Happy Baby Pose (Ananda Balasana) is also called Dead Bug Pose and looks exactly like its name, whichever you want to use. It is a fantastic hip opener. Mobility in the hip joint is vital to healthy knee and back function. The freedom of movement classic in infants can be maintained throughout life with open hips. The hip joint is the meeting place of the upper and lower body. A healthy hip joint will be able to absorb the shock of walking or running and provide a steady base for the spine and internal organs.  Hip openers also aid with digestion and circulation as you gently compress and massage the internal organs.

Happy Baby – Ananda Balasana

happy baby pose

• Sit, grasping the inside of your feet with your hands
• Roll onto your back, feet to the sky
• Alternatively start lying on your back and bend your knees into your belly, then grasp the feet
• You can stretch one leg straight keeping the thigh close to the floor while bending the other, alternating sides
• Coo, giggle, and make happy baby noises, then roll back to sitting
• If imitating a dead bug be sure to use appropriate facial expressions without the baby noises

Benefits: opens the hips, gently stretches the groins and lower back, calms the brain, relieves fatigue and stress

Here is a laughing baby video to bring a smile to your face and lighten your day.

Dancer Pose (technically Lord of the Dance Pose) is a balance pose combined with a back bend and chest opener. As with all balance poses, Dancer Pose develops concentration and focus while improving posture. This beautiful pose brings to mind the grace, flexibility, and freedom of movement inherant in dance. This pose opens the heart and gaze to the heavens and allows the body and mind to delight in expression. Dance is an integral part of ceremony, ritual, celebration and entertainment and helps to convey emotions and stories. Delight your inner dancer with this wonderful pose.

Dancer Pose – Natarajasana

dancer pose

 

• Stand, feet hip distance apart
• Bending the right knee, grasp the inside of the right foot with the right hand
• Raise the left hand overhead
• Lift the right foot behind and up, allow the torso to move forward, opening the chest, balancing on one foot
• Repeat on the opposite side

Benefits: improves balance, stretches the chest, shoulders, thighs and abdomen, strengthens the legs and ankles

Partner Variation

Stand facing your partner a few feet apart, too close and you will bonk heads. Both partners raise their left arms to touch each other above their heads. Grasp the inside of the right foot with the right hand and begin to hinge forward, kicking the right foot behind you. Smile at one another and keep your balance. Release and repeat on the other side. (Warning: Often causes laughter & giggling)

Recently I was fortunate to be able to interview Lori Lite of Stress Free Kids and Shark Tank fame. She is an amazing woman whose life work is to reduce anxiety, stress and anger in kids, while building self esteem and promoting a peaceful sleep.

Visit My Interview with Stress Free Kids Author Lori Lite to listen to the entire interview.

We talked about how vital it is to help children reduce the stress in their lives. Kids today are more aware of what is happening in the world, are victims of violence, live with the repercussions of divorce, and have greater stress and anxiety than ever before.  It is vital that we teach children the skills they need to combat these stressors. Lori’s books and CD’s use well known and effective stress management techniques in an engaging and age appropriate manner. During the interview we discussed four different techniques and how useful they are in reducing anxiety and stress.

Diaphragmatic Breathing

Becoming aware of your breath is vital. Once you become aware, your breath deepens and evens, and the mind becomes calm. Children need to learn how to breathe properly and diaphragmatic breathing is the first step in reducing stress. It is easy and is how babies breathe naturally, using their belly instead of their chest.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation: Active & Passive

Focusing, in turn, on specific parts of the body and tensing, then releasing (active) or simply willing the stress to leave (passive) are commonly used relaxation techniques during savasana (corpse pose). These techniques help to dissolve tension and teach the body what it feels like to be relaxed. Children can then recall that sensation during times of stress or use the techniques themselves to reduce anxiety and promote calm.

Visualizations

Taking a mental vacation is a method of stopping the chatter in your mind. Guided imagery and visualizations provide a focal point that replaces the mental chatter with the imagination to heal the body. These often involve colours or scenes such as the beach, park, etc. to encourage the body to relax.

