In this article we discuss how young people experienced a school-based yoga intervention. We pay particular attention to how yoga provides a space for young people to deal with their emotions. We base our discussion on qualitative data from young people in Norway who participated in the European research project “Hippocampus: Promoting Mental Health and Wellbeing among Young People through Yoga.” The qualitative results are based on experiences described by these young people in individual semi-structured interviews and in diaries or logs. Our data include nine interviews performed in the spring of 2019 with young people of Norwegian and refugee background in their late teens and early twenties. There were also 133 logs noted by the students exposed to the yoga intervention. In the qualitative interviews, young people talk about yoga and emotional management, improved sleep habits, and regulation. They also report improved ability to regulate and cope with stress. Yoga seemed especially beneficial for refugee trauma. In this article, we have chosen to focus on the utterances of young people about emotions, as those were quite dominant in our data, especially in the interview material. We have identified instances of emotional regulation, but also of emotional processes and changes of emotions, all of which were related to these young students practicing yoga. The impact of yoga on emotions illustrates the potential of yoga to improve the well-being and mental health of young people.

This study aimed to examine students' experiences with yoga interventions in school. The findings revealed that practicing yoga made young people more aware of their need to relax and positively impacted their mental health and wellbeing. We explored the emphasis on relaxation among our study participants and how relaxation is related to other aspects, such as their experience of stress and sleep habits. This article is based on qualitative data gathered from teenagers in Norway who participated in the Norwegian part of the European research project “Hippocampus: Promoting Mental Health and Wellbeing among Young People through Yoga.” The project introduced yoga to young people in schools with an emphasis on those who were disadvantaged, including those with mental health issues and other challenges related to their background. Data were collected from nine individual, semi-structured interviews and 133 logs collected in the spring of 2019.1 The major themes identified through the interviews and log material included becoming more relaxed and aware of the need to unwind. Thus, the focus on relaxation is based on the importance of the participants assigned to this theme. The study results suggest that yoga enhanced the students' awareness and skills and empowered them to make healthier lifestyle choices.2 We viewed the importance of relaxation from a salutogenic perspective, focusing on the factors that contribute to good health in contrast to a pathogenic perspective, where curing diseases is the goal.

Notes of Gratitude:This article is dedicated to our dear friend and colleague Professor Usha Sidana Nayar, who passed away in 2021. She was a co-worker in the Hippocampus project and has also been a mentor and source of inspiration for many years. Furthermore, we would like to express our gratitude to all the students, teachers and yoga teachers who took part in the Norwegian part of the Hippocampus project. In addition, we are grateful to our partners in Belgium, Great Britain, Italy, and Spain, as well as the students, teachers, and yoga teachers from these countries. Participants from two countries deserve special thanks; Nick Kearny for initiating the project together with Charlotta Martinus, who also developed the 8-week yoga course and the manual. Thanks also to the Spanish team for securing funding for the Hippocampus project and for developing the Yuva Yoga App. Finally, thanks to NTNU and the Department of Psychology, NTNU for providing extra funding and a supportive work environment during the Hippocampus project period and beyond. Data Availability Statement:The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation. Ethics Statement:The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by NSD-Norwegian Centre for Research Data. Written informed consent to participate in this study was provided by the participants' legal guardian/next of kin.Author Contributions: IH was contributed to the design and planning of the research project and wrote the draft of the article, including the data analysis provided by SS. SS took on the main responsibility for data collection and did the data analysis of the qualitative data, with input from IH and UN and wrote a www.videleaf.com summary report of the qualitative data analysis. SS and UN contributed to the revision of the article drafts, with both theoretical concepts and organizational aspects. IH and SS have finalized the article draft. All authors contributed to the article.