With 30 years experience in yoga, breathing and anatomy Leslie Kaminoff joins us to share his wealth of knowledge.

The co-author of the must have resource for yoga instructors Yoga Anatomy and founder of The Breathing Project shows how a knowledge of the mechanics of the body leads to a deeper, more profound yoga practice and life experience. Leslie demystifies the complex workings of the body and the breath, putting topics into terms which are refreshingly accessible and applicable. Gain insights which will powerfully shift your personal mind-body experience and the way you teach yoga from how to avoid common stress injuries from yoga to exploring the breathing body.

Original Air Date: September 12, 2011

Connect with Leslie via Facebook, Twitter and The Breathing Project. Check out his training course at YogaAnatomy.net.

Access our extensive library of interviews with leaders in the yoga and mindfulness community on iTunes. Guests include John Friend, Faith Hunter, Waylon Lewis, Dr Daniel Siegel, Sadie Nardini and many more.

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This is an excerpt from Integrity is a Muscle: a program developed to empower children and teens as they connect with themselves developing a firm foundation of skills and attitudes in order to increase identity and understanding and withstand negative forces.

It may seem simple but the greatest act of kindness you can perform is to breathe. Not the everyday, not paying attention to it, kind of breath, but one that is long, slow and deep. Breathe in a way that invites you to slow down, releasing the tension in your body. Turn your awareness inward. Connect with yourself.

As you are breathing listen carefully. Close your eyes if it helps to focus your attention. Don’t force it. Allow the breath to naturally expand the lungs and rib cage, gently finding space. Be relaxed, yet alert. Quiet and still the mind. Allow it to drift with the inhalation and the exhalation like a toy boat floating along a stream. Let go. Tap into your true nature, the inner core of joy, serenity and creative potential which lies inside you. Smile gently from deep inside.

As you breathe deeply and slowly, the chatter in your head will quiet, the fluctuations of the mind still. You will clear your mind, increase healthy and vitality, realize greater understanding and focus, and discover a reservoir of peace.

If you enjoyed this post be sure to sign up for our newsletter to hear more about Integrity is a Muscle as it is released Fall 2011. You’ll also receive a copy of our free e-book The Pet Store.

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Psychiatrist & clinical lecturer on pyschiatry at the Univeristy of Alberta, Dr Catherine Phillips is dedicated to bringing the benefits of mindfulness to others. She joins us to discuss how MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction) techniques can work equally well with teens as with adults to reduce stress, improve connections with self and others, and lead to greater happiness and contentment. Founder of the Mindfulness Institute.ca and one of the key organziers of the upcoming International Conference on Mindfulness with Youth (July 15-17, 2011), Catherine works tirelessly to promote mindfulness meditation in the areas of education, health care and society at large.

Original Air Date: June 30, 2011

Connect with Catherine on the Mindfulness Institute.ca Facebook page.

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Guest post by Brian Jenkins

Why should college students practice yoga?

Yoga can provide college students with many benefits such as stress reduction, emotional wellness, flexibility, improved strength, enhancement of the immune system, and improved balance and postural alignment. Those are good things! Yoga is actually easy for anyone to practice, and you don’t have to be able twist into a pretzel!

Yoga Improves Concentration

The meditative practices of yoga will improve the ability of college students to concentrate. Focusing on studying and ignoring distractions such as a television, conversations, and loud music will, of course, result in better grades. According to a Time magazine article, due to advanced brain scanning technology, researchers are beginning to show that meditation directly affects the structure and function of the brain – changing it in ways that seem to increase attention span, improve memory, and sharpen focus. Richard Davidson, director of the Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin, said, “Attention is the key to learning, and meditation helps you voluntarily regulate it.”

Yoga Enhances Mood

Wellesley College faculty yoga specialists co-authored a study examining the psychological benefits of yoga. The authors of the study found proof that yoga improves mood and decreases anxiety. This study looked at a neurotransmitter in the brain known as y-aminobutyric acid, or GABA. The authors determined that decreased levels of GABA correlate to depression and anxiety. They also report that the medical community is interested in learning how to increase GABA in order to combat depression. One of the researchers, Liz Owen, stated, “Yoga, just the practice of yoga, increases GABA levels.” She also said, “Yoga breathing practices are so easy and simple. You could be sitting in a stressful classroom situation and you could just take a yoga inhale, do a yoga exhale, and it might make a difference.”

