Today children are inundated with poor food options. From chicken nuggets to processed treats, its all readily available and marketed to the hilt. One of the worst culprits is school lunch. School cafeterias often don’t have a single ‘from scratch’ option made without preservatives and chemicals. Where are the fruits and vegetables that are supposed to make up the largest portion of the daily intake? And ketchup is NOT a vegetable!
Educating children about healthy eating is critical. There is much we can do to promote fresh, healthy, delicious food. It is essential to change children’s relationship to food so that they understand that what they put into their bodies effects how their bodies feel and perform.
Here is a 20 minute talk by Ann Cooper, the renegade lunch lady, who is passionate about changing what kids eat for lunch. She promotes a local, sustainable, seasonal and educational diet.
There are numerous ways to change how children relate to food. Here are a few suggestions
Teach proper nutrition- develop awareness for the food groups, portion size, and label reading
Involve kids in the kitchen – even the smaller kids can help in the kitchen, get them involved and empower them with life long skills
Eat together – studies show famlies that eat together have better health habits
Grow your own food – even a small garden can grow fresh produce for the table
Appreciate the body - learning basic anatomy develops an appreciation for and awareness of the body, its systems, and how to care for it with proper nutrition
Other articles with a focus on improving the health and nutrition of children include:
Listen to my interview from BlogTalkRadio with Stress Free Kids Author Lori Lite!
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Namaste
Watch for more of my BlogTalkRadio shows here on Yoga In My School throughout the coming year. Become a Fan on Facebook so as not to miss a single one.
A recent article in The Oakland Tribune reports on the power of yoga to help relieve stress in schools in the South Bay area: a tough part of town known for gangs, drugs, violence and low socio-economic conditions. It started as a pilot project and how extends to a 6 weeks program for entire Freshman class. Administrators, parents and students who have participated have noticed a difference in how they manage stress. 14-year-old Gina de la Rosa recently stepped away from a classroom confrontation after remembering to breathe and realised, “I don’t have to scare teachers.”
At schools hard hit by neighborhood violence, gang pressure, parental job loss and homelessness, the centuries-old Indian discipline of yoga may turn out to be an effective tool in helping young people cope with both crises and day-to-day life.
This is great news for everyone. The more teens who can be exposed to yoga and access its benefits, the more can use the breathing exercises, relaxation techniques and asanas to cope with the stress of growing up in the modern age. The four years of high school are often considered the most stressful time of life. Providing youth with tools to stay calm, manage their anger, and combat the negative effects of stress is vital.
Yoga is well known for its stress busting qualities but many teens don’t have access to the practice. Yoga classes geared especially for teens needs and interests are often hard to come by so this program is great news. And taking it to kids in high risk neighbourhoods – FANTASTIC! Street Yogais another program doing similar work. If you are interested in helping de-stress teens, a great resource to help teens manage stress while building self-esteem is Indigo Teen Dreams by Stress Free Kids.
I think Alejandro Adame, 14, an Overfelt freshman, summed it up best when he said, “You just take a moment to not get angry.” Now if we all can simply follow his example.
One of the reasons I love teaching yoga to kids and teens is to celebrate their uniqueness. Each individual brings something different to the mat every time they practice. It is wonderful to see them try Crow pose and succeed or, thanks to their natural flexibility, be able to touch their feet to their head in King Cobra pose, or finally be able to stop moving and truly relax when doing Corpse pose.
Lately there has been a debate raging around the yoga community regarding developing competitive yoga with an eye to having it accepted as an Olympic sport. Some find this philosophically wrong as yoga is about acceptance and personal growth. While others enjoy the individual challenge that the competitions emphasize. To see the two sides of the argument visit YogaDork’s Competitive Yoga:Vicious or Vindicated: Ask Bikram and the flipside at the Bikram Yoga NYC blogYoga Competition: Perspiration and Inspiration.
Today NY Times enters the fray with this article on how Rajashree Choudhury (wife to Bikram) is trying to build momentum for competitive yoga in North America and the Yoga Community’s response to that effort.
From what I know about yoga competitions I tend to agree with Michael Alba, a yoga teacher in Boston, who is quoted as saying, “It perpetuates the idea that yoga is for lithe-bodied contortionists.” A concept I completely disagree with. Yoga is for every body. See Yoga Accessible to All.
Competitive yoga is yoga at its pure physical extreme. Even Choudhury admits “We are not trying to judge any kind of spirituality when they are out there.” I think that is exactly the point. Yoga is, after all, a body/mind discipline and yoga competitions simply celebrate the physical aspect in a quick three minute performance, even if part of the path to achieve that physical performance was spiritual, mental, and emotional.
