Yin Yoga Helps Kids Relax & Connect

Most children’s yoga classes are of the yang variety: energetic, strong, mobile. This reflects kids natural tendencies toward movement, activity and spontaneity. However, kids sometimes become overwhelmed, anxious, fearful, overtired and sad. At our home this is often the case in the weeks leading up to the Christmas holidays. There is so much going on with concerts, parties, shopping, exams, get-togethers with friends and family, etc. that my kids (and I) simply need some down time.

The Winter Solstice provides a lovely opportunity to delve into a child friendly yin practice. This is a wonderful way to provide space and time for purposeful relaxation. Yin yoga also assists in turning inward and helps children connect with their intuition and personal wisdom, finding peace in a quieter, slower yoga practice.

Yin Yoga Poses for Kids

• Child’s Pose – balasana
• Rag Doll Pose
• Wide Angle Forward Fold - upavishta konasana
• Happy Baby Pose – ananda balasana
• Sphinx Pose
• Legs up the Wall Pose - viparita karani
• Sleeping Swan (aka Reclined Pigeon)
• Reclined Twists
• Reclined Cobbler’s Pose – supta baddha konasana
• Savasana with Eye Pillow & a blanket
• Supported Savasana – legs on a chair or a bolster under the knees

Kids Yin Yoga Best Practices

• Allow the children to set the pace holding poses for as long as children allow, once they start to fidget, move along
• Encourage longer holds with a timer or counting breaths
• Approach with curiosity and wonder
• Speak slowly, calmly – children will take their energy cues from you
• Pretend you are practicing in deep water, every movement is slow and purposeful
• Allow space for feelings of sadness, fear, anger
• Most important – Breathe

Meditation for the Winter Solstice

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Dr Amy Saltzman knows the benefits of accessing the “Still Quiet Place” deep inside each individual and works tirelessly to bring those benefits to children, teens and parents.

Founder of the  program Still Quiet Place, Amy strives to teach mindfulness skills to youth (Pre-K to college) so that they can reap the rewards and live a engaged, full, calm and rewarding life. Join us for easy to implement techniques which are proven to develop focus, increase attention, decrease anxiety and allow you and your children to interact with compassion with yourself and others. Tap into your “Still Quiet Place” within.

Original Air Date: November 14, 2011

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Connect with Amy on Facebook or on StillQuietPlace.com.

Stay tuned for Reflections 2011 with guests Amy Ippoliti, Christina Sell, Kristin McGee, Roseanne Harvey of It’s all yoga, baby and more.

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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

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

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Karen Maezen Miller, author of Momma Zen: Walking the Crooked Path of Motherhoodand Hand Wash Cold: Care Instructions for an Ordinary Life, blogger and Zen Buddhist priest and teacher, shares insight on ways to let go, accept, and simply be during the hectic holiday season. She will help us to see the spirituality in everyday chaos, encourage us to trust our innate wisdom and assist us to slow down and enjoy each moment. Learn how to survive and thrive during the holidays with her Zen tips.

Original Air Date: December 2, 2010

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Enjoy more of Karen’s insights on Facebook and her website.

Other interviews in this series include:

• Dec 1 – Sadie Nardini
• Dec 6 – Elena Brower
• Dec 7 – Bob Weisenberg
• Dec 8 – Esther Ekhart
• Dec 14 – Cora Wen
• Dec 16 – Kathryn Budig
• Dec 20 – Faith Hunter
• Dec 21 – Brock & Krista Cahill
• Dec 24 – Ally Hamilton
• Dec 28 – John Friend
• Dec 30 – Waylon Lewis

All interviews are available for download from Yogainmyschool.com on iTunes.

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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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Welcome to labyrinth week. This week we’ll be exploring the wonderful world of labyrinths and how children and teens can use these ancient tools to discover themselves, learn mindfulness, reduce stress, increase fine and gross motor skills, practice math, gain appreciation for nature, explore world history and much more.

To kick off the week we have an interview with Rev. N. Elaine Nagy, the Labyrinth Facilitator at the St Albert United Church, where on the last Friday of every month they hold a labyrinth walk.

Q: What is a labyrinth?

A:  It’s a path. The kind of labyrinths that we use in place like a church, or in a garden, it’s a path that’s used often to help people connect with something beyond themselves.

Q: Why do people walk labyrinths?

A: The reason I walk a labyrinth is that I find it an easier way for me to connect with God. Lots of times people who start walking labyrinths have had some big change happen in their life. They are sad for some reason, or they are having to make a big decision, and so when they walk on the labyrinth it is an opportunity to let go of what’s bothering them, it’s an opportunity for them to understand what they are worried about in a new way. And sometimes it helps them to feel a lot better about what is going on, so that they feel more peaceful.

Q: Where are some famous labyrinths?

A: The most famous labyrinth in the world is in Chartres Cathedral in France which is about 45-60 minutes by train to the west of Paris. The reason its so famous is that is the only labyrinth from the middle ages left intact in a church. I’ve been to that labyrinth. It’s a stone labyrinth in the floor. This is a picture of it right here. Labyrinths used to be popular for hundreds of years and then they fell into disuse and so they got ripped out. The story I like to tell about this labyrinth is that it used to have copper in the center of it but it doesn’t anymore because Napoleon needed the copper. He was a famous leader in France. He was so desperate for metal to fight his wars that he even took the copper out of the middle of the labyrinth for his cannons and for metal to fight his enemies.

They say that originally that piece of copper had a Greek mythical figure in it because even though it is old, there are labyrinths that are much older: in Greece, in Crete. There are labyrinths there that are thousands of years old. And then among the Hopi people of Arizona they have labyrinths that are very old too. Labyrinths have been found in rocks and caves, thousands and thousands of years old, in different parts of the world. But the one in Charters you can actually see and still walk.

Q: Do you have any advice when walking a labyrinth?

A: My biggest advice would be to not treat it like a toy, but to treat it like something special. It’s not a trick. It’s not a puzzle. It’s a special place. The same way that you probably have special places you’ve been, someplace you’ve been on vacation, or grandma’s house, or someplace you like to be. I hope that a labyrinth might be a place that you enjoy going to. Whether just to be alone with yourself, or to think about something, or to just feel good and peaceful. So if you treat it like that, rather than a place for playing games, though children love to be free and to run in labyrinths and that’s a good thing. Always remember that it is a special place and that it’s meant not only for us to enjoy but for us to connect with something bigger than ourselves. I think my advice would be enjoy them, but always remember that it’s a special place.

Thank you.

Thank you for asking.

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