Yoga Strengthens the Body

Another recent yoga study of college-aged men and women (between 18 and 27 years of age) who participated in two yoga sessions every week for eight weeks saw a 19% to 31% increase in arm strength and a 28% increase in leg strength.

Yoga Relieves Stress

According to some experts, stress is the #1 trigger of ailments in peoples’ physical, emotional, and endocrinal systems. Practicing yoga is a great way to reduce stress caused by academic pressures. Yoga helps college students avoid stress-induced eating and it helps them sleep better. It can give students a sense of balance and mental clarity.

By practicing yoga, college students will improve their mood, strengthen their body, relieve stress, and concentrate better. This will certainly help them make the most of their college experience!

Brian Jenkins has been writing about various career and education topics for BrainTrack.com, including careers in fitness training, since 2008.

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Guest post by Edward Stern

It is no secret that life is stressful for children. Peer pressure, academics, and trouble at home, coupled with a busy extracurricular schedule, scarcely give kids a second to breath let alone decompress. Stress builds up overtime, and very few children are actually given the tools to deal with the stress of school and being an adolescent.

Yoga provides a perfect outlet for stressed out youngsters and gives them the tools to deal with stress in the other facets of their busy lives. At the very least, it is a time out of a given day to focus on their own physical and emotional well-being and put negative feelings on the backburner.

Many parents feel athletics are a good stress reliever for their child, and in many cases they are, but oftentimes the competition from other players and their coaches only adds to stress. Yoga is a non-competitive way to do a healthy physical activity without adding stress.

Yoga also provides the tools students need to deal with stress outside of the studio. They learn to meditate and learn breathing exercises for calming. Students can learn to find a quiet classroom and perform these rituals to take a second for themselves, away from all the pressures of school, academics, and other students.

Students who learn yoga and its ways of dealing with stress get a head-start in life. A large part of the battle of growing up is learning how to manage oneself in a healthy manner that strikes balance and finds ways to achieve emotional and physical well-being. A healthy body inspires a healthy mind and vice versa. The lessons learned in yoga will be ones seldom found elsewhere — teachers do not have the time to teach stress management in their classrooms, which are already stressful environments, and guidance counselors are overloaded and often undertrained.

Yoga classes offer something schools cannot: a true peace of mind, and a way to return to this peace of mind amongst times of stress, disorder, and unease. Yoga gives children a leg up by teaching them how to release complex emotions, ones made more difficult by the sheer act of being inexperienced in the world. The teachings of yoga are time-tested and have been helping adults manage their stress; now, it is time for children to receive the same tools.

Edward Stern is a guest blogger for My Dog Ate My Blog and a writer on Accredited Online Universities for Guide to Online Schools.

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Mindful Breathing Focuses Energy

Pranayama, yogic breathing, is a wonderful way to focus and balance energy. Being aware of one’s breath is a way of pulling in scattered energy and mindfully focusing it. This is a great game for teenagers to take advantage of this simple technique by playing it whenever they need to center themselves and regroup. This game helps to deliberately focus attention so that you become aware of being present in each moment. It also helps teens become aware of how easy it is to get distracted and how to get back on track.

Ten Breaths

In this game you pay attention to your breathing for the next ten breaths. This is not purposeful, controlled breathing, but an awareness exercise of simply observing the breath.

On the first inhale, say to yourself, “I’m breathing in one.” As the body exhales, mentally observe, “I’m breathing out one.” On the next inhale say, “I’m breathing in two,” followed by, “I’m breathing out two,” and so on.

You’ll probably notice that different breaths have different rhythms. Sometimes they will follow at regular intervals, sometimes there may be long gaps between breaths. Some are shallow, others deep. All you do is observe and name the number.

This is much easier said than done.You’ll probably go on mind trips, getting distracted by passing thoughts. That’s okay. Congratulate yourself on noticing the detour and get back on track starting at the beginning: “I’m breathing in one.”

The fun and challenging part is to see how far you can go before you mentally tune out. Some days it may be the fourth breath that you can’t get past before forgetting what you were doing. Other days it will be easy to focus and you may go for longer than “Ten Breaths.”

Variations

Sensory Awareness: While waiting for the body to breath in or out, use that moment to notice what your senses are experiencing. Hear the sounds. Feel the temperature. Notice the air movements. Become aware and part of the environment.

Counting Steps: If sitting won’t work for you try going on a walk and counting each step. Become aware of the sensation of your feet as they push off from the ground and then land again. How your body transfers weight from one side to the other. Feel your arms swing by your sides. Concentrating on your steps is calming and helps you to stay present with the walking experience.