Jon Gan, a Bikram Yoga instructor and Director of the United States Yoga Federation, hopes that yoga competitions will help inspire yogis and non-yogis alike. “When I was a kid, I played tennis, and whenever I watched players on Wimbledon I’d want to get out there and play like them,” he said. “It inspired me. I’m hoping the same kind of things will happen here.”
Maybe, maybe not. In the meantime I’ll continue to teach all kids, teens and adults, regardless of ability, strength, flexibility, body shape, or special challenges, how to harness the many benefits of yoga and access their personal path to acceptance and understanding.
ABC’s Medical Series Doctor’s Orders investigates the rising number of doctors who are prescribing yoga as therapy for many pediatric patients. In the video two young girls demonstrate how doing yoga has helped them. One is fighting brain cancer, another living with ADHD. Thanks to Childlight Yoga Blog The Kids Yoga Resource for highlighting this video.
What is Yoga Therapy
Yoga Therapy is using yoga as a means to connect the mind and body to address mental and physical problems. It begins with the understanding that our physical , mental, emotional and spiritual aspects are integrated. It is not a new style of yoga, but an application of the art and practice focusing on the alleviation of many different ailments. Some ailments which have seen success when using Yoga Therapy include, but are not limited to:
back pain
hypertension
heart conditions
asthma
diabetes
depression
hyperactivity
cancer
fibromyalgia
migraine
insomnia
RSI
stress
How does Yoga Therapy Work
Yoga therapy uses yoga poses, breathing exercises, relaxation techniques and meditation to help restore the body-mind balance and promote natural healing. Yoga Therapy sessions generally are conducted one-on-one so that the therapist can personally assess patients and develop a practice which caters to specific needs. Once these needs are understood, a personalized home practice is developed to alleviate symptoms and explore how to restore vitality and equilibrium. Some of the following tools will be used during the home practice.
counselling
conscious and mindful breathing exercises
appropriately sequenced and individualized physical movements – poses
meditative practices
visualization and affirmations
use of sound and mantra
guided relaxation & yoga nidra
The Yoga Therapy Toronto explains another key component to Yoga Therapy’s success.
The other key advantage of yoga is that it empowers people in the healing process. Rather, than being a passive recipient of treatment, the student is actively engaged in the path to well-being and is primarily responsible for their recovery. The role of the teacher is that of guide, directing the student to tools for recovery and teaching the right way to implement these tools. Once this is done, it is then the role of the student to practice it diligently, observe changes, and notify the teacher for any changes. Thus the healing comes from within the student, rather than from the outside. This powerful system has helped many thousands of students who have sought yoga as the solution to their problems.
Eating disorders are more prevalent than Alzheimer’s disease. “In the United States, as many as 10 million females and 1 million males are fighting a life and death battle with an eating disorder such as anorexia or bulimia. Millions more are struggling with binge eating disorder (Crowther et al., 1992; Fairburn et al., 1993; Gordon, 1990; Hoek, 1995; Shisslak et al., 1995).” This is especially prevalent in the teenage population where, “Over one-half of teenage girls and nearly one-third of teenage boys use unhealthy weight control behaviors such as skipping meals, fasting, smoking cigarettes, vomiting, and taking laxatives (Neumark-Sztainer, 2005).”
With those kind of statistics it was good news last week when Time magazine brought to our attention, with this article, scientific proof from the Journal of Adolescent Health that yoga helps those struggling with eating disorders. (Shout out to YogaDork and Yoga Buzz for highlighting this.)
Yoga has proven to be highly therapeutic and relatively non-threatening when working with those struggling with eating disorders. It provides a gentle awakening of the mind with a soft embrace of the body as it helps to re-establish the connection between the mind and body which can become highly disengaged for individuals with eating disorders. Yoga’s focus on fostering self love and helping to eliminate negative emotions while developing body awareness and acceptance make it an ideal therapy.
Physically yoga helps as it is a non-aerobic form of exercise. In other words it gets the blood flowing, releases positive chemicals into the brain which help overcome anxiety and depression, is weight bearing (a necessity for anorexics who may be at risk for osteoporosis), and doesn’t lead to weight loss but helps build and tone the body. In addition, it is a skill which can be kept up throughout life promoting health and vitality for years to come.
One further benefit of yoga class for teens struggling with eating disorders is that it is a forum for discussion. Topics such as personal boundaries, comfort zones, levels of trust, body image and others can find voice in a safe and nurturing environment.
For more information on how you can help those struggling with eating disorders visit the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) and download a copy of their Educator Tool Kit.
You may also appreciate the article Moving Again, a personal account of how yoga aided Margaret E. Juliano’s in her fight to good health.
