NEXT GEN YOGIS

//Meet the rising stars of Generation Z, who are changing the world through the peace, love, and compassion their yoga and meditation practices have taught them.

Many are quick to tsk-tsk “kids these days” for nonstop smart phoning and a self-centered attitude. But this most diverse generation, with nontraditional views on everything from gender identity to power structures, is more conscientious than you might think— and that’s especially true for these five up-and-coming yoga teachers (most of whom started practicing before they hit double digits). Get ready to be inspired.

“You Can Find Your Dharma at Any Age”

For Tabay Atkins, who became the youngest certified yoga teacher in the country at age 10, finding his purpose just happened a little earlier than most. BY MEGHAN RABBITT

It was a total fluke that six-year-old Tabay Atkins found himself with a stack of coloring books in the corner of a San Clemente, California yoga studio. His mom, Sahel Anvarinejad, had just finished treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and showed up there for what she thought was a tea date with Carolyn Long, a friend of a friend who’d sent countless texts and emails with supportive and inspiring messages during her cancer treatment. Long had asked Anvarinejad to meet her at her studio without exactly clarifying that they’d be doing more than having tea.

“I had only been cancer-free for two weeks, and when I walked into the studio that night, I was so skeptical of yoga,” says Anvarinejad. “I wanted to run out. But something told me to stay.”

Long had a plan—albeit a slightly sneaky one. What were the chances that Anvarinejad would suggest meeting on the exact day and time that her studio’s yoga teacher training was starting? Didn’t that mean she was meant to join the training—to learn how yoga might be a part of her post-cancer healing journey?