Somerset teen helping peers banish stress with yoga

SOMERSET — As teens make the transition from children to adults, there’s lots to think about – and stress over.

Driving. Homework. Grades. Fitting in. Biological changes. Dating. Work. College. The list goes on.

Catie Ledwidge, a Somerset-Berkley Regional High School senior, found her own stress-busting cure and has shared it with her peers.

Yoga.

“It’s a natural remedy people can use instead of turning to medication,” Ledwidge said.

Ledwidge felt so strongly about the healing benefits of yoga, and the mediation that is often combined with the practice, that she chose it as the subject of her senior capstone project, designed her own yoga session and taught it to her peers recently at Blend Café & Yoga.

“They asked us to pick something we were passionate about. That’s when yoga came to mind,” Ledwidge said.

Ledwidge, 18, said she wanted to share the “focus and balance” found in yoga that can be incorporated into “everything” in life. “It allows you to be in your head. It calms the central nervous system and lowers blood pressure.”

Ledwidge has been practicing yoga for several years after taking her first class with her mom.

“It’s a way for me to relieve my own stress and let go of judgments around me,” Ledwidge said. “I fell in love with it.”

She said teens face a lot of stress, and some can turn to harmful means, such as alcohol and drugs, to deal with their feelings.

She listed peer pressure, fitting in with other students, having the right clothing, working after school, and having a busy extracurricular schedule all as stressors.

“That stress keeps on building,” Ledwidge said. It can become “exhausting” and “emotionally disruptive.”

Ledwidge, working with her mentor, yoga instructor Meagan Mulready, developed a 90-minute yoga routine for the class.

“I put together the poses that I like to do,” Ledwidge said. “She helped me to tweak it.”

After lots of practice, she said that when it came time to teach, she was “super prepared.”

Ledwidge taught her peers to focus on their breathing, get into each pose, and feel only the moment.

Before and after class, she asked students to fill out a survey about their current stress levels. Before yoga, many registered a 7 to 8 – with 10 representing the most stressful feelings. After yoga, they reported that their stress levels dropped to a 1 or 2.

Yoga helps teens, and all ages, be in the “present moment and let go of everything,” she said.

Ledwidge said she’d like to become a certified yoga instructor – but probably not until she graduates from college. Ledwidge has been accepted to Emmanuel College in Boston, where she plans to double-major in math and education starting in the fall.

When it’s time to pack for dorm living, her yoga pants and mat won’t be far behind.

“I definitely highly recommend (yoga),” Ledwidge said. “I think it’s really something you can use for the rest of your life.”

Email Deborah Allard at dallard@heraldnews.com.