Yoga Calm for Children

Educating Heart, Mind, and Body

By Lynea Gillen, Jim Gillen

Three Pebble Press, LLC

Copyright © 2007 Three Pebble Press, LLC
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-9799289-0-1

Contents

Foreword,
Acknowledgments,
A Note to the Reader,
Introduction,
1 What Is Yoga? What Is Yoga Calm?,
2 Yoga Calm Principles in Action,
3 Setting the Stage for Learning,
4 Yoga Calm Tools Breath Work,
5 Yoga Calm Tools Yoga-Based Activities,
6 Yoga Calm Tools Social/Emotional Activities,
7 Yoga Calm Tools Guided Relaxations,
8 Yoga Calm Tools Emotional Guidance,
9 Class Planning Putting It All Together,
Appendix A Yoga Calm Curriculum Recommendations for Classroom Teachers,
Appendix B Yoga Calm Activity and Principle Index,
Appendix C Yoga Calm Class Planner,
Bibliography,

CHAPTER 1

What Is Yoga? What Is Yoga Calm?

Yoga, Yoga, Yoga!

Yoga seems to be everywhere these days — from celebrity interviews and magazine covers to workplace classes. Even McDonald's — yes, McDonald's! — has offered instructional DVDs with some of its meals. This exploding popularity of yoga in the West is no accident. Its stress-reduction and health-promotion benefits are widely recognized by health care practitioners and laypeople alike as a seemingly perfect antidote to our demanding modern lifestyles.

But beyond a good hamstring stretch and respite from the world, what exactly is yoga? An online search or perusal of your local bookstore will reveal an astonishing array of practices, beliefs, and philosophies. While a bit overwhelming to the novice, this diversity of expression is one of the keys to yoga's longevity and effectiveness. It is a living tradition that has evolved and adapted over thousands of years to meet human needs.

At the heart of this tradition is the desire to be healthy and whole, to integrate the various aspects of our human nature. In fact, the very meaning of the Sanskrit word for yoga is "to yoke or unite." This is commonly translated as the integration or harmonizing of the body, mind, and spirit, and as a comprehensive approach to well-being, yoga typically includes systematic training in five basic areas:

• Breathing — to relax and rejuvenate the body and mind through the development of healthy breathing patterns and techniques that increase energy and release tension

• Exercise — to regulate the nervous system, develop strength, improve circulation, release tension, and increase flexibility through the practice of physical poses

• Meditation and Positive Thinking — to develop focus, gain self-control, and cultivate inner peace

• Lifestyle — to grow aware of the effects of the choices we make and learn to choose wisely, knowing that all we do and experience contributes to our overall health

• Relaxation — to calm the emotions and nervous system, integrate, and give the body a chance to recharge

No one knows exactly when yoga began, but it certainly predates written history. In the Indus Valley, stone carvings dating back 3,500 years or more depict figures in yoga positions. This puts its origins even further back than the beginnings of Hinduism — a fact that puts to rest the common misconception that yoga is rooted in Hinduism. On the contrary, Hinduism's religious structures evolved much later and incorporated some yogic practices. Since then, many other religions and organizations have also incorporated practices and ideas related to yoga. But yoga itself is not a religion.

Yoga probably arrived in the United States in the late 1800s, but it did not become widely known until the 1960s, as part of the youth culture's growing interest in the East. As more became known about the beneficial effects of yoga as a means of stress management and improving health and well-being, the practice gained more acceptance and respect. Since the 1990s, it has absolutely exploded in popularity. Today, approximately 16.5 million Americans are taking classes in Hatha yoga — the branch of yoga that combines physical poses, or asanas, with breathing techniques, or pranayama. These classes meet in a wide variety of settings including yoga studios, health clubs, businesses, churches, physical therapy clinics, and hospitals.

An estimated 2,000 studies of the health benefits of yoga have been conducted since the 1920s, with much of this research taking place over the past fifteen years. Arguably, it was Dean Ornish's landmark 1983 study that spurred Western medicine's adoption of yoga within the realm of what's commonly called "complementary medicine." The Ornish study showed that yoga training plus dietary changes were associated with a fourteen-point drop in serum cholesterol levels and greater heart efficiency in just three weeks' time. Such studies — and many others that have supported and built upon Ornish's work — have encouraged physicians to recommend yoga practice not just for patients at risk of heart disease, but for those with back pain, arthritis, depression, and other chronic conditions.

"Today, approximately 16.5 million people are taking classes in Hatha yoga."

Yoga Brought into the Schools

Before the 1990s, most yoga training and practices in the West were adult-oriented, emphasizing physical poses, mental relaxation and meditation techniques, and some breathing techniques. The relatively few children's yoga classes that existed then were typically outside the school environment and focused on simple physical poses and games. But due to a convergence of forces around the turn of the 21st century, this began to change.

As awareness of the health benefits of yoga grew among adults, it was only a matter of time before educators and children's health providers would apply it to the needs of youth. As mentioned above, American schools and families today face daunting challenges: low academic achievement; increasing rates of autism, depression, anxiety, asthma, and obesity; unfunded mandates to increase scores on standardized tests in regular and special education; reductions in state and federal education budgets; loss of physical education, sports, music, dance, and art programs; and big-budget advertising by multinational companies selling high-fat, high-calorie foods. Schools also deal with attention-challenges, violence, and a decline in parent involvement.

These factors, and the mainstreaming of students with various physical and behavioral disabilities into the classroom, have increased the responsibilities of teachers to provide not only academic training, but also special-needs adaptations, physical fitness training, and emotional support services. In some cases, teachers may even function as frontline social workers. The resulting stress for teachers and students alike is taking its toll. According to a 2002 Washington Post report, "Even without the pressures of a violent crisis, teachers complain that their jobs, while rewarding, are getting harder because of too few resources, too much paperwork, crowded classrooms, students with emotional problems, low pay and high-stakes standardized tests."

As these forces converged with public awareness of both the physical and mental health benefits of yoga, teachers, administrators, social workers, and psychologists began to apply some of the more common principles and practices of yoga to address the challenges of educating children today. That these efforts...