How Yoga Can Help Mold a Child's Body and Mind

Periodically I am the happy recipient of a box of books intended for my amusement without any prior notice appearing on my doorstep. A few weeks ago this event happened again in the midst of a heavy wintry blast. The moment I unpacked this book my 9 year old son was standing by overseeing the entire operation watching to see what goodies were in this bundle. Sometimes it's like Christmas when the boxes are opened to be honest and my son is as big a book lover as his mother.

When his eyes alighted on the title, I love Yoga (Yoga for Kids) by Mary Kaye Chryssicas, my son announced as only he could, "I will be reading this book, Mom first. I'll let you know what I think!" And he disappeared into his captain's cabin to peruse the book on his own time schedule.

Soon he emerged from his room and headed straight for the living room where he announced he wanted to show me something. I followed him wondering what he was up to and soon discovered that my young son was going to state his opinion on this book as only he knew how, by trying out the yoga poses and deciding for himself if they were ones he liked and ones that were easy to learn as well.

As he walked me through the book, he demonstrated some of the various poses within it's pages as he told me about yoga and how much he liked it. He started by demonstrating an "inversion pose." My son assured me it is much easier to do than it appears but to this untrained yoga body, it seemed pretty much like a pretzel to me! Next was a pose he classified as a "twist and split". He assured me that it helps stretch muscles and settle the mind. Then he showed me a pose known as "the dancers pose" It helps to achieve and maintain good balance. And finally he showed me the "bow pose". It helps open up areas in the body that hold stress and saddness. I could see how this one would really be neat for a teacher to use with a class full of anxious kids.

When my son was finished with his demonstration and the final page was closed, I asked for his opinion of this book. He looked at me solemly for a moment then sported a wide grin, and gave me a "thumbs up"! He liked it! My son went on to say that he thought this book would be a great gift for any kid regardless of age especially since PE teachers all over the country like his are beginning to implement Yoga into their routines and as he mentioned, many teachers are as well. My son even reminded me that his Kindergarten teacher had taught his class some basic yoga and that the kids loved it!

He went on to suggest that not only would this be a good gift for a kid, with or without yoga togs, but also would be a neat gift for a PE teacher or even a classroom teacher who wants to help his/her class learn something other than the usual subjects in the classroom.

I realized as I listened to my son talk about and demonstrate the different yoga poses how much benefit yoga could give not only his teen aged brother but my younger son as well. He shows none of the ackwardness of feet which are expanding so rapidly (that if one watched closely) I'm sure they could be seen to grow before ones very eyes. My son is blessed in that he has a good self image at this time. And he is blessed in that he is being taught yoga by a PE teacher whom seems to understand the importance of the whole body health even for pre teens.

Just a thought here folks, maybe instead of trying to buy kids a self image in the way of clothing, video games, fancy scooters or NFL attire; maybe just maybe we could start them out on the right track with a good sense of self via yoga and let the rest of the chips fall where they may. For this mom of two, I think it's worth a shot. When you think about it, with a good self image, all the rest is just child's play.