Breathing Exercises for Teens: The Power of Breath
This session includes breathing exercises for teens, helping older students see how breathing shapes the way they feel in stressful moments. They explore why breath and emotion are connected, discuss two situations where students respond to quick, shallow breathing in different ways, and think through a quick game about slowing the breath before a high-pressure moment. The takeaway: breath is a strategy they can reach for anytime.
Extension activity
- Skill
- Self-Regulation
- Goal
- Being Mindful
- Grade level
- Middle & High School
Get everything you need to teach the skill
These materials are part of a no-prep session designed by our clinical team, with all the structure, scaffolding, and support you need to teach included.
Engaging materials
Video lessonThe Power of Breath
In this video lesson, students learn how to use their breath to calm their mind and body by practicing mindfulness, trying exercises like belly and box breathing, checking in afterward, and making breathwork a habit.
- Extension activity
The Power of Breath
In this interactive dice-roll activity, students reveal an emotion, describe how it shows up in their body and breathing, and model a breathing exercise to help them return to calm.
Plus everything you need to teach them
Warm-up
- Video: 4-7-8 Breathing2:13
- Video: Obstacles into Opportunities Visualization1:19
- Video: Yoga Pose Library
Session Opener
Guiding Question: How can deep breathing exercises positively impact a person?
Practice
- Discussion Question
- Role-Play Activity
- Mini Game
How to use it with your students
- 1Watch Play the video lesson so students see the skill in action.
- 2Practice Try the skill together with a discussion prompt, role-play, or mini game.
- 3Extend Use the extension activity to help students carry the skill further.
What's Covered
In this lesson, students learned how their breath connects to how they feel, noticing that it slows when they are relaxed and quickens when they are anxious or upset. They practiced using slow, intentional breathing to ease stress and feel more settled in tense moments. Knowing how to steady the breath gives them a tool they can use anywhere to shift how they feel.
Key Terms
- Breathwork
- Intentionally controlling how you breathe to calm your mind and body. Slowing and steadying your breath can help ease stress.
- The Power of Breath
- The idea that slowing and controlling your breathing can calm your mind and body almost instantly. Your breath gives you clues about how you feel, and you can use it on purpose to feel steadier.
Sample IEP Goal This Session Supports
-
Mindfulness
Learner will independently initiate a mindfulness practice (e.g., breathing exercise, movement break, body scan) when noticing a need to reset, and engage with the practice for its full duration, in 4 out of 5 opportunities independently/given X prompt(s).
Send this tip home to support generalization
At home or in the classroom, when a student seems tense, try breathing slowly alongside them for a few breaths instead of just telling them to relax. Doing it together makes the strategy easier to follow in a stressful moment.
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Frequently asked questions
Is this intervention free?
Yes, this ready-to-teach session on The Power of Breath is free. You can access this intervention free for 14 days through the Everyday Speech Session Library. Every user gets three free sessions, but you can get more or extend your access by sharing the Session Library with friends and colleagues.
What ages is this for?
These materials are designed for middle and high school students.
What's included?
You'll get access to your choice of warm-up videos, a session opener, a core material on The Power of Breath, three practice prompts, and an extension activity, The Power of Breath.
What skill does this intervention teach?
This ready-to-teach session is on self-regulation - more specifically, being mindful.
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