrit for peace). Available features include a library of poses to review technique, “Choose your Path” which provides a variety of practices, “Breathing Room” with breath instructions, the “Self-Connection Room” featuring meditation techniques and short interviews with the students.Themes include creating happiness, choosing peace and energy amplified. The practices are taught in a choice of English, Spanish or Japanese, making the same disc suitable for a wide range of students and situations.Beyond asana (posture), Self-Connection offers Wills’ guided meditation instruction to help students “relax and connect to their source of power in any situation.”The segment, Meet The Peacemakers, features interviews with the diverse group of students who pracitce on screen: Dante, Gyasi, Janely, Kaya, Kimberly, Kyoko and Starlight. They reveal the superpower they’d like to have, why they started Yoga and what it does for them and they all express their joy in sharing what they know with others. Clips like shots of Dante skateboarding can be a tool to convince young people of the cool factor or to showcase images of a relatable peer group.Thoughout, Wills emphasized safety and self-awareness as cornerstones of the practice, reinforcing the uplifting message of self-empowerment and community involvement. –LA Yoga Join teen yoga students along with teacher Abby Wills to develop your physical, mental and social skills. Music by 311 bassist Aaron Wills (aka P-Nut). Designed for ages 7 & up.DVD features include:- CHOOSE YOUR PATH: 5 unique half-hour practice sequences- LIBRARY OF POSES: 18 mini-sequences- BREATHING ROOM: 5 breathing exercises- SELF CONNECTION ROOM: 2 relaxation exercises- SPECIAL FEATURES: interviews with teen yoga students Sequences Translated in Spanish and Japanese.Ideal for home use as well as classroom applications. No previous yoga experience necessary.Abby Wills, MA – For over a decade Abby has joyfully guided youth in movement arts, mindfulness and yoga in schools and communities. Abby’s approach to yoga for youth is informed by studies in social justice and development education at Pacific Oaks College. She also holds workshops for teachers internationally.