Affirmations

Affirmations are extremely powerful at improving self-esteem. These are personal positive statements that help empower and relax children. Children can create their own affirmations to help them throughout the day which they can use anytime, anywhere. The words we think and say influence how we act, feel and live. Affirmations are a potent tool in the battle against stress.

For more information on these techniques listen to My Interview with Stress Free Kids Author Lori Lite.

You can learn more about Lori Lite or her many books and CD’s which help kids reduce stress and anxiety by visiting her website Stress Free Kids.

Getting kids and teens to set goals is part of teaching them how to achieve success in school and life. I know whenever we attend Parent Teacher Interviews the teacher always encourages our child to set some goals for the coming term. We then review the goals at the following Parent Teacher Interview to see how the child is progressing.

Students are also sometimes asked to consider who they want to be by the end of the year, in five years, by the end of high school, etc. This is pretty heavy stuff and involves teaching them the concept of putting their best effort forward starting today. Or as Stephen Covey puts it, “Begin with the end in mind.”

For yogis this means accepting where, what and who you are today, while working to improve yourself one breath, one pose, one meditation at a time.

To help teach this idea to children there is a fun and interactive website www.futureme.org. It’s an e-mail service called FutureMe which allows individuals to send themselves a future e-mail. E-mails can be sent anywhere from one month to 30 years in the future.

The site is very easy to use. In order to send an e-mail simply:

1. Type in your e-mail address
2. Write a subject, such as, “Congratulations Graduate”
3. Write a message to your future self
4. Choose to make your message private or public
5. Choose a date on which to receive the e-mail
6. Enter the verification code
7. Click the ‘Send this to the future’ button
8. Check your inbox to verify your e-mail address

Then forget about it until you receive it in your e-mail sometime in the future.

How cool is that!

Applications I can see for this include:

• writing an e-mail at the beginning of the year to receive just before final report cards
• setting a goal for the term, such as, “I will contribute more in class.”
• Grade 1 students writing a message to be received prior to leaving Elementary School
• sending yourself an e-mail at the beginning of a major project detailing how you accomplished this goal and the things you hoped to learn
• Teens writing advice to themselves

The possibilities are limited only by your creativity. Have fun and get motivated to put your best into living today.

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Trees are beautiful, nourishing, strong, flexible, and provide many of our basic needs such as food, shelter, clothing, medicines and tools.  Trees also purify the air we breathe via photosynthesis and are essential to life on earth. Tree pose is a basic balancing posture which is deceptively difficult. Young children especially will have challenges with this pose until they develop their ability to balance on one foot (usually around age 5). Tree pose teaches awareness of the mid-line of the body – the vertical axis that runs straight down your body from the crown of your head, bisecting your face & neck, through the center of your core, to the mid point between your feet on the ground. It also teaches basic physics as the arm positions alter the center of gravity. 

Tree Pose – Vrksasana

tree pose

• Stand, feet together; find something on the floor two feet in front of you to focus on
• Extend your arms at shoulder height out to the side (wide center of gravity makes this the easiest arm position for balancing)
• Lift the right foot, turning the knee out; place the right foot above or below the  knee
• Imagine your toes are the roots grounding into the earth, your standing leg is the trunk strong and tall, your arms & bent leg are branches reaching outward and upward toward the sun
• To test your balance:

1. Bring your arms to Prayer position in front of your heart (narrow center of gravity)
2. Raise your arms overhead (narrow and long centre of gravity)
3. Look up to your hands (changing the focal point increases the difficulty)

Benefits: strengthens thighs, calves, ankles & spine, stretches the groin, thighs & chest, improves balance, reduces flat feet, develops concentration & mental stability

Often when teaching Tree pose I encourage each participant to become whatever tree they want to be: oak, apple, palm, Christmas, weeping willow. The entire body dynamics change respectively and children are allowed to express their creativity and emotions. You could take this a step further and discuss the symbolism of each tree then have students become physically whatever tree they relate to that day.

• Oak: strength & courage
• Maple: balance, promise & practicality
• Apple: magic, youth, happiness
• Cedar: healing & protection
• Aspen: determination, overcoming fear & doubt
• Fir: springtime & immortality
• Palm: peace & opportunity
• Willow: magic, inner vision, dreams

Tree Pose Partner & Group Variations

Once you have practiced tree pose individually you may want to try these variations.

