Are your kids stressed out? With today’s fast paced life mixed with loud, fast, in-your-face videogames and technological stimulation, it’s no wonder! Kids are overscheduled and becoming burned out at much too young an age. As parents and educators, what can we do about this? The answer is simple.
Yoga.
“But how?” you ask, “My kids wouldn’t like yoga, it’s boring!” Not so with animal yoga poses. Animal yoga poses for kids introduces them to yoga in a fun and creative way, by allowing them to use their imaginations. What child wouldn’t like to pretend to be a dog, or a butterfly?
When the ancient yogis developed the asanas, they still lived close to nature. They used animals and plants for inspiration – the sting of a scorpion, the grace of a swan, the grounded stature of a tree. As children imitate the movements and sounds of nature, they get a chance to enter another being and imagine assuming its qualities. As they begin to do the various animal and nature asanas, they learn to engage their minds and deepen their awareness. For instance, when they assume the pose of the lion (Simhasana), they feel not only the power and behavior of the lion, but also their own sense of power – when to be or not to be aggressive, when to choose to retreat. When they do the snake pose (Bhujangasana), they really imagine that they’re just long spines with no arms or legs. In the Tree Pose (Vrksasana), they actually imagine being a giant oak, with roots growing out of the bottoms of their feet. When they stretch like dogs, balance like flamingos, breathe like bunnies, or stand strong and tall like trees, they make a connection between their bodies and their environment.
