START  WHEN  YOU  ARE  YOUNG – IT’S  EASIER!
YOGA  BECOMES  A  PART  OF  YOUR  LIFE.
IT’S  WHAT  YOU  NEED  NOW.

Our children live in a hurry-up world of busy parents, school pressures, incessant lessons, video games, malls, and competitive sports. We usually don't think of these influences as stressful for our kids, but often they are. The bustling pace of our children's lives can have a profound effect on their innate joy—and usually not for the better.

We have found that yoga can help counter these pressures. When children learn techniques for self-health, relaxation, and inner fulfillment, they can navigate life's challenges with a little more ease. Yoga at an early age encourages self-esteem and body awareness with a physical activity that's noncompetitive. Fostering cooperation and compassion—instead of opposition—is a great gift to give our children.

A Child's Way

Yoga with children offers many possibilities to exchange wisdom, share good times, and lay the foundation for a lifelong practice that will continue to deepen. All that's needed is a little flexibility on the adult's part for, yoga for children is quite different than yoga for adults.

In an era of children acquiring conditions and diseases previously unknown in childhood, proper breathing, exercise and deep relaxation may be the powerful healing force needed. Yoga resonates with children. They love the practice, and they love how they feel afterwards. With all of the research and “proof” now available, it may well be just what the doctor orders.

It seems simple. Children are suffering from a lack of connection to their own bodies, their environment and the food they eat. Yoga facilitates connection. It’s easy, low cost, and accessible; and anyone can do it. And now it’s being proven effective.

CHILDREN

Children and Adolescents

In The Yoga Tradition, the ancient sages as “seers (rishi) ‘saw’ the truth, who perceived with the inner eye the hidden reality behind the smoke screen of manifest existence. Today’s discerning Westerner wants a little more proof. We have been taught to rely on empirical evidence, clinical trials and statistically significant results. This “proof,” along with those ancient texts written by the rishis, is available to us now.

Experience has shown us that yoga is an excellent system for promoting healthy development and can be an incredibly effective means of facilitating wellness in children. It is noninvasive and its “side effects,” including improved self-esteem, emotional equilibrium, more energy and the ability to self-calm, are completely benign if not totally beneficial.

Children who practice yoga may not only be better able to regulate their emotions, manage stress and calm themselves, studies now show that they may also choose better foods to eat and engage in more physical activity than children who do not.

Whether over - or underweight, body image issues and poor eating habits plague our children today. Studies suggest yoga may help.

One such study examined the benefits of yoga for adolescents with eating disorders. These teens attended yoga classes as part of their psychiatric day treatment program. Typically suffering from a lack of self-esteem, nearly 75% reported an increase in well-being. They used the words “relaxed,” “calm,” “energized” and “more awake” to describe how they felt after class. Reference (M.J Fury, MA, RYT, and L.C. Kaley-Isley, PhD, RYT)

In another  case study on anorexic,  adolescents found that “focused breathing (pranayama), movement sequences (asana), meditation (dhyana), and alert relaxation (yoga nidra), reduced starvation-induced stress, safely reintroduced physical activity for a weakened body, minimized fatigue and corrected distorted self-perceptions.” Reference (Susana A. Galle, PhD, ND, CCN, CCH, and Tomas E. Silber, MD)

Other studies on children and adolescents looked at anxiety, depression, trauma, mood regulation, sense of well-being, self-esteem and “increased wellness.”

R. Fridholm concluded from a small sample study that a systematic use of breathing exercises, yoga postures and guided relaxation “provided useful strategies for emotional regulation for children with autism spectrum disorders.” Subjective outcomes included “improved focus, strength, flexibility, and balance; improved sense of self-awareness and pride; and improved ability to calm themselves.”

Girls ages 14 to 17 who had suffered traumatic abuse attended a yoga class twice a week and showed “significant decreases in depression, anxiety, dissociation, and intrusive/avoidant symptoms.” It was further reported that “the girls overwhelmingly noted that they felt happier, more relaxed, less stressed, and more at ease in their bodies on the days they practiced yoga than on the days they did not.” Reference (A. Bortz, PsyD, RYT and K. Cradock, LCSW, RYT)

Perhaps one of the more interesting studies, submitted by Molly Kenny, MS-CCC of The Samarya Center in Seattle, Washington, suggested that the physical act of balancing might improve self-esteem in teens. The positive effects of “balance training” on the subjects’ concentration and attention were “immediately observable,” and she proposed that the effects on self-esteem might become more apparent over time.

More and more teachers and other interested adults are sharing yoga with children. Kids have a natural tendency to share what they are learning when they get home, so this is an easy way to get the whole family involved.

Another way is for children’s yoga teachers to invite parents in for a first and/or last class of a yoga session. Family classes are another great way to help everyone feel an increased sense of well-being while learning a practice they can enjoy at home. With wide age ranges and levels of ability, family classes can be challenging but is especially rewarding.

"Greatness is not found in possessions, power, position, or prestige.
It is discovered in goodness, humility, service, and character."