Partner: Stand facing one another a few feet apart. Both partners lift their right leg and give it to their partner to hold in their left hand. You will make the shape of an H. Balance and then lift the right hand up overhead. You can add a twist at this point by looking over the left shoulder or reaching for your partners right hand and pulling your torso around. Repeat on the other side.

Group: Making a Forest – Have everyone stand in a circle facing inward. Everyone lifts their right foot and gives it to the person to their right to hold. See if you can succeed in linking the entire circle into a forest before someone loses their balance. Repeat with the left leg. This usually results in lots of giggles and then a tumble or two as we lose our balance but is a great way to build unity and cooperation.

A fantastic resource for teachers and parents interested in exploring trees is Tree World, also available in French.

Down syndrome (DS) results from an extra chromosome added to an individual’s genetic makeup and is the most frequent chromosonal disorder occurring in 1 in 800 live births. DS is caused by an error in cell division at conception. Individuals with DS will have developmental delays which need to be taken into consideration, but they are more like others than they are different.

Yoga can help individuals with Down Syndrome by stimulating both physical and mental abilities. For many with DS, yoga can serve as a personal physical therapy routine which can be practised alone, with a partner, or in groups.

Some of the benefits for yoga in regards to DS include:

• improving the central nervous system
• toning the body
•  increasing strength
• developing concentration & memory
• balancing hormones
• regulating sleep/wake rhythms
• developing discipline
• improving balance
• teaching decision making with respect for self  & others
• increasing body awareness
• providing a safe and fun form of exercise
• improving self-esteem

Parents, teachers and care givers need to pay strict attention to individuals with DS when they are practicing yoga poses so as to ensure that they do not overstretch. The loose nature of their muscles and ligaments allows for more flexibility than normal. This combined with their exuberant nature and lack of knowing their own limits may lead to injury. Please proceed carefully following guidelines and working safely.  Also keep in mind that yoga poses may need to be modified to accommodate shorter limbs and smaller stature common with DS.

Hypotonia (or low muscle tone) is characteristic in most children with DS. Yoga poses will help strengthen the muscles, tighten the ligaments, and tone the overall body. Standing poses such as Mountain, Triangle and Warrior II are especially beneficial for unstable knee caps, weak ankles and flat feet.

Twists will assist in massaging internal organs and relieving digestive ailments and constipation. They work by compressing the organs while performing the twist, then bathing then in oxygen rich blood upon release. Twists will also help promote good posture and teach how to move with the breath, improving oxygen absorption and body awareness. A number of safe and easy twists are explained in Yoga Twists for Kids.

Thyroid dysfunction, which affects growth and metabolism, is often a concern for children with DS. A regular yoga practice will stimulate the thyroid gland via jalandhara bandha, a restriction of the throat, and practicing Bridge Pose and Shoulder Stand. Please be certain that no atlantoaxial instability exists before attempting these poses. It is recommended that these be taught under the supervision of a certified yoga instructor familiar with the physical challenges of DS.

Sound therapy through chanting, mantras, drumming, etc. is especially beneficial. Sound vibrations have healing qualities and children respond readily to any activities involving instruments or singing. One such example is Singing Stuffies.

Yoga practice also stresses breathing exercises or pranayama. These exercises will help ease pulmonary hypertension and provide a safe workout for children with congenital heart defects often associated with DS. In addition, they will ease nasal congestion and help protect against pulmonary problems and infections by building the immune system. Two exercises which are beneficial are Observing the Breath and Air Walk.

Relaxation techniques, such as guided imagery and progressive muscle relaxation, are especially enjoyable during Corpse Pose. Engaging in these activities, children can empower themselves, create calm, reduce tension and improve concentration.

For further information, or to find a support group in your community, visit the Canadian Down Syndrome Society. You may also enjoy the real life information found at Down Syndrome Facts & Fictionwith their monthly ezine The Extra Gene or the social network DownSyndrome.com