Take Five is a fantastic breathing game/exercise for younger yogis. Be sure to visit the Yoga Games page for many more ideas to inspire you and your kids to play yoga today.

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Breathing with pursed lips is an effective breathing technique for asthmatics as it focuses on extending the exhale making it long and slow. Using a glass of milk and a straw as a learning tool, this breathing technique will teach kids how to lengthen the exhale, fully emptying the lungs in a slow, controlled manner.

Breathing with Pursed Lips

Breathing with pursed lips is a fantatic exercise for asthmatics who sometimes need to be able to regulate their exhales. This exercise focuses on the exhale, making it long and soft.

Greer is going to help me demonstrate how to breathe with pursed lips. What you do is you inhale and exhale, like you’re blowing out a candle. Can you do that again? You want to make your exhale as long and slow as possible.

A really good learning tool to do this is a glass of milk and a straw. So the goal here is to blow bubbles in the milk but try to keep them small and soft. Nice and steady. 

There we go, look at all those steady, long bubbles. Perfect. That’s exactly how you do it.If you can maybe fill the whole glass with little bubbles then you are doing this really, really well. And that’s how you breathe with pursed lips.

For more information on yoga exercises that help children visit yogainmyschool.com.

A complete listing of pranayama exercises for kids can be found on the Breathing Exercises Page.

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Calm Your Class in One Minute with a Breathing Sphere

guest post by Jim Gillen

Because breathing patterns have such a profound effect on our general health and mental states, breath awareness is at the heart of almost all yoga practices. Breathing interacts with and affects the cardiovascular, neurological, gastrointestinal and muscular systems. It also has general effects on sleep patterns, memory, energy levels and concentration.

Watch a baby at rest, and you’ll see a good example of healthy breathing. The pattern is relaxed, slow and wavelike. Every bone, muscle and organ moves with each breath. Unhealthy breathing, by contrast, is rigid or inappropriate to the situation and often exhibits excess muscle tension.

While abnormal breathing patterns vary, they’re often high in the chest, overly fast and shallow. Often, there’s no pause at the end of the exhalation. There may even be breath-holding or gulping. Such habits reinforce feelings of tension, agitation and anxiousness. By contrast, a healthy breathing pattern elicits a relaxation response, shifting the nervous system from fight-or-flight mode to a state of relaxed alertness.

One of our favorite ways of teaching and encouraging children to breathe healthfully is by using a Hoberman breathing sphere – a popular children’s toy that’s basically a geodesic dome made of jointed segments. By lightly pushing or pulling it on opposite sides, you can make it expand or contract, accordion-style. The movement serves as a visual model for the type of breathing we want the kids to imitate by helping them see and synchronize their breath with movement.

How to Use A Hoberman Sphere

The teacher or other supervising adult may lead the group or – something we like to do – encourage one of the kids to lead, establishing the breathing rhythm. As the leader slowly expands the sphere, all inhale deeply and slowly through the nose, from the belly. The leader then pauses, emulating the short, natural pause that happens at the “top” and “bottom” of each healthy breath. As the leader contracts the sphere, all exhale through the nose just as slowly.

This efficient diaphragmatic breath is like watching the waves at the beach, with each breath swelling up from abdomen to chest and back down again.

The expansion-contraction cycle may be repeated as many times as necessary, but we find 5-10 cycles to be effective for helping the group calm and focus through this simple breath work.

Rhythm and slowness are two keys to using a breathing sphere effectively. By  consciously  slowing  our  breath, especially the exhalation, we can  facilitate the relaxation response even more and develop some control over how our nervous system responds to our environment.

In the classroom and school environments such breath work lends itself readily to focus and mindfulness, preparing students to learn. Speeding thoughts slow. The body as a whole relaxes. Body and mind become centered, grounded. Thus, many teachers, counselors and administrators start their classes off by leading students in breathing with a sphere. Some schools have even used these breathing practices at assemblies or over the school intercom to calm and focus their students.

With the powerful visual representation of a healthy breath, no other words or descriptions are necessary. This tool can be effectively used by teachers who have no yoga experience and is particularly useful for second language learners, visual learners and children who struggle with anxiety and self regulation.

