Yoga with kids II

Yoga is something children and their parents/caregiver can explore together. Practicing yoga together creates a supportive environment for the child as well as deepens their connections with the guardian. When practicing with your child, it is useful to begin and end each yoga class with the same routine. This structure helps the child gain confidence about their personal practice.

The child and guardian each have a mat.  If a mat is not available, a large towel will work well.  The mat creates a boundary for the child to create their own personal space as well as the help with the physical alignment of the body. Children are encouraged to begin their yoga practice with deep mindful breathing. The child sits comfortably either cross legged or on a cushion and closes their eyes getting ready to tune into the breath. The child is asked to take a deep belly breath expanding the stomach and lungs out like a balloon, then slowly exhaling feeling the body settle onto the sit bones. Perform this deep breathing for 10-30 rounds.

The names of the yoga postures are translated from their Sanskrit name and are named after the animals and shapes they represent. This helps children not only remember the shape of the pose, but also experience the sound, movement, and nature of the pose. Children are encouraged to use their imagination to go deep into their bodies and experience the union, expression, and honour for oneself within the web of life.

Here are a few yoga postures to practice at home with your child.

Lightning bolt pose (ukatasana) – Stand with feet hips width apart. Inhale and raise arms over head reaching out through fingertips to a magnificent night sky. Draw shoulder blades down and relax the muscles around the neck, while keeping arms firm. Exhale and bend at the knees taking thighs back as if about to sit down, keep the knees in line with the ankles and engage inner thighs. Draw the lower belly in and soften the tailbone. Lift the heart and open the chest. Feel the electrical change from your fingertips all the way down to your toes. Imagine this powerful bolt of lightning so strong and magnificent it could light up an entire city block. Feel how your inner power grows and tingles. Hold for 10- 40 breaths, then straighten arms and release legs.

Tree pose (vrksasana) –  First imagine your favourite kind of tree. What does it look like? How does it move in the wind? What does it smell like? Then, stand with feet together and notice the sensation of the floor beneath. Feel your feet root down and let your toes hold the floor like they are drawing up water and energy.  Shift your weight to your right foot and slowly draw your left foot up your leg placing it either at the base of the foot, on the shin below the knee or, on the upper thigh. The high is not the focus but how sturdy you feel. Draw your left knee out to externally rotate the hip. Activate all the muscles in your standing leg and straighten your torso. Feel your torso like the trunk of the tree, proud and supportive of the roots and the branches. Imagine the texture of the trunk of the tree. Place hands on your hips, pressed together in front of your chest or extended above your hear.  Feel your arms hold like beautiful branches. Imagine what they look like. Are the pines? Or weeping willow? Let your arms express the nature of the tree. Repeat on other side.

Downward Dog (Adho Mukha Savasana) – Kneel on your hands and knees with hands shoulder width apart and knees hips width apart, pant like a dog for 10-20 quick breaths. Take one long exhale then press hips up toward the sky straighten out the arms and flattening the back. Press down onto all four corners of the hands and roll the shoulders away from the ears and onto the back, bend the knees if necessary to lengthen the spine. Imagine yourself as a dog taking a deep stretch after a refreshing plunge in a lake. Take five big barks and feel the sounds resonate in your chest. Hold pose for 10- 40 breaths.

Warrior II (virabhadrasana II) – Stand with feet arm’s length apart with feet parallel. Engage inner thighs and root down through your feet. Rotate right foot open keeping hips and torso facing center. Bend into right knee so thigh is parallel with the floor pressing inner thigh back. Feel the strength build in the thigh and how your body is accepting this inner power. Extend arms away from torso palms either up or down and turn head and gaze to the right.  Lift heart slightly and feel yourself settle into this pose. Picture a strong warrior, maybe someone if your life who gives you strength imagine them alongside you supporting you to hold this pose. Keeping the breath steady draw energy through the legs and extend out through the arms

Yoga for kids

Yoga, in one of its simplest definitions, means to connect, join or balance. The action of movement connected with the breath is a tool to connect the physical body with the mind. Yoga is a path that helps remove “mind clutter” and bring the awareness to one source.  As technology has advanced, school systems have changed, and activity levels have dwindled there has been a growing disconnect between the mind-body connection. We are seeing this erosion of the experience of feeling and its connection with the physical body particularly amongst our youth. Affection is expressed through heart shaped emoticons (L), fear is stimulated through violent movies, and sports are not played on a field but on a television screen. How children react to these more technologically stimulated events is both physical and psychological. Yet the connection between these two is weakened. The correlation between chronic back pain and limited physical activity, or difficulty sleeping and hours of watching television is being missed.

