5 Yoga Practices to Support Teens During Exam Season

Exam season can be a lot! For young people it often brings a mix of pressure, anxiety, disrupted sleep and overwhelm.

As a parent or carer, watching someone you love struggle, often silently can feel just as challenging. We want to help, but without adding to the weight already on their shoulders. The good news…

There are things we can offer, simple, gentle things, no pressure, no fixing, just calm, connection and care.

This blog shares soft, but powerful tools drawn from the practice of yoga that you can share with the young person in your life.

You don’t need to be a yoga expert as these are easy and accessible practices, designed to meet them exactly where they are.

Let’s explore how we can support and maybe gently steady them during this intense time.

Understanding Exam Stress: What Young People Might Be Feeling

Even the most capable, clever or outwardly calm students can feel the internal ripple effects of exam season.

It’s not just the exams themselves, it’s the build-up, the social comparisons, the what ifs, the pressure to succeed…

And underneath all that is a nervous system working overtime.

Here’s what many young people experience, even if they don’t say it out loud:

• Racing thoughts and difficulty concentrating

• Sleep disturbances – trouble falling or staying asleep

• Physical symptoms like headaches, jaw tension, stomach aches or shaky hands

• Emotional overwhelm – tearfulness, irritability or withdrawal

• Feeling not good enough, even if they are doing their best

These aren’t signs that anything is wrong, they are signs that their bodies and minds are trying to cope, this is where small, consistent support can make a real difference.

Why Yoga & Breathwork Can Help

Yoga isn’t about flexibility or fitness, at its heart, it’s a system for calming the nervous system, focusing the mind and reconnecting with a sense of steadiness.

For students, gentle yoga practices can:

• Soothe the body when it’s holding stress

• Ground the mind when it’s overwhelmed

• Regulate breathing, which in turn helps regulate emotions

• Offer a sense of control, something exams often take away

• Build resilience — not just for exams but for life

Most importantly these tools can become trusted anchors, a way for your young person to return to themselves amidst the chaos.

How to Introduce These Yoga Practices, Without Pressure

The key is to offer, not enforce here…

Your young person might not want to do yoga and that’s okay, they don’t need to name it, you can simply suggest some reset practices or something like that.

You can:

• Model it yourself, try the breath or movement first and invite them to join

• Create a calm space free of expectation, just an open invitation

• Make it short and sweet, even 2 minutes of breathing is a win

• Celebrate effort, not outcomes, whether they try it for 10 seconds or 10 minutes, trust it’s enough.

Below are a few powerful tools you can gently share.

1. Legs Up the Wall - Viparita Karani Variation

A grounding reset for body and mind.

This one’s a favourite (for me) it’s deeply calming and requires zero flexibility.

• Find a clear wall space

• Invite your young person to lie down on their back with legs resting up the wall — sense the pelvis heavy, legs light…

• Arms can rest out to the side, palms up or down or explore both?

• Eyes closed or soft gaze

• Stay for 5–10 minutes or as long as feels good.

This position signals safety to the nervous system, eases tension and supports rest and digestion. It’s like pressing the reset button, physically and emotionally.

2. Box Breathing

A steady breath to calm the chaos. When we breath deeply and evenly it tells the brain, you are safe. Box breathing is a brilliant way to reset the nervous system.

• Sit or lie down comfortably

• Inhale for a count of 4

• Hold the breath in for 4

• Exhale for 4

• Hold the breath out for 4

• Repeat for 4–6 rounds.

You can either, guide them through it or breathe together. If the count of 4 is not working for them, try 2 or 3 or 5, or maybe the pause is not feeling right at all, in that case bring the awareness to the space where the inhale becomes an exhale, the exhale an inhale.

Box breathing lowers the heart rate, can settle anxious thoughts and builds emotional resilience. It’s especially useful just before studying, on the morning of an exam or even during!

3. Butterfly Fold - Baddha Konasana Variation

Releases tension in the hips and helps the mind settle. This gentle forward fold encourages inward focus.

• Sit with the soles of the feet together, knees dropped wide like butterfly wings

• Fold forward gently, letting the head hang or rest on a cushion

• Arms can drape forward

• Breathe deeply for 1–3 minutes.

This movement offers a moment of quiet introspection, folding forwards helps draw attention away from outer pressure and back into the body.

4. Palming the Eyes

A visual rest tool that soothes the nervous system, when studying for hours, especially on screens, can strain the eyes and mind. This quick reset feels surprisingly powerful.

• Rub the hands together until substantial warmth is created

• Gently cup the hands over the closed eyes, without pressing

• Breathe slowly in and out

• Rest for 1–2 minutes

Palming gives the eyes a break and helps shift from doing to simply being.

5. Affirmation with Breath Awareness

Combines breath and words to invite calm, because the words we say to ourselves matter.

Choose an affirmation like:

• I am safe

• I’ve done my best.

• I can breathe through this.

As they inhale, silently say the first part, e.g. I am…

As they exhale, say the second part, e.g. Safe…

Repeat for a few rounds and see what you notice?

It may gently change the mind from fear to reassurance, when combined with the rhythm of the breath.

What to Expect During Exam Season As a Parent or Carer

This period can bring out extremes in behaviour, some young people may withdraw, others might be short-tempered, tearful or overachieving.

You might see:

• Sleep changes with later nights and more tiredness

• Emotional shifts from calm to panicked quickly

• Procrastination or perfectionism

• Changes in appetite

• Refusal to talk about exams altogether.

These aren’t failures, they are nervous system responses, what they often need most is to feel seen, supported and safe.

Gentle Ways to Support Your Young Person

• Maybe validate their experience, with words such as, It’s okay to feel this way.

• Help create a rhythm with little routines, could include walks, meals or rests, this can offer a sense of stability

• Encourage screen breaks and fresh air

• Be available without hovering

• Celebrate effort, not results

Sometimes the most powerful support is presence without pressure.

A Final Note for You

Caring for someone going through exams can stir up your own memories, worries and emotions. So here’s your reminder, you are doing your best, they are doing theirs and that is enough. Maybe try one of the breathing practices for yourself or rest your legs up the wall.

Give yourself grace, when we model calm, we may make it easier for our young people to access it too.

Download Your Free Printable here 5 Yoga Practices to Support Teens During Exam Season. A simple PDF you can print, stick on the fridge or quietly leave in your young person’s study space. No pressure, just calm, connection and care.