WOULDN'T IT BE NICE? (CLASSROOM YOGA)

About a month ago I wrote about my granddaughter's first grade classroom and how I spontaneously introduced a few yoga poses to the kids one day when I was volunteering.  Yesterday I spoke to a woman in my yoga class about how we've both introduced yoga to our grandchildren.  It's a hit and miss venture depending on their moods, but we agreed the benefits of really getting them to use yoga as a coping tool would be so beneficial.

Kids, no matter their ages, have a lot to deal with....siblings, parents, friends, teachers, childcare providers, new environments, fears, frustrations, even joyful but impatient anticipations.   What tools do we give them to cope with these life events?  Not too many, really.  We might try to prepare them, talk them through a hard situation, reassure them of our love and care, try to let them know they will be OK, that things will turn out well.  But do they believe us?  Did you, when you were in the throes of thinking "everybody hates me" and some caring family member told you to "ignore them"? Not so easy.

As we learn in yoga classes, when we are stressed (anywhere on the "Stress-O-Meter Scale of 1-10) our bodies respond as if the sabertooth tiger was at our heels --  the fight, flight, or freeze response happens: tense muscles, shallow breaths, rapid heartbeat.  Sometimes the stress is real and sometimes is is merely imagined.  "Everybody hates me" is a stressful thought -- and thoughts are not "real", but they are very powerful and we tend to believe them based usually on limited data that we interpret negatively.  We can learn to unlearn this negative thinking with all kinds of tools--cognitive behavioral therapy comes to mind as a powerful method of changing those thoughts to be more realistic and positive.  But that is a fairly sophisticated therapy and not one easily available to children.

What IS available at any age and in any situation is to breathe.  There is a reason that the directive we hear when upset is to "take a deep breath".  It works.  Taking a deep "belly breath" for a count of say 5,  and letting it out slowly to a count of 7 literally changes the way our bodies respond to stress.  We are telling our bodies to "relax; no tiger".  We are reprogramming our physiological response to a thought to be more in line with reality.  Kids get this too.

I work with children in that 1st grade class who come to school with challenges over which they have no control -- families in crisis, sleep deprivation, language barriers, learning difficulties, anxieties, social and behavioral challenges.   When I call them back to the table where I sit to help with reading, sight words, and homework, I first ask them to tell me something fun they did the previous day.  I ask them how they are feeling in that moment.  I have them stand up, reach for the sky, touch their toes, and show me their super power muscles (boys AND girls!).  Then they sit, and I tell them to close their eyes and take three deep breaths with me.  I can see their bodies become more centered, their movements less "antsy", their ability to focus a little more intentional.  Sometimes we have to do this another time or two during our work session.

Wouldn't it be great if yoga was part of every class day?  Wouldn't it be great if these tools became second nature in elementary school so that by the higher stakes (academically and socially/emotionally) years of middle and high school, they already had a "go to" practice to help them through stressful times?

I see clearly that the academic curriculum already jams up against "too few hours/too much to teach" conundrum.  I see clearly that the emphasis on "crowd control" leaves little room for innovation.  Yet....I have to believe that in the progressive schools where meditation and yoga are part of the day, the kids are learning valuable life skills that are just as important as reading and math.

For now, those of us who practice yoga can help our younger friends and family members learn a few calming asanas (although I note they most like seeing what strange pretzel shapes they can contort into).  We can teach them calming breathing.  We can model for them that grownups get stressed and there are healthy and gentle ways to deal with it, and that our thoughts come and go, even those that seem hardest to ignore.  We can take them to studios that offer yoga for kids -- just as important as T-ball and soccer!

Here's a great resource, if you are interested in more about Yoga for Kids; I get their weekly email newsletter, full of great ideas.  http://www.kidsyogastories.com    Happy Baby Poses to all!©

Namaste....donnajurene

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