Many individuals have become aware of the need for a mind-body connection and have begun to take steps to develop this relationship through yoga. In the West, some people have begun to explore the multiple benefits yoga has to offer. There are intense vigorous power yogis, those seeking a gentle, meditative yin class and individuals who practice not on a mat, but though studying the ancient texts. Yoga has indeed arrived in the West and is now being moved into new unique sectors of our society. Therefore, it is not surprising that yoga is being modified for children so they too can experience the loving benefits of a deepened mind-body connection. Here we discuss just how yoga can help the growing child.

On a primary level, yoga helps develop strength, flexibility and co-ordination of the physical body. Through active postures, flowing movements and strength building poses, children begin to develop awareness into the subtler muscles groups. Attention to alignment in postures helps teach children how to hold and control one’s body to reduce injury in everyday activities. Yoga stimulates the body from the bones out and incorporates organic movements with the breath.

On a psychological level, yoga helps deepen self-awareness and create tools for self-regulation. Children are encouraged to explore connection with the breath and seated meditation. This practice helps develop a greater understanding of how slow methodical breathing can move the body easily through challenging experiences as well as quiet the mind in seated postures.

The routine and structure of a yoga class also develops discipline and understanding. Children begin to familiarize themselves with the names and structure of yoga postures so they can return to these postures and their breath during times of stress to calm the mind. With regular practice the children can begin to take yoga home or to the school yard, thus creating their own discipline without the guidance of someone else. This internal discipline can diffuse to other areas of life such as quiet reading time or household chores.

Unlike most sports children participate in today, yoga is based on co-operation with other students and with themselves. Children focus on their own postures and progress throughout the practice. In class, children are often given the opportunity to demonstrate, lead, and learn from each other, each bringing a unique and special aspect to the class. Children learn to appreciate that the body changes each day and a pose that may have been challenging one day is much easier the next. Each day our body will feel different, but yoga reminds us that our body and practice is perfect for us. Most importantly, yoga is taught with love. Each class brings in an intention of moving with care for the body and care for others. This helps deepen the children’s appreciation for their bodies as well as experience great respect and care for other children in their class. There is always an emphasis on feeling at peace within the home of the body. Classes begin and end with gratitude for light within themselves and the light within other students.

Next week I will share some ideas and postures to practice with your child

I get to practice today

Last weekend I attended Wanderlust; a four day music and yoga festival with some of the most experienced and renowned teachers still with us today. It is hard to describe the blissful and inviting energy that penetrated the Californian valley that weekend. Each day was filled with yoga classes, some physical, some that focused on the internal body, but each drawn a unique crowed of yoga newbies and practiced students.

One class I was particularly excited to attend was Shakti Flow with Seane Corn. She is an amazing teacher with a huge following for her beautiful and engaging presence. The Shakti flow class was aimed for practitioners seeking more fire and challenging postures to move and sweat together. She interwove asana names with words of intention beyond the alignment that focused on a philosophy of love and holistic centering. Her words came out in a fast a fluid manner that went right to the source. She is a brilliant speaker. One point that really stood out was; what a gift it is to practice.

                In its most basic form whether it be asana, pranayama or seated meditation, yoga is a gift. Something you are lucky to be able to experience. Yoga is special as it will meet you anywhere. If you are looking for a physical exercise yoga will greet your body wherever it is capable. Even the tightest students (though sometimes hesitate from the extra-flexi reputation of yoga) can participate in a class. There is also chair yoga, yoga for seniors and children, yoga for athletes, yoga for beginners and intense fast paced classes for the experienced practitioner. Yoga as simply an exercise has many options for each body type. It is a gift to be able to put aside an hour or two to simply move with the breath.  I always feel lucky after a yoga class, to have made the time and commitment to sweat and breathe a little. 

Yoga will also meet you if you are looking to deepen your meditation. Two of my first students were a Sheikh couple looking for hip openers and breath work to help sit for a longer period of time at their temple. For them, yoga met them on the mat to sit, breath, and experience the divine presence. Other students seek out the meditation of yoga, the intimate time provided to connect with the body and tune into the breath. Restorative or yin classes move slowly with purposeful intention that allows students to go deep into their minds and tune out external stimulus.

Yoga, does not need to be asana at all, as other students pursue knowledge from the sutras and follow the jhana path of yoga through reading and chanting. This path of yoga absorbs knowledge of the great teachers and the experience can be completely internal. The jhana path is also something special to experience. To be able to read the old texts such as the Patanjali Sutras and Bhagavad Gita or newer writing of yoga such as Eastern Body Western Mind and to have the abilitiy to integrate the knowledge into daily life. The Sutras remind me the importance of ahimsa, non-violence and Shaucha, purity especially in my thoughts and words. It is a gift to live in a society that is exploring yoga with such vigour and to have access to texts and reading.   

