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Yoga and Children’s Mental Health
By Jennifer Van Pelt, MA
Social Work Today
In March of 20111, yoga programs in schools and hospitals were featured in a Wall Street Journal article that summarized the many benefits for children’s overall mental health. Clinical studies have shown that yoga not only improves physical fitness in children but also contributes to better academic performance and emotional balance.
In children with special needs, yoga can be especially beneficial (Glazer, 2011). Michelle Fury, LPC, RCYT, a yoga therapist at Children’s Hospital Colorado who also has a master’s degree in psychotherapy, contributed to the article. She says, “At Children’s Hospital Colorado, we are using yoga as a psychotherapeutic intervention to help the child’s state of mind.” Yoga is part of an integrated arts therapy program that also includes music, art, and dance. She works closely with social workers to communicate patient progress in group and individual therapy.
While yoga has been practiced in schools across the country for several decades, lately the movement has sky rocketed. Organizations coast to coast are successfully implementing yoga in thousands of classrooms via live teachers, digital video technology and even apps. Why has this ancient practice taken root in our schools? Perhaps because yoga offers practical solutions to some of our schools biggest problems.
It seems today, that there is an ever-increasing challenge to maintain a connection between everyday life and spirituality. As information becomes more and more readily available to us, it seems that our connection with a higher power, the essence of life, becomes diminished in the fast paced world of technology. The naive days of knowing nothing no more than what we’re told in our enclosed communities of churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, and tribes has quickly changed, and continues too at a faster rate.
On the same token, with technologies ability to share thoughts and ideas from every part of the world, we today are witnessing an incredible transformation. Our world is transitioning into this beautiful mechanism of individuals who are finally beginning to know they are a part of something greater. Now that’s a spiritual thought… just realizing we are not alone.
Free “little” Fun Kids Yoga Video
This is a fun little video I created trying out the program Animoto.
Namaste & Play
Casey Feicht
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Namaste & Play
Casey Feicht
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The above quote describes Rumi’s philosophy of what transpersonal psychologists call the dimensions of process. In layman terms, human life is composed of this fascinating relationship between inner and outer experience, and beyond that, a deeper and greater experience. Children are no different than adults when speaking of their complexity. Although kids seem to exist in a much simpler world, their inner and outer self includes all the same structures as an adult.
The interesting piece about children however, is that they tend to be much more inclined to share their inner world with others. When children play together they are bringing their inner world to the forefront and allowing it to manifest in outer reality. They play with personalities, ideas, and movements as they begin to slowly build an individualized self.
I love that Kids Yoga is showing up in the news left and right these days. People are really seeing the benefits of the stress relief and calming benefits of yoga and how it can serve them.
Click here to watch this video about Kids Yoga in Baltimore Making a difference aired on the NBC Nightly News on.
Check out the Holistic Life Foundation web site at http://www.hlfinc.org
Use your creativity and imagination and support you kids in believing in their dreams, magic and creativity.
Here are a few of the poses discussed here..
The Christmas Tree/Hannuka Bush Pose
The Reindeer Pose
The flying Elf Pose
The Gingerbread Man in many yoga poses
What poses can you think of that relate to this time of the year and things that you believe in. Leave your comments below.
Namaste & Play
Recommended Yoga Poses For Kids Yoga indeed has become a popular, mainstream alternative for exercise and fitness.
In Los Angeles, hardly a day goes by without seeing people walking by with their Yoga Mats rolled up underneath their arms coming from or going to their Yoga class.
Most stay-home moms have picked up Yoga as their method of keeping fit and maintaining physical, mental and emotional balance and wonder how their children might be able to benefit form using Yoga for kids.
This article will be helpful in choosing the yoga poses that could be incorporated into your child’s recreational endeavors.
Yoga for Kids: Recommended Poses.
1. Sun Salutations: These are a group of poses that serve as a warm up to a yoga session or class. For staying fit, keeping obesity at bay and fun (especially when performed at a high speed), the Sun Salutations will be an immense source of enjoyment for kids getting introduced to Yoga. Do you know in India, they actually hold contests of how many rounds of Sun Salutations kids can do in one go? Yeah, they are that much fun.
2. The Shoulder Stand: Trust me, behind your back, kids already try this pose. You probably did as a kid without knowing you were actually doing Yoga. So in your use of yoga for kids, make sure the inclusion of this pose is of priority. Executed with the bridge pose and fish-poses as counter poses, for kids doing yoga, the shoulder-stand will reap many benefits.
3. The Forward Bend Pose: This teaches your kids self-dependence and aids immensely at curbing digestive disturbances as an added bonus. I’ll have you know, some authorities of Yoga have said that these three poses mentioned thus far are enough for humans-although this may be slightly erroneous or incomplete as the execution of their counter-poses for a specified amount of time is also of great importance as well.
4. The Wheel Pose: Okay, I was walking through the park the other day and saw a kid who couldn’t have been more than 8 years of age executing this pose for literally 90 seconds. Yes, I counted this out of amazement and intrigue. It’s been hailed as the “forever young pose”, consequently when using yoga for kids; this has got to be included. Co-incidentally it is the counter-pose to the third pose above.
Erica Hill reports on a school in Calif. that has incorporated yoga into its daily curriculum and since it started, suspensions are down 60 percent and test scores have risen.
Namaste & Play, Casey
