What is Yoga? | Instruction | Yoga For Kids

Bronwyn has taught yoga to children for the last 5 years. She is skillful in working with children of a wide range of abilities, from dancers to those with physical challenges. Publicly, she has taught kids at the Berkeley YMCA, Orinda Yoga, and The Berkeley Yoga Center. Since 2000 she has been teaching at The Berkeley Arts Magnet Elementary School where she teaches a kindergarten class and a 1-through-6-grade class. She has also taught family workshops and parent/child classes in which the adults are encouraged to participate. Bronwyn specializes in teaching children one-on-one, which allows room to work more intimately with the specific goals of the child. These one-hour sessions can also be shared by siblings or friends.
 

Bronwyn quoted in article on youth yoga

"Spotlight Health"
by John Morgan
with medical adviser Stephen A. Shoop, M.D.

Yoga may be the hottest fad in Hollywood but one sizzling actress has a cooler response. Kristin Davis who plays Charlotte on Sex and The City has been doing yoga for years and even opened her own yoga studio. "The yoga fad is silly," says Davis. "Yoga has been around 5,000 years. It doesn't matter if actresses are doing it. People are responding to yoga on a deeper level. It's not a fad." And Davis appears to be right.

Recent statistics from yoga experts now estimate that there are upwards of 18 million Americans practicing yoga. Many of these yoga devotees have discovered the myriad of mind-body benefits that yoga produces including decreased stress and increased strength.

Yoga, which in Sanskrit means "yoke" or "union," represents the integration of mind, body and spirit into a unifying experience - a sense of total well-being.

With adults flocking to classes, Davis now hopes that many children will experience yoga.

"I wish I had had yoga as a child," says the 25-year-old actress. "I wasn't really good at anything physical before I did yoga. Now I am a lot more confident and have better control of my body."

And Davis may just get her wish. The Yoga House recently joined forces with GAIAM Yoga for Life organization to raise money to bring the healing practice of yoga into schools and community centers across the country.

"I've been doing yoga for 24 years and I have taught kids so I know how incredibly powerful yoga can be for them," shares Tara Lynda Guber, founder of The Yoga House. "My dream has always been to offer yoga in schools."

One school that already has a GAIAM-sponsored pilot yoga program is The Accelerated School (TAS) in South Central Los Angeles. The yoga classes are being tested and developed specifically for students of this innovative charter public school. The student body is 59% Latino and 39% African American.

Mind

The rationale for adding yoga to school programs is relatively simple. By practicing yoga, students learn to go within themselves to create an inner peace or sense of calm. This helps them better relax and focus their attention, especially when combined with basic meditative techniques.

"There are over 500 articles on yoga at the National Library of Medicine," states Dr. David Simon, medical director of the Chopra Center for Well Being in La Jolla, Calif. "Many of these studies demonstrate that yoga has profound relaxation benefits. It stabilizes our inner environment so we become less reactive to stress in our external environment."

"I have witnessed firsthand how yoga can help the students concentrate, focus and relax enough to take in new and difficult information," says Laura Naughton, Arts Coordinator at TAS.

The school's academic results have been nothing short of impressive. Test scores at TAS exceed the district average and are more than twice as high as scores of neighboring schools.

"I find that my students do better in school," reports Bronwyn Michaelis, a yoga instructor at the Berkeley Yoga Center in Berkeley, Calif. "A lot of kids have a lot more stress in this day and age than you might think. Yoga gives them a calm, focused energy."

"Studies on meditative yoga clearly show that disengaging one's attention from turbulence allows people to better tend to the task at hand," adds Simon. "Everyone remembers being ready for a test but getting rattled blocked your performance. Yoga helps you stay alert, more focused and less reactive to challenges."

To achieve this mental state, Michaelis ends each class with five minutes of savasana, or the resting corpse pose. This posture encourages the kids to relax and fosters a sense of inner peace.

"It's important to give students an inner mentor," says Guber, who served eight years as president of Education First. "Instead of a 'timeout', we can give them 'time in.'"

Body

Yoga also provides an excellent low-cost exercise program. It provides strengthening and flexibility benefits as well as cardiovascular improvements.

"Kids love being able to feel how their bodies move. It's a fundamental part of their education," concludes Michaelis, who welcomes the public to join her Monday class at the Berkeley Yoga Center.

"Yoga looks fun to kids and is a valuable component to a fitness program," states Simon, who has a daughter in college as well as a toddler. "The younger generations are using their bodies less and less with P.E. programs being cut. Yoga adds value to their general health."

To better appeal to young children, Michaelis keeps the yoga postures simple and plays lots of games using yoga techniques. "They love the animal postures like the lion, the cat, the mouse and the cobra," says Michaelis, who teaches students as young as three.

Michaelis also keeps classes shorter than adult classes, usually 45 minutes, and does not teach any exercises that require balancing on the neck or head.

"A good yoga instructor will prevent kids from injuring themselves, teaching them to understand their bodies' limits," cautions Simon. "Yoga cultivates body awareness. Most exercise teaches you to ignore your body signals. Yoga is the opposite of 'no pain, no gain.'"

But Davis has trouble with people focusing solely on the physical results of yoga.

"I think it's a little strange to do yoga to get a better butt," offers Davis, whose co-stars Kim Cattrall and Cynthia Nixon also do yoga. "Yoga offers much, much more."

Spirit

According to Guber, one clear benefit is a calmer classroom and better interpersonal relations. "Yoga counteracts fear and fosters self-esteem," she says. "From a world of fear comes illness and hatred."

Simon agrees. "Kids who do you yoga enjoy better socialization and interpersonal interactions."

"So much of yoga is listening - to your body and to others," says Michaelis. "I've seen older students helping younger students with postures. Yoga creates a sense of community."

And the communal spirit exists outside the classroom at TAS, says Guber. "We have classes after school for parents and they are very well-attended."

According to Michaelis, yoga is not about competition. It fosters a sense of self-esteem without coming at another's expense, as many sports require.

"Yoga isn't about achieving anything," concludes Davis, who travels everywhere with her favorite yoga tape. "It's an incredible feeling and all you need to do is show up, be in your body and do the breathing."

While Sex and the City may be strictly for adults, Davis clearly believes that yoga definitely is kids' stuff.

GAIAM Yoga for Life
The Yoga House
The Chopra Center for Well Being
The Accelerated School
The Berkeley Yoga Center
'Sex and the City'
Spotlight Health
ReikiYoga.com