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.
I 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.
Children derive enormous benefits from yoga. Physically, it enhances
their flexibility, strength, coordination, and body awareness. In
addition, their concentration and sense of calmness and relaxation
improves. Doing yoga, children exercise, play, connect more deeply with
the inner self, and develop an intimate relationship with the natural
world that surrounds them. Yoga brings that marvelous inner light that
all children have to the surface.
When yogis developed the asanas many thousands of years ago, they
still lived close to the natural world and used animals and plants for
inspiration—the sting of a scorpion, the grace of a swan, the grounded
stature of a tree. When children imitate the movements and sounds of
nature, they have a chance to get inside another being and imagine
taking on its qualities. When they assume the pose of the lion
for example, they experience not only the power and behavior of the
lion, but also their own sense of power: when to be aggressive, when to
retreat. The physical movements introduce kids to yoga's true meaning:
union, expression, and honor for oneself and one's part in the delicate
web of life.
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 because, as I quickly found out when I first started
teaching the practice to preschoolers, yoga for children is quite
different than yoga for adults.
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