What can yoga offer your child?

A healthier body – Childhood obesity is on the rise and one of the main reasons for it is that kids today do not move enough. Yoga is a powerful technique for children to begin moving their bodies in ways that feel good and help them look good. Even if your child is of normal weight, yoga can help her become stronger, gain endurance and flexibility. If your child is involved in another sport, a regular yoga practice is a great cross training activity and it may help him reduce the risk of injuries.

The ability to control stress – Today’s children are under enormous stress. They are often over scheduled, they face tough competition in school, they have to deal with peer pressure, and they are trying to find their way in the world. This combination can cause children to become stressed out. Yoga can help your child learn how to relax. When your child learns how to control her breathing and relax during her practice, she can then apply this to her world when she encounters challenging situations.

Increased self-esteem – Yoga is a non-competitive activity. Yet it does offer your child the ability to master challenging poses (especially as he gets older). Your child can feel good about his increasing ability without having to worry about how he compares to everyone else. This experience of success can help your child feel more confident in his ability to be successful in other things too.

Greater concentration – The breathing and inward focus that is a main component of any yoga practice can help your child learn to focus his mind more effectively. A number of studies have shown that many children who practice yoga, especially those with problems such as ADHD, are able to concentrate for longer periods
of time.

What is a child yoga program like?
The main focus of a child yoga program is on fun. Often the children will pretend to be the animal for which the pose is named. For instance, when they are doing Cat Pose, they become the cat and may even meow. If they are doing Downward Facing Dog with their butts high in the air, they will often bark, as they become the dog. The children are encouraged to fully participate in and enjoy the ‘game of yoga.’ Sometimes the instructor will create an entire story about the poses that the children are in so as to make the class interesting and to fully engage them. The children don’t realize how much they are benefiting from the practice; the only thing they know is that they are having a good
time.

Practicing yoga at home with your child.
While child yoga classes are wonderful, they are often hard to find. Depending on where you live, you might not be able to find a place to take your child. Don’t fret. There are a number of excellent videos and books that you can get which will help you become your child’s yoga teacher.

*Find a spot in your home where you have room to move freely.
*Establish an atmosphere of fun.
*Put on the video and do the poses together, hopefully with lots of giggles sprinkled in.
*Pick out some poses from a book that you can do – have your child choose some of the them.
*When doing the relaxation exercise, talk your child through it by describing a warm, inviting place such as a quiet field near a bubbling brook with butterflies and singing birds. Use your imagination to create a safe and friendly space and help your child experience it in his imagination.

Child yoga is an enjoyable activity that can provide major benefits to your child. It will help her grow stronger physically, mentally, and emotionally – and she’ll have a lot of fun too!

H
aving carried a sizable bump around for a very long, very hot summer, I really wasn’t in the mood for a work out.

As Gwyneth Paltrow and all of my other coat-hanger thin celebrity peers snaked their way, all skin and bone about the tabloids, I scowled and knew that, even if the mood did ever take me as I sat covered in powered milk, I would just never have the time to get back in shape now that I always had my baby in toe. After all, its not as if I could balance Harry on the rowing machine as I made for the nearest treadmill – I didn’t think they’d like that down at the health club.

I did try the gym. Once. Inspired by Gwynnies size eight flat chestedness I did deposit Harry at my mums’, and went for one swim amongst the well toned – but my self-esteem could just not cut it. Having been a large pregnant woman and having had a difficult birth, my body was not as it should be, and I didn’t stay for long. I’m sure no one cared about my having varicose veins now, but I did, and I suddenly felt very much like a mum, and nothing else.

Loosing faith in the idea that I’d ever have a waist again, I pooled my NCT friends to see if they had any tips on how to regain a good shape, without the embarrassment.

