Why Kids’ Yoga is Beneficial for Their Health and Happiness
Literally meaning “union”, yoga allows the body and the mind to be connected. With a 5000+ year lineage, yoga was introduced first to the West in 1893. Since then, it has expanded and evolved drastically.
Most people tend to associate yoga with adults. But there’s actually also yoga for children. In this blog, we’ll discuss how kids’ yoga is different from the traditional yoga that adults do and how beneficial it is for young ones.
How Does Kids’ Yoga Differ from Adults’ Yoga?
Any certified kids’ yoga teacher should know and understand the differences between yoga for children and adults. In the former’s case, the classes are typically more exploratory and focus more on play. They also tend to be integrated with more experiential elements, but this will depend on a number of factors.
Teaching kids’ yoga lessons means looking at the entirety of the child and identifying how to meet their needs best. It also offers a number of benefits in the physical, emotional, behavioral, and cognitive areas.
Let’s discuss these benefits below:
Physical Benefits
First up, yoga offers physical benefits. It helps the body to open up, thereby allowing the child to increase the connection between their mind and their body. It also helps activate the autonomic nervous system. Yoga also improves the child’s respiration since breath is the portal to the nervous system. Most importantly, yoga helps lower stress levels, allowing the body to get back into balance.
Emotional Benefits
Yoga is also emotionally beneficial for children. It helps them to be more self-confident. It also helps them feel safer and stronger. It also helps them become more resilient and empowers both the kids’ yoga instructor and the child. Through breathwork and movement, yoga can also help minimize the symptoms caused by depression and anxiety.
Behavioral Benefits
Through yoga, the young ones are able to develop a level of trust in other people. As a result, it can help them create meaningful connections with others. Most importantly, yoga allows them to repair any disruptions that might exist between their relationships with others. These are only some of the behavioral benefits such classes can offer the children.
Cognitive Benefits
The cognitive benefits of yoga in children cannot be underestimated. Through breathwork, they can focus and concentrate better. It also helps them become more imaginative. Through mindful movements, the young ones can increase the connection between their mind and body as well as think better since their prefrontal cortex becomes thicker.
Conclusion
Yoga offers comprehensive benefits not only for adults but also for children. With the help of a certified children’s yoga instructor, the young ones will be able to take advantage of these benefits and improve their wellness.
Interested in training to become a Certified Kids Yoga Teacher? Our Yoga Alliance-approved course is online this August 2024! Please check out all the information HERE.
Exploring the Koshas: How Yoga Therapy Promotes Holistic Wellness
The Pancha Maya Kosha system is the primary model used in the holistic assessment and application of yoga therapy. In this blog, we’ll discuss the Kosha system, explore the Koshas, and why it’s considered a holistic health model.
What is the Kosha System?
When talking about origins, the Kosha systems comes from the Taittiriya Upanishad, which translates as the following:
Pancha means five.
Maya means illusion, or that which has a relative reality.
Kosa means sheath, cell, envelope, container, treasure or a bud of a flower (that can reveal itself).
Since the Kosas or sheaths are interrelated, they affect each other. Any professional who has undergone yoga therapist certification understands that you must work holistically. Yoga means union - and therefore you address the body and the mind. You should be able to think holistically and proceed mindfully aware of the person you’re helping.
The Five Koshas
There are five sheaths in the Pancha Maya Kosha system. To understand how this system promotes holistic wellness, let’s thoroughly discuss each of the five koshas.
https://www.himalayanyogaashram.com/blog/2019/05/11/the-five-koshas/
Annamaya Kosha - Food Body
This kosha is our perception of our physical body. This comprises what we eat, which is why it’s known as the food sheath.
In most cases, this is also where a student notices an imbalance first. For instance, if the student pulls a muscle in a sport, it doesn’t only affect the body but it also affects the other mental koshas.
Licensed yoga practitioners typically regulate the annamaya kosha first through Classical Hatha, Iyengar yoga, and Ayurvedic practices first before tackling the mental sheaths.
Pranamaya Kosha - Breath Body
The next kosha is our energetic body as well as our breath. It’s the bridge between the body and the mind. As such, it’s also a useful link between physiological and psychological processes, aside from being an entry point for examination or assessment.
The chakras, nadis, and vayus are maps that explore pranamaya.
Manomaya Kosha - Mind Body
This kosha is fed by our senses. It’s also cognitive in nature. Manomaya encompasses our thoughts, beliefs, emotions, as well as our sense of individuality (Sullivan & Hyland Robertson, pg. 90).
At this level, it’s important to modify our mental habits, or at times even intercept them, before tuning into our higher self. For instance, when a person keeps poor company, they are preventing themselves from nurturing good friendships.
Appropriate practices such as chanting and Yoga Nidra can help address manomaya kosha.
Vijnanamaya Kosha - Wisdom Body
This kosha, as per Sullivan & Hyland Robertson, is composed of faith, righteousness, meditation, truth, and detachment. The wisdom body also is capable of motivating us from either our conscious or subconscious level of knowledge.
Some practices to address this kosha are meditation and discernment.
Anandamaya Kosha - Bliss Body
This kosha is a person’s ability to access their inherent positive qualities and integrate such qualities into daily living. It’s also sometimes said to contain a person’s karma, so it’s also referred to as the causal body. According to Kamini Desai, Ph.D., the bliss body is the final veil to ultimate reality or self. This kosha allows the melding of the “I” into the whole.