Synchronized breathing in a group exercise is also useful for developing a sense of community and safety as the group’s energy coalesces by breathing together. Simply, we are affected by each other’s breathing patterns. Conversely, it’s hard to relax and concentrate when we are around stressful breathing patterns. And when teachers learn, practice, and model healthy breathing, their classes become calmer and more productive, with corresponding benefits to everyone’s health and well-being.

Jim Gillen, RYT-500, is the cofounder of Yoga Calm, director of Still Moving Yoga in Portland, Oregon, and co-author of numerous education articles and Yoga Calm for Children: Educating Heart, Mind, and Body

Breathing spheres are available through the Yoga Calm Store.

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This children’s breathing exercise helps to develop breath/body awareness, increase concentration and improve coordination as kids move their body in time with the inhalation and exhalation.

Air Walk

Hello this is Donna from Yogainmyschool and I’m here today to show you how to do the breathing exercise Air Walk.

First thing you need to do is lay on the ground. Next bring your hands above your head.

Now, what you’ll do is raise your right hand and your left leg as you inhale. Exhale, lower them to the ground.

Inhale, raise your left arm and right leg. Exhale, down they go. Inhaling and exhaling with your own rhythm of your breath. Reaching the leg high in the air, bringing it up to the hand. You’ve got to use some core muscles to do this.

This exercise regulates the breath, helps children to learn how to work with the breath and move with the breath. It also helps to balance the brain as it joins the right and left hemispheres by crossing the body. You can continue to do this for a few moments. And then when you’re done you can simply bring your hands back to your back to your side and rest in corpse pose.

For more information about yoga for kids please visit Yogainmyschool.com. Thank you and have a wonderful day.

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With that in mind I’ve started to readjust bedtime to more closely reflect a school night. Knowing that it takes about two weeks for any routine to become part of daily life this process begins now so that we are ready the night before that first day back to class.

Here are some yoga tips to creating a bedtime routine that will lead to a restful sleep for children and parents alike.

1. Reduce Stimulus – Children need a winding down period before hitting the hay. In order to maximize a restful sleep begin about an hour before bed to reduce sensory stimulus. In yoga this is called pratyahara (the 5th limb of Yoga according to the Yoga Sutras by Patañjali). Take away video games, turn the TV off, lower the lights, introduce soothing music or the blessed sound of silence. The body will transition from activity to inactivity beautifully when given time to adjust and flow smoothly into relaxation.�
   

   ragdoll pose

    

2. Connect – Taking time to connect with your mind and body is essential to health and wellness even for little ones. Encourage your children to do some restorative yoga poses such as child’s pose, ragdoll, hero’s pose and gentle twists to get the kinks out and reduce muscular strains and stresses from the day’s activities. Also, be sure to take time to connect with one another. Read a story together, chat about the day, share your lives, concerns, hopes and simply enjoy one an-other’s company.
3. Establish a Routine – Children thrive on predictability and structure. In yogic terms this is called tapas (self-discipline). Establish an order of events (1. cleanup, 2. bedtime snack, 3. brush teeth, 4. yoga b4 bed, 5. read together, etc.). Create a chart with easy to follow graphics. This is helpful for all children whenever they are learning a routine, but especially for pre-schoolers and those with special needs.
4. Be Content – Practice santosha (contentment) one of the yoga niyamas (observances) by learning to be happy with who you are, where you are, and with what you have. Encourage the attitude of what you have is enough and that there is satisfaction and happiness to be found in each day. Five Good Moments is a simple gratitude game you can play daily with your children to develop a thankful heart and mind.
5. Practice Pranayama – Yogic breathing techniques are extremely effective at reducing stress and anxiety which often hit children as they are laying in bed waiting to fall asleep.  Swimming Stuffies and Take 5 are wonderful breathing exercises that help connect the mind and body. Even very young children can develop breath awareness and practice these safe and simple techniques before drifting off to sleep.

Be sure to allow sufficient time (about an hour) in order not to rush your children as they transition from the day’s activities to calm relaxation. Speak in a calm tone of voice and provide 2-5 minute warnings whenever an activity will change (“In five minutes you’ll need to put away your toys and get into PJ’s.”). Most importantly love your children. Use the time before bed to demonstrate daily how important they are to you.

Remember it takes time to create a routine and fine tune it to your personal needs. Stick with it and you will create a better sleep environment, manage stress and anxiety, as well as calm and nurture yourself and your loved ones.

Another article with great yoga inspired ideas is Bedtime Bliss on the Kids Yoga Resource.

Photo by flickrized

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