To Grow Up a Yogi: Interviews with Three Lifelong Practitioners
Children today are under as much stress as adults. And with the busy, achievement-oriented lives they lead, kids need tools to help them self-nurture, self-adjust, and feel happy. Children are expected to behave in ways that their nervous systems cannot easily manage without physical activity, yet they are increasingly inactive in school and at home. And every day the number of children diagnosed with ADHD, Autism, and other sensory issues grow higher.
Children today are under as much stress as adults.
The good news is that kids can find much balance and support via natural exercise and play—in the form of yoga, meditation, and mindfulness. In the formative years of childhood, yoga is purposeful play that brings physical, mental, and emotional fitness. Yoga tools include calming breathing practices, affirmative songs for positive self-talk, and movements/poses to organize the nervous system and strengthen the physical body.
Imagine a world where children grow up with yoga in their homes and their schools. Talk about a revolution!
Recently I sat down with three young people who did, in fact, grow up with yoga. The first is a young woman who was my yoga student from age three until eight and recently reconnected with me after twenty years. Next is a teenage boy who has been raised in a spiritual path and has done yoga since birth. And finally, an eight-year-old yoga practitioner who is also a children’s yoga teacher.
In their own words, these three told me how yoga has impacted their lives as children, and how it continues to help them grow as integrated, authentic people.