Whatever your path, it is a gift. I can choose to look at each class as an awesome opportunity. There have been times when I have felt tired and lazy and really did not want to practice at all. I forget how lucky I am to have a body that can practice, that I live in an environment where I have the right to practice, that I have the time and place to practice. Those days when I do practice are the most rewarding. I never leave a class regretting that I went; I always leave feeling better then when I arrived. Today, I get to practice. I have my health, my body and my mind intact and I get to practice my yoga.  Each movement, worship.

Restorative & Dynamic Yoga Therapy

I see my yogi client, Nancy, every week for restorative yoga. She came to me three months ago in hope to improve mobility in her body and was an addition to regular massage and acupuncture. She has been working through a lot of pain and discomfort in her neck and back that has persisted for several years. She was diagnosed with chronic pain at a very young age; it is a condition that affects and individual’s psychological wellness just as much as the physical.

I have been lucky to witness her improvement and development. On a physical level she reports and demonstrates a greater understanding of her body and alignment. Without cues she has begun to unlock her knees and elbows, soften her face and release tension in her shoulders in poses. She demonstrated greater confidence in what she is able to achieve. However, she still regularly inquires about the exact alignment of poses even though I insist that the posture should feel right for her body regardless of how it looks to an outside observer. As a very organized and exact person Nancy admittedly over thinks each pose and forgets the whole point; to relax, integrate and open herself, not just the pose, to the benefit of yoga.

I remember one time in a reclined twist we held to pose for an extra-long time. I encouraged her to close her eyes and just release everything, to quiet the mind and feel blissful. When we finally came out of the pose her face was bright and dreamy. She said she really appreciated the concept of letting go and to just enjoy her yoga now. It is these moments of improvement and acceptance that we strive toward. To not only improve her alignment but improve the relationship she has with her body.

 I always check in with Nancy to see what is working in her body and how she is responding to each posture. Her feedback helps guide the direction of the class. She tends to dislike certain twists so we come up with alternatives that work for her body together. Working together creates a greater sense of power over her body. Seated twists were not working for her so we have moved them to the floor and have explored variations of reclined twists.

We focus a great deal on restorative, yin postures such as the supta badha konasana and Viparita Karani to gently open the body. I try to emphasis these moments of stillness and an oppertunity to check in with the body and observe the subtle changes that have occured. Last class Nancy made an interesting point, she said “restorative feels great but I really feel like I am doing something when we try the more actives poses.” Her statement made me think about the difference between restorative yoga and more active dynamic postures. As someone who likes intense and powerful classes I can understand her reasoning for liking the action within dynamic and powerful postures. Together, we regularly practice such active poses like high lunge, trikonasana and dynamic arm movements. Nancy explained that the active poses were more challenging but the effort seemed to cultivate a greater sense of reward, whereas in the passive restorative postures she felt blissful, but almost like she could go to sleep.

Is sleeping in yoga really a bad thing? I think anyone could use a supported nap. My work with Nancy is focusing on relieving her pain and ultimately empowering her to overcome the factors leading to her pain. Maybe a supportive nap is necessary to reduce pain and relax. Yet, at the same time, in daily life it is generally not appropriate to roll out a yoga mat and snuggle into a supportive forward fold and take a snooze. In daily life we are standing, moving and engaging with moments of intensity. This is where the more dynamic yoga can come into practice.

I personally used to habitually lock out my knees and puff up my chest when I felt threatened, or even when I was feeling excited about something. This slightly aggressive stance pooled in my knees leading to on-going knee and back pain. I would take this same solid stance in poses like trikonasana, locking out my knees and ripping open my chest. Eventually at a yoga workshop my teacher, Tracy Grosak, encouraged me to look at my natural posture and examine how this pressure on my joints was being received by my body. Now, although it has taken some regular reminder, I stand with slightly softened knees and lift my inner ankle. This stance now feels more natural and comfortable. I have integrated this in my poses as well, approaching each pose with softer joints and a gentle anatomical alignment.

It is the knowledge of the body in action that will ultimately help Nancy. To experience the softening of her shoulders during twists help her to remember to soften her shoulders at the computer. Restorative poses have their places as they are beautiful, opening, and relaxing releases. I have taught her many restorative poses to practice at home. And we will still integrate both active and restorative poses, yet I like to allow her the opportunity to feel the relationship of active poses with her body and daily life.

