Yoga for Kids: Holistic Approach to the Health of Our Children

Please note it is your responsibility to evaluate the accuracy, completeness, usefulness, appropriateness and safety of any information, opinion or advice contained in the content below.

By Paul Jerard

Yoga is “preventative medicine” for children and adults. Yet the world does not embrace preventative action. Just look at hunger, global warming, health care, and poverty. Now you see that some people do take action, but many do not.

Educating the public about the many benefits, which children experience from Yoga practice, is a full-time job for some Yoga teachers. Although most of the public thinks of Yoga postures as a “mild” form of exercise; there are many more different aspects to Yoga practice.

Yoga is a complete holistic approach to health. Yoga teaches proper breathing, dieting, exercise, meditation, relaxation techniques, and many more natural solutions to health problems.

Yoga and Ayurvedic medicine have dieting practices based upon a person’s constitution or dosha. This same classification can be made for exercise routines. An Ayurvedic doctor will, most likely, recommend specific exercises based upon a patient’s dosha.

The entire approach of Yoga and Ayurveda is based upon preventative measures. There are also solutions for “damage control,” when a person has an existing ailment, but any doctor can agree that many of today’s health problems are preventable.

Let’s look at global obesity. The public is very tired of hearing about obesity. Your spam filters are working overtime to pull all of the “Instant weight loss” methods out of your Email box. If you read through the spam, you will notice that spammers want to sell you pills, not permanent solutions to obesity. The spammer’s approach is to make quick money off the public.

When the majority of our population refuses to exercise, the easy money is in selling pills, instant weight loss, and “snake oil.” There is a solution, but most of us will not like it. Yogic diets are full of fruit, vegetables, and natural food. Even in India, it can be observed that diabetes is on the rise, when people eat “junk food.”

As the Indian economy has improved, so has the “middle class appetite” for processed food. This runs parallel to western social and economic patterns.

What does this have to do with Yoga for kids? Yoga is a lifestyle and the earlier you expose children to good health habits, the better your child’s health will be.

As parents, we have many choices, but establishing good health habits, within our children, is an obligation. We also have to eat properly, and exercise, with our children. If you cannot go to a Yoga class, you can always take your child out for a walk. Parents are role models, and any child will copy the image, which you create for him or her.

Yoga classes for children are a parent’s gift of good health. Yoga gives kids a better chance to develop good habits, handle stress, find natural solutions to good health, and live a quality life.

About the Author

Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500, is a co-owner and the director of Yoga teacher training at: Aura Wellness Center, in Attleboro, MA. http://www.riyoga.com He has been a certified Master Yoga teacher since 1995. To receive a Free e-Book: “Yoga in Practice,” and a Free Yoga Newsletter, please visit: http://www.yoga-teacher-training.org/index.html

NOTE FROM ‘RAISEYOURCHILD.ORG’: check with your physician if Yoga is appropriate for your child.

Free Newsletter

Sign up for the free Daily newsletter, filled with tips and ideas on how child care, child education, child health, child safety, homeschooling, or raising your child as a single parent. Your email address will be kept confidential and won't be shared. Easily unsubscribe at any time.

If you enjoy the free information available on this site, you're sure to enjoy the free newsletter as well:

Site Search Tags:

Share and Enjoy:

March 26 2008 09:41 pm | Child Development and Child Health and College and Teens

One Response to “Yoga for Kids: Holistic Approach to the Health of Our Children”

Ayesha Lakhani on 07 Apr 2008 at 1:14 am #

Good piece of information especially linked to the Indian scenario.
United Nations-MDG..this might interest you…
One of the darkest characteristics of poverty is that is seems to prey on the vulnerable and defenseless. In low-income countries, one out of every 10 children dies before the age of five. In wealthier nations, this number is only one out of 143.
I think its high time we all individually or collectively Stand Up and Speak Out for our rights

This will help all you people on this blog to do something along with the United Nations in your locality.
Check this
http://www.orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=47234928

Trackback URI | Comments RSS

Raise Your Child . org

Advice on Parenting and Raising Children