Are you a yoga teacher looking to advance your therapeutic knowledge and practice? Check out our Yoga Alliance 300, Continuing Education Courses, and IAYT-Certified Yoga Therapy Certification Program at PYI.
Aspects of Sound Healing: Toning, Deep Listening and Freeing the Natural Voice
The integration of sound into yoga practice is not just an enhancement of the physical experience, but a profound method of healing and transformation. Teaching yoga with a focus on sound healing elements, like toning, deep listening, and freeing the natural voice, opens up a new dimension of yoga therapy. This article explores these aspects, highlighting the importance of sound in yoga teacher training and yoga therapy online training programs.
The Power of Intention in Sound Healing
Intention is a fundamental component in sound healing. As noted by Steven Halpern, PhD, and sound healer, sound acts as a “carrier wave of consciousness.” Jonathan Goldman simplifies this concept with his formula: Frequency + Intention = Healing. This implies that a pure intention combined with a pure tone creates the right conditions for healing and transformation.
Toning and Its Benefits
Toning, a practice involving the creation of extended vocal sounds, has numerous benefits. It helps in releasing tension, centering the mind, lowering blood pressure, and stimulating bone conduction.
In yoga, just as āsana creates shapes with the body, toning creates shapes with the mouth, resonating within the body and affecting our physical, mental, and energetic states. “Tone is carried through the air to our ears, but it is the etheric which carries the real essence of the tone to our inner being,” Rudolf Steiner emphasized the spiritual connection toning provides, uniting us with our origins and involving our entire being in the process.
Sound and the Energetic Body
In yoga, bījas or seed syllables are used to move energy and tune our chakras. Each chakra has a corresponding seed syllable, such as LAM for the Muladhara / Root chakra or AUM for the Ajna / Third-eye chakra. These syllables are powerful tools in sound yoga therapy, impacting the energetic body and facilitating divine connection.
Tuning Forks in Sound Healing
Tuning forks, as explained by John Beaulieu, PhD, are tools in sound healing that induce a ‘still point,’ aiding in mental and physical pattern shifts. Beaulieu’s forks with overtones are particularly effective, aligning with the concept of entrainment where brain waves sync with sound waves.
https://solancha.com/understanding-sound-therapy-and-its-healing-effect/
Freeing the Natural Voice
The voice is more than a mere sound; it’s an expression of the soul. Hazrat Inayat Khan and Tom Kenyon emphasize the profound connection between voice, breath, and life. In yoga practices, like sound meditation or sound yoga therapy, using our voice helps in expanding breath capacity, releasing nitric oxide, and connecting with our inner selves. Regular vocal practice can lead to significant healing and unification of body, mind, and spirit.
Creating Your Own Sound Practice
To integrate sound healing into yoga practice, one can create a sacred “sound temple,” a space free from distractions where one can explore different sounds and mantras. This includes using drones and various sound entry points to achieve clarity and purification. This approach aligns with the teachings of Silvia Nakkach, “find ways to help you soften the mind and open you to divine intervention”. Focus on softening the mind and opening up to divine intervention.
The Practice of Deep Listening
Deep Listening, a concept developed by Pauline Oliveros, is about being fully present and attentive to all sounds, distinguishing between hearing and listening. This practice, which can be further explored at https://www.deeplistening.org/, emphasizes the importance of silence and attentiveness for internal and external healing.
Medicine Melodies
Medicine melodies are intuitive sounds that reflect a sacred unity with nature. They appear in various traditions as lullabies, chants, mantras, and healing songs. Engaging in deep listening allows individuals to tap into these melodies, transforming them into vehicles for healing and spiritual connection, as explained by Silvia Nakkach.
Integrating Sound into Yoga Accreditation and Training
Incorporating these elements into yoga teacher training and yoga accreditation programs is essential. It expands the scope of yoga from being merely a physical practice to a holistic healing approach. As yoga therapy online training becomes more prevalent, including sound therapy elements like sound meditation and sound yoga therapy enriches the learning experience, equipping future yoga teachers with a comprehensive understanding of yoga’s healing potential.
The Bottom Line
The fusion of sound healing techniques with traditional yoga practices offers a multifaceted approach to wellness. It’s not just about teaching yoga; it’s about imparting a deeper understanding of how sound can be used as a powerful tool for healing, transformation, and spiritual connection. As the field of yoga continues to evolve, incorporating sound healing principles will undoubtedly become an integral part of yoga teacher training and therapy programs, enriching the practice for both teachers and students alike.
Interested in sound yoga, sound healing and in learning how to incorporate sound into your yoga practice or profession? Join Jessica Caplan, Dana Slamp and more this spring – live and online – for Sound Yoga Therapy. CE’s with Yoga Alliance and credit towards our Yoga Therapy Certification. Call us at Prema Yoga Institute and advance your yoga teaching career today!
About Jessica Caplan
Jessica Caplan, an E-RYT200 certified yoga instructor and integrative Sound Practitioner, began her journey in yoga in 2006 with Pure Yoga Hong Kong’s teacher training. Specializing in sound therapy, she trained at the Open Center’s Sound and Music Institute under renowned experts. Jessica skillfully integrates soundbaths, meditative soundscapes, and voice and sound healing workshops into her practice. She co-created the audio meditation series SoundMind and co-teaches PYI’s signature course, Sound Yoga Therapy every spring online at Prema Yoga Institute. Jessica’s work, deeply rooted in a blend of yoga, sound healing, and various spiritual traditions, is accessible at www.jessicacaplanyoga.com.