There was no way I was doing yoga. It turned out after speaking to the girls that they already had a fitness plan, and were meeting to go to some yoga class the following week. I’d only ever seen yoga on television, and I wouldn’t have even considered trying it pre-Harry – I was never that skinny and stealth. The women all looked like they hadn’t eaten for at least five years, and there was no way I was ever learning how to be a ‘delicate lotus’ with all of the cellulite I’d accumulated now. I lied and told them I couldn’t get a babysitter…

Turns out you can take your little ones to baby yoga. I was worried it would be new agey, but our first session soon dispelled all the worries I had about that. Friendly and chatty, the class was only for parents, and I met a whole gaggle of new local mums. We chatted about our babies, their first rolls, nappies and missing socks, and Harry played merrily with the other tots that were there – something which really made me smile as he’s an only child and I was worried that when it came to mixing with other babies he’d wouldn’t cope. Turns out he’s a bit of a socialite – that’s my boy!

A qualified baby yoga teacher, our leader, Sue, started us off with some very simple stretches, which were fine for any physical type. Her training with Birthlight means she knows exactly what our bodies have been through, and so nothing was too much. I was petrified that Harry would cry when it came to including him in the work out (the baby isn’t put under any stress either by the way – there’s just lots of great, gentle skin to skin contact and muscle stimulation, no sun salutations just yet!) but he just smiled. It must feel good, after all, to have the shouty tired woman who’s been harassing you for all this time give you some proper, physical warmth and lavish attention.

The stimulation that babies receive doing yoga releases endorphins in the brain, and so they clearly glow after a session, just as we do after a turn at the gym. It was great to know he felt so cared for.

As time went on, our classes did become more adventurous. The stretches we learned started to actively include our babies (they are fabulous weights!) and we all became far less inhibited, and felt happy to move onto the more complex movements.

To calm the babies, Sue introduced music into the classes, which soothed them no end – in all the time I’ve been going now, I don’t think we’ve ever had a baby have to be taken out for crying. After Harry’s bath, I often do yoga with him at home now, and the heat of my hands and the slow, rhythmic nature of the movements send him to sleep with much greater ease than a simple cuddle and a song tape ever could. He started sleeping through the night months before a lot of other babies that we know, and I’m in no doubt that that has sonething to do with our yoga.

Being an enthusiast now, I’ve read up on the later benefits of what baby yoga can do and I’m excited. It’s clear from the fact he rolled early that Harry has good spatial awareness, and plenty of confidence in what his body is capable of. When we took him for his eight-month check my health visitor told me he will miss out crawling stage – his spine is strong, and having been made aware of the limitations of his body through yoga, he doesn’t need to go through the exploration that crawling allows.

As well as the very evident physical benefits of baby yoga, it’s also been a lifesaver for me. On maternity leave I was a bit of a lonely mum, and now I have something of a network. Size ten again and happy, there is never a morning goes by when Harry and I do not have a play date. It’s turned things around. I think ill go down the gym tomorrow…

Ashtanga Yoga is the type of yoga which was developed and founded by K. Pattabhi Jois. This type of yoga is known as the Eight Limb Yoga which has revolved in Pattanjali’s enormous idea. It presented that the path of purification is made up of the eight spiritual practices.

The first four limbs that represent Ashtanga Yoga are – yama, niyama, Asana and the Pranayama. These are considered cleansing practices which are externally correctable. The other set of limbs which are the – pratyahara, dhyana, dharana are the internal practies.

These limbs can only be corrected by the proper application of the Ashtanga Yoga method. This type of yoga method is quite dangerous to the mind.

K. Pattabhi Jois said that practicing these Eight Limbs and also its sub-limbs of the external practices which include the niyama and yama is not possible. In doing so, the body should be strong so that it can perform the practices well enough. If the body is weak, and the sense organs are not functioning well, practicing will never be useful at all.

This is a philosophy that K. Pattabhi Jois has applied, this is important to understand so that in doing the practice, you are sure that the body will improve and the keep it stronger and healthier.

Vinsaya and Tristhana is practiced in Ashtanga Yoga.

The Vinsaya is a style that makes Ashtanga and its principles distinct from the others. Vinsaya means the movement and breathing which is used for the internal cleansing process. Each movement done is accompanied by only one breath. Sweat is the most important product of Vinsaya. When you produce sweat, it only means that you are successfully applying the practice. When you perform the Asanas, the body creates heat which causes your blood to boil and excrete the toxins outside of your body. The toxins are found in your sweat. So the more sweat you create, the more toxins are released.

The poses are used to fully develop the strength and health of the body. The series of practices make this possible. There are three postures used in Ashtaga Yoga.

The three are classified on different levels.

The first is the Primary Series which aims on aligning the body and also detoxifying it.

The second is the Intermediate Series opening and cleaning the energy channels which comes to the process of purifying the Nervous System.

The last series would be the Advanced Series from A to D. in this series, the grace and strength is measured.

The Tristhana is another yoga principle which represents the union of the three places of action and attention. First is the posture, second is the breathing technique ad last is the Dristhi of the Looking Place. All these three should work altogether to perform a function.

Breathing techniques are simultaneous and synchronized. It is important to make a single breath for one movement. Ujjayi Breathing is the Yoga Breathing Technique used in the application of Ashtanga Yoga. Applying this technique must be prolonged after every practice. What you need to master is holding your pose longer at the same time hold your breath. This is an amazing breathing exercise that will increase your internal fire and will strengthen the Nervous System.

Both Ashtanga and Tristhana deal with the series of Dristhi. The Dristhi is described as the point on which you gain your focus or attention while doing the Asana. This enables your mind to be purified and stabilized clearly.

Setting the mind clear and cleansing it can only be done in the Eight-Limb Yoga or Ashtanga Yoga.

Practitioners of yoga talk about a unification of the body, mind and spirit acquired through practicing the yoga exercises and techniques.

One of the fundamental believes that yogi share is that the mind and the body are a unified structure, which can find its harmony and it can heal itself, when being in a proper environment. Due to these principles, as well as to the results obtained, many doctors consider yoga as having therapeutic results, and recommend it for curing a series of illnesses, mainly related to the nervous system.

Yoga is not a recent life philosophy. It has been practiced for thousands of years and during all this time, people benefited from the great results obtained. Furthermore, they conducted investigations, in order to clearly establish the areas in which people can obtain health benefits, by an extended practice. The information obtained after conducting the investigations was grouped in three categories, establishing that yoga practitioners are likely to observe improvements in what concerns physiological, psychological, biochemical aspects.

From the physiological point of view, prolonged yoga practices can cure pulse rate decreases, respiratory and blood pressure dysfunctions, it can contribute to stabilizing the nervous system equilibrium, to normalizing gastrointestinal functions and endocrine function, to increasing the joint range of motions, endurance level, energy level, immunity to diseases and cardiovascular efficiency, to improving eye-hand coordination, reaction time, dexterity skills, depth perception, sleep, etc.

The second category, comprising psychological benefits, points out that yoga can also contribute to increasing somatic and kinesthetic awareness, self-acceptance and self-actualization, social skills, well-being, as well as to improving concentration, memory, attention, mood, learning efficiency, symbol coding, etc.

As for the biochemical benefits of yoga, we can enumerate substantial decreases of glucose, sodium, cholesterol, total white blood cell and remarkable increases of vitamin C, total serum protein, hemoglobin etc.

Furthermore, various studies revealed that yoga exercises are extremely effective when it comes to increasing the level of joint flexibility, together with the level of lubrication of joints, ligaments and tendons. Another interesting aspect has to do with the fact that yoga is one of the very few techniques, which contributes to massaging all the internal organs and glands, including the ones that are hardly ever stimulated during the lifetime of a person, such as the prostate. The stimulation and massaging of the internal organs proves to be beneficial when it comes to preventing and keeping away diseases.

Moreover, these ancient and efficient techniques guarantee a complete detoxification of your body. When stretching the muscles and performing a thorough massage, due to the complexity of the yoga exercises you ensure the optimum quantity of blood supply you need. As a consequence, toxins are eliminated from your body and certain undesired processes, such as aging, are considerably delayed.

As a final remark, all the benefits presented above come in addition to the most important aspect provided by yoga practices, meaning the harmony and the synchronization between body and mind, as well as strengthening your meditation and emotional systems.