Start Yoga Young - How Kids Can Benefit from Yoga

  

We were all born with flexibility. It is life experience and stress that tightens up our bodies, rounds our shoulders, and gives us neck and back pain. Imagine if you would have learned yoga postures and deep breathing techniques when you were a kid. How might your body and mind be different today?  While we cannot go back in time to change our own lives, we can offer the opportunity of learning yoga to our children. These days children live a fast paced life of school, homework, sports, music lessons, and other activities that combined together can cause stress.  Kids yoga can provide an opportunity for children to slow down, stretch, and connect to their inner joy so that they can learn to cope with stress, and stay flexible. Here are more ways that children can benefit from yoga:

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        - Increased strength, coordination and flexibility:  Children learn many different yoga postures that increase strength, balance, and flexibility. Yoga postures strengthen the muscles along the front and back of the spine, allowing children to have better posture. Balancing postures increase core strength, allowing children to be less likely to injure themselves.

·          - Enhanced concentration and focus:  It takes a child’s full attention to learn a yoga posture.  Each posture involves balancing, breathing, and coordination. During balancing postures children focus their eyes on a certain object to help them stay balanced on one foot. This teaches them how to maintain focus and awareness.

·          - A sense of peace and calm:  Even the most hyper children have an inner calm. Yoga teaches kids how to access this inner calm at any given moment. Through breathing techniques children learn how to calm themselves down, self-soothe, and cope. Deep breathing naturally brings children into their parasympathetic nervous system, quiets their mind, and helps them get centered. When children learn to slow down and breathe deeply, they can become more relaxed in challenging situations.

·          - Increased self-confidence: Children are encouraged to stay focused on their own bodies and breathing, instead of comparing themselves with others. As they continuously practice yoga they begin to see positive changes in their strength, balance, and flexibility. They become stronger in both body and mind.  

Yoga is for all ages, but the earlier we begin practicing the earlier we can begin to absorb the many benefits.  The goal of kids yoga is to preserve both the flexibility and the joyful heart we were all born with. Children can carry the mind and body lessons of yoga with them into adulthood, so that they can lead more peaceful and centered lives.  

By - Jackie Casal Mahrou

Download a yoga class just for kids here!

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Learn to Love Hanumanasana

If there is one yoga posture that tests our patience, flexibility, and dedication, it is Hanumanasana, or the forward splits. Unless you are a dancer or gymnast, it can seem ridiculous to even attempt such a huge stretch that can take years to achieve, but therein lies the magic of the pose.  While I doubt Hanumanasana is anyone’s favorite pose, we cannot ignore the physical, mental, and spiritual power that this posture can evoke. 

The story behind the posture

No matter what our spiritual beliefs are, the stories derived from ancient Indian texts can inspire us as we journey through each posture. The posture, Hanumanasana, was named after Hanuman, a devotee of Rama, the king of India in the ancient Sanskrit text, the Ramayana. According to the story, a demon king abducted King Rama’s wife, Sita, and a huge battle began. During this battle, Hanuman was asked to help find Sita, and to find an herb that was needed to save King Rama’s brother who was wounded in battle.  Hanuman was asked to do the impossible, and he questioned whether he could accomplish this task.  The moment before his journey he remembered his own power and devotion, and was then able to take a gigantic leap across the Indian Ocean to rescue Sita.  When he learned of Rama’s brother being wounded, he took another giant leap from India to the Himalayas, and picked up an entire mountain that the sacred herb was growing on, and carried it over his head as he leaped back to India to save Rama’s brother. 

This story of courage and dedication can inspire us to stay committed as we practice this posture that resembles a giant leap. We might think such an opening is unachievable, but if we pause and connect to the power and devotion we have within ourselves, we can find the courage to try.  After all, the postures that are the most challenging are always the ones that yield the greatest rewards. 

Since Hanumanasana is an asymmetrical posture, it can be a tricky one to warm up to.  It requires not only an opening on the hamstring of your front leg, but also a lengthening on the quadriceps of your back leg.  The posture tests our will and patience, while accessing one of the tightest areas in our bodies, our groin and hips.  The beauty of Hanumanasana as with any pose, is that as we continuously practice, we become more flexible, patient, and devoted people. 

By- Jackie Casal Mahrou

This has also been posted on yogadownload.com's blog.  If you are interested in taking a video or audio version of a  Hanumanasana Yoga Class visit here.

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