Why Are Young People 'Disembodied' And What Can We Do To Help?

As I was training a group of secondary school teachers, psychologists, social workers and psychiatrists last week to share yoga and mindfulness with teens, it became more apparent than ever that poor mental health of our young adults is not showing any signs of abating. As the group shared the reasons for coming on the course, many mentioned how the young people seemed disconnected from themselves.  The psychologists used the term disembodied.

Many young people, they felt, were disconnected from their bodies, viewing their own bodies as objects, to be controlled or punished with food or exercise, but not to be listened to or respected. Many live their lives as it were, outside themselves, viewed through the lens of the Instagram or snapchat conversation.

Our bodies are wise temples of information, prompts and intuition, our bodies never lie. When we practise yoga, we get in touch with our bodies and we feel into pleasure, as well as aches and pains, to discover and listen to underlying emotions.

When we ignore messages from the depths of our bodies, we are more likely to live in our minds – our minds were never meant to be our masters, they are the servants of our intuition, our knowing. But when the mind runs riot, it plays havoc with our lives and we end up out of balance.

We concluded on the last day of the course that we need to bring young people back in touch with their own bodies, so they might be less likely to fall foul of the vagaries of shifting mood states, emotions and destructive thought patterns that can lead to anxiety and depression.

We need to connect the body with the mind and recognise a third, even wiser dimension, which can guide us towards a more fulfilling life, some call it the soul or the spirit. Yoga opens us up to this possibility.

Charlotta Martinus

Charlotta is a yoga therapist for mental health (with the Minded Institute) and a Yoga Alliance Professionals accredited  Senior Yoga Teacher. Charlotta is also the Director of Universal Yoga. She has graduated from the 350 hour Yoga for the Mind therapy course and is a qualified therapist in mental health. She is currently taking private clients who need help to alleviate depression, stress, anxiety, PTSD and post-natal depression. She holds a clinical license and teaches at Callington Hospital to the patients sectioned and suffering from psychosis, schizophrenia and other ailments. She also runs the TeenYoga course internationally.