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6 Strategies to Protect Children From Troubling Times

Toddler holding American flag

Protect Children Through Troubling Times

Children are like sponges, absorbing the energy around them. Once they’ve internalized their environment they begin to reflect it back outward. They may not know why they feel afraid or even that what they are feeling is fear. It’s up to us adults to protect kids by creating a healthy emotional environment for them.

In times of emotional distress, how can we make ourselves and the children around us feel safe and grounded? The key is to give ourselves some perspective and a few messages of hope. Here are 6 strategies for feeling grounded again:

Practice mindfulness – take a few slow, relaxing breaths and bring yourself into the present moment. Remind yourself, in this moment, in your own home, you are safe. This will help you release fear of catastrophes that are formulating in your mind. Follow up with yoga and meditation to refocus your mind in a healthy way.
Acknowledge life is not always easy – There may be very difficult times ahead and the only way to get through them is to keep grounded, strong and healthy to do the important work ahead. I moved through my pain and disbelief by talking it through with friends. These like-minded people helped to remind me that life may not be easy but having the support of others makes getting through the hard times easier. No matter our distress, finding positive minded individuals can get us through it.
Focus on personal or family goals – Our path doesn’t always move forward in a straight line. Sometimes things drift too far left and other times too far right. They may even seem to be going backward at times. It’s our job to ensure we keep moving towards our goals and well-being regardless of the detour the world throws at us. The world will come around to join us eventually.
Focus on personal values – Ask yourself “What’s important for me and my family? What do I hold dear?” Don’t let your values go out the window when times are tough. Hold on to them because they will be your guide and anchor during the hard times. Those with strong values guide others who are feeling lost. It’s during troubling times more than ever that it’s important to have leaders who remain focused on their true values.
Conserve your mental energy – Limit the amount of time you read or watch news. A continual barrage of bad news or dismal forecasts can be mentally exhausting. Just like the student in the story of the empty cup, once your mind is full of unhealthy ideas there is no room left for healthy ideas. Save your energy to tend to your well-being. Don’t spend it on fear and worry.
Take action – Sometimes the only thing that helps is doing something concrete. Honor your feelings. Sometimes even anger and fear can spark positive action. Focus on clear and easy things you can do. Donate to a cause. Volunteer to help a group in need. Bring yoga and meditation to those in distress. Teach children why you hold your values so dearly. Or choose to not add to the doom and gloom, especially when children are around.

Accepting Disagreement

Yogi Bhajan had a saying, “If you don’t see God in all, you don’t see God at all.” This is a reminder that everyone is different and they have their own lived experience. Yes, there are terrible people in the world and we should not give terrible people a free pass to do terrible things. But not everyone we disagree with is a terrible person.

We can use the tools of mindfulness, awareness and yoga to continue to work together to make the world better for each other and for all our children, even in troubling times.

Now Your Turn… Share Your Strategies

Have you found strategies for keeping centered during times of stress? Do you need suggestions?

You can share your ideas in the comments. Let’s come back to these when we need them!

Other News

If you’d like to fill your cup with more yoga and meditation tools and resources visit the Upcoming Kids Yoga Teacher Training Courses page.

Research on Why Kids Yoga Improves School Performance

There was a time when school recess was considered a way for kids to burn off energy so they would sit still for book learning. Now a days, thanks to scientific research, we know exercise is indeed good for the body but it is also great for the brain.

Research shows physical activity improves memory in the elderly and encourages neuronal growth in the young.

How can we harness this type of research to convince schools, daycare centers, and parents to get enthusiastic about kids yoga? Wouldn’t it be great to have scientifically supported evidence to promote yoga for kids?

Well good news, a group of scientific researchers gathered to investigate the effects of exercise on kids’ brains and shared with the world their consensus on the benefits of exercise!

In the year 2016 this happened at the aptly named Copenhagen Consensus Conference. Researchers from eight different countries came together to issue a joint statement on the effect of exercise on kids’ health.

Kids are ready to go in the Kids Yoga Teacher Training — Taking exercise breaks, like running games in