This is not to say restorative postures are not active. Key elements of the body that open up such as the hips in supta badha konasana are indeed activated, but in a different and unique manner then the hip activation during Prasarita Padottanasana (wide leg forward fold) or Virabhadrasana II. Nancy see’s the joy and pleasure in both types of pose. This weaving together of gentle and active create an environment for exploration and understanding.

Stillness in the vortex

I’m not going to lie. I love a vigorous practice. I love to sweat, shake and feel my whole quiver under the intensity of the postures. I seek out teachers who lead classes that tap into  my very core and pull out everything that I can handle.

I am drawn to a vigorous practice as it wipes out any mental blockings of my day. The intensity of difficult poses fire up the prana bringing the energy to invade my brain. I cannot be thinking of running errands or the fight I had with my partner when my nose is dripping three inches off the ground holding on in Eka Pada Koundinyasana or flowing through the 100^th vinyasa of the class (or maybe just feels like it). In an intense practice all of my attention and breath is focus on maintaining alignment and keeping my breath steady.

A posture that challenges me physically also helps me tap in mentally. Working through a pose is like working out a math problem. You must continue to go at it. When I first started practicing I fell out of Natarajasana in a matter of seconds. Again and again I struggled with balance, my mind had yet to find the sturdiness in the face of trial and my body reacted accordingly. Yet, as I held the pose longer and longer the mind was there to support it. The focus increased and there grew a stronger development from the mind to the body. For myself, I needed that challenge for my body to go to a new place and the mind to develop the skills to allow that growth.

These moments of intensity in the practice channel the mind, yet between the intensity and flow there blooms a gentle pause, a moment of stillness. When the teacher calls you to pause and just breathe, it is a moment for the fluid in the head that rushes around the semicircular canals of my eardrum to slow down. The heat from my face gets a chance to drain and I feel my body's pulse vibrate. I can actually feel my heart in my chest. In the total depth an asana I concentrate on lifting my body, controlling alignment and breathing into steadiness. When I pause the pulse of my heart draws my focus inward. In this blissful moment and I am able to sense the calm that still resides within my body. 

Up until my first Yin class I thought the intense rush was the only way to achieve pooling silence. I had become accustomed to the power and I was stuck in a habit. A friend invited me to a Yin class and although I wanted to resist such a “slow” class I felt it was necessary to experience all forms of yoga. I needed to challenge myself to get out of the “Power” box. The low lighting and gentle tone of the teachers voices set a calming environment. The teacher announced each pose would be held for three to five minutes, allowing ample time for the body to absorb the nutrients of the postures and release into deep consciousness.

The movements were slow and steady, yet instead of dreaming of a flowing vinyasa like I expected, my mind settled on the tiniest of muscles and ligaments in my body. In paschimottanasana I breathed into my hamstrings, lower back, calves, even my ankles. I drew my belly in and tried to feel the compression of my organs, I felt the soft expansion of my back ribs. The five minutes was gone in a manner of breaths and, although my pulse was not pounding in my head, I still felt inwardly focused. As the class closed I felt intensely grounded, I walked out of the class feeling connected physically to reach step. Often, when I leave a power class I float out, high on the vibrations. Here, the vibrations were further down in the muladhara chakra humbling me to my source and the richness of stillness.

I dream of Hanumanasana!

The beautiful thing about yoga is that there will always be room to grow. When I finally nailed down pincha mayurasana the next step was to be able to press in to it. The day I touch my forehead to the floor in upavistha konasana I started toward edging toward my chest. Even in the most basic postures there is space to length, adjust and tweak to find even more devotion.  The joy of moving forward and seeing growth is one of my favourite things about practicing.

Yet there is danger about to great of focus on depth and the physical aspect of yoga. It can be easy to become attached to the perfection or achievement of the yoga practice. One of my favourite teachers Reno Muenz says “when you realize you are as perfect as a flower blooming that is when yoga starts”. I try to take this powerful message with me in each class and to release and prior expectations about what my practice should look like.

For years I used to strain and push toward Hanumanasana. I thought the long stretched out limbs of the pose look almost mystical and seemed to defy the physical laws of the human body. Oh, how I tried to get into the pose; warm up, stretch, hold then push again. A few times I got very close, once my pelvis kissed the ground but it was fleeting. It was never consistent!

Yet because of this goal I set in my mind of what the perfect pose look like I forgot the purpose of yoga, the journey. I had ignored the progress I made and the depth I had accomplished. I spoke about my struggles with a fellow yoga friend who has really tight hamstrings. She laughed at my silly wish and said “ who cares? You are not going to become enlightened just because you do the full splits.” And there is was, pure honest truth. Achieving the splits was just going to be another step in the journey as simple as moving into virabhadrasana I. Just another pose to move and breath through. I turned my focus to dissolving the attachment I had developed. Each time I moved into hanumanasana I released my expectations and just breathed, I let go of this ideal and accepted my perfect body.

At the end of the day I still cannot do the full splits like this guy! But I do love the process. I love how my body and mind feels when I practice. I love the radiance that comes from self-love. And this is yoga!

Heart opening Ustrasana and feeling sick

Another four hours passed hunched over my computer trying to cram for end of term papers. An error closing my document the previous day caused me to lose five pages of work, the person next to me was tapping the pencil to the tune of Jenny From the Block, to say the least I was tense and annoyed. I was feeling the pain, both physically and emotionally and I just wanted to de-stress. The only comforting thought was that I was heading to a yoga class in an hour. I was a newbie to yoga, probably only on my seventh Bikram class. I had started to like the heat, or at least it had become more bearable, and I always noticed that my back felt better after class. Physically, Bikram it was good. Yet, I still only viewed it has a work out, and I was happy to squeeze a work out in my day.

When I arrived on my mat and I felt my energy rise. My mind was still racing from the dust of the day, and the frustration and tension from focusing. As the class began to move through the sequence and I noticed I was struggling with some of the poses I previously had found easier. I started to feel agitated (couldn’t something go right today?) and looked at the clock, a sign to when this would be over. Barley half way there and I started to collapse my chest from exhaustion before the teacher prompted “shoulders back, engage core”. Finally, the sequence began to wrap up, Ustrasana was next. I leaned back beyond my regular stretch; I wanted to get deep into the pose and to shut up my talkative mind. I felt my chest open wider then I had ever experienced. Then the nausea boiled up.

Instead of getting sick, something in me gave. My frustration and stress just seemed to explode out of my chest and I quickly came out of the posture. My head was spinning as I lay back on the mat and my eyes welled with tears. I could not believe it as I am (or was) really not the crying type.  Still a yoga newbie I was confused. Why was I crying? I felt physically and emotionally overwhelmed and lay back on my squelchy mat for the sensation to pass. I could not attach a reason to my tears but I felt raw.  At the end of class the expansive feeling lingered. The sensation of openness, and vulnerability stayed with me as I stumbled out of the class and into the showers. I put it out of my mind and chalked the whole scene up to stress. But then it happened again a few weeks later, this time attached to an over whelming sense of joy. At first crying felt a little insane but then I grew to appreciate the occasional moments of bliss, emotion, and devastating tears. Then l started to love it. I started to yearn for that emotional release; tears would squeeze out during forward folds, padmasana, Kapotasana. And I felt I could just be there.

 I talked to my fellow yogis who had the same experience of emotional release in certain poses. Something gets triggered, so I did some soul searching (more practice and reading!) What was it about yoga that unique from running or rowing or baseball where I didn’t cry? I began to learn about the beautiful energy that moves in our bodies. Eastern medicine looks at the body and mind from a holistic view. Our emotions are stored within our body and our body reacts physically to those emotions. Old injuries can be slow to recover due to emotional blockages; old heartache can leave the body vulnerable for aches and pain. Therefore, when we work and release a spot where emotions have been stored we can get a sudden overwhelming flood of sensation.

The energy that is housed in our body is in constant motion. I like to think of the blood that pulses through our veins from birth till death to be the physical representation of esoteric light energy. This Prana is integrated through every pore of the body. When we are emotionally hurt it can create a block of the energy in our body that manifests into physical pain. This leads to a deficiency of energy elsewhere in the body. Yoga poses open up the body and creates movement within the joints, limbs and energy channels. Once these blockages are broken lose the energy moves freely carrying with it all the elements and past memories of the body.

Yoga, although often thought of as a physical practice, has many elements. From the Yamas to Pranayama to Samadhi, yoga is present through each stage of our daily life. Unlike other sports where you focus a making a faster time or making the play; in yoga the focus is settled in the body. Everything is right there; it is a place for us to simply observe whatever comes up. In yoga the body is highly tuned in to all the sensations within itself. And the emotions that are stored in the body can get trigged from this focused self-study. In a back bend the heart is exposed. In a backbend you’re opening yourself up and truly being vulnerable to the emotions that reside within the heart. Emotions of the heart can suddenly and unexpectedly surface; leading to overwhelming tears of sadness, or exceptional tears of joy.

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