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Sep 19, 2023

La Jolla High School aims to help students breathe easier through stressful times

A counselor at La Jolla High School decided to take an alternative approach to finals prep, bringing in a local breathwork coach to work with students toward the end of last school year, and the

A counselor at La Jolla High School decided to take an alternative approach to finals prep, bringing in a local breathwork coach to work with students toward the end of last school year, and the workshop could come back again.

Before students in ninth and 10th grades had a week of final exams in June, they participated in a yoga and breathing workshop led by local life coach Linda Vazin during what would have been a PE class. They were taught different types of breathing techniques and slow, meditative movements.

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“You can teach young people about their emotions, which is very important, but with breathwork they can manage their own stress and thrive instead of letting their emotions take them on a roller coaster,” Vazin said. “Breathwork is good for the kids’ immune system and gets them connected to their hearts and sense of contentment. The benefits are physical and emotional. … Breathwork allows you to regulate your emotions and promotes emotional wellness.”

Vazin defines breathwork as deep, mindful breaths. One example is the box breath, in which one inhales for a few seconds, holds the breath for the same amount of time, exhales for the same amount of time and repeats. Another example is the humming breath, in which one inhales and then hums while exhaling.

“As a school psychologist, I know students have all these mental health issues in high school,” La Jolla High counselor Shawn Dee Hartless said. “It’s so competitive to be in high school and preparing to go to college, so there is so much stress and anxiety.”

After connecting with Vazin and Bird Rock artist Jane Wheeler, both of whom use breathwork, Hartless wanted to bring a breathing workshop to her students. She bought yoga mats with a donation given to the school and laid them out, then set up diffusers with aromatherapy and provided candles for a soothing ambience. PE teachers helped in putting together about 45 minutes of breathwork and mindful movements.

At the end of the workshop, Vazin gave students a questionnaire about how they felt before and after. “It was mostly about their stress level going in compared to how it was going out,” she said.

She said 76 percent of the responses indicated that students felt “a significant decrease in their stress levels” after the workshop. “It made them feel good and connected to themselves,” she said.

However, Vazin said she was unable to follow up with the students in the weeks after the workshop because of the summer break. And Hartless did not follow up to see if students felt the workshop had helped them with their finals, though she wishes she had.

“You can teach young people about their emotions, which is very important, but with breathwork they can manage their own stress and thrive instead of letting their emotions take them on a roller coaster.”

— Life coach Linda Vazin

“It was really interesting because at first the kids thought it was silly and you could tell they were self-conscious. But by the end, you could see this transformation,” Hartless said. “They came in loud and rambunctious, but as they did it, they got quiet and weren’t as self-conscious. The more they did, the more they got into it.”

Hartless said the program was “great but expensive,” and she is looking at ways to raise money to offer the workshop more regularly or create a video to be shown in classrooms weekly.

“I’m trying to promote social-emotional learning in the classrooms,” she said. “So that’s where we want to move to. We think tools like this are super powerful. Through this workshop, I got to see these students transform.”

Vazin said that in her decades of offering breathwork exercises, she has found they calm the nervous system and that young people in particular stand to benefit.

“Our breath is extremely powerful,” Vazin said. “It allows you to process your emotions so we are not so reactive and have our emotions take over. With everything happening in school, to reduce stress means we can tap into joy. To be able to handle your own stress within yourself and you feel calm, you start liking yourself, and nothing is more important than that. Instead of distracting yourself or shutting down, you can breathe through the intensity of a strong emotion and allow it to go through its cycle. You can process it.”

Earlier this year, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Department of Education Chancellor David Banks and Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Commissioner Ashwin Vasan announced that all New York City public schools — from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade — would be required to facilitate two to five minutes of mindful-breathing practices for students every day.

“Mindful breathing can be done by anyone, anywhere and anytime,” Adams said. “Mindful breathing is another way we are teaching our young people healthy habits that will last a lifetime.” ◆