New Kids on the Mat

Yoga is a wonderful opportunity for parents to lead by example. Through the postures, adults show children that they take spiritual virtue and physical vitality seriously-but not without losing their sense of humor! The message and the postures and practices in my book, My Daddy is a Pretzel: Yoga for Parents and Kids will help children to enjoy the benefits and rewards of yoga practice without the performance pressures children might experience doing other kinds of group physical exercise or team sports.

All of the postures presented in the book help parents introduce different yoga postures into the lives of their children, in a uniquely fun way. The words used to describe the poses give children a sense of not only how to move their bodies but also speaks to their young minds and hearts. For instance, Tree pose, Vrksasana, is presented as the pose that "teaches us to support ourselves with strong roots, so that we can reach high and remain stable, yet be flexible, at the same time." Introducing concepts of both inner and outer strength as well as flexibility is so important to young, developing minds. It helps them begin to cultivate a sense of balance, peace and equanimity, which we know as adults, is so critical to our emotional, mental and physical health.

One of the main ideas yoga helps children recognize is that it's not about how perfect the posture is, but more about moving the body and having fun. Children have a natural sense of this but as they grow older, their focus starts to shift more to the competitive and performance aspects of being active. We began a recent yoga class by asking each child to introduce themselves. One of the kids started out by saying, "Just so you know, I can't do tree very well!" We got a little laugh out of that, but the humility shown by this child was so beautiful. Children who practice yoga tend to develop a sense of acceptance and flexibility of spirit that promotes internal well-being.

My goal, both as a parent and a yoga teacher, is to present health and virtue not as something to possess or have but as something to be-in fact, the most important thing to be. As we read this story to our children and practice the postures, we begin to acquaint them with the idea that a life of good health, virtue and vitality is worth living. We invite them to lift their young eyes, to reach up and to grow into brave and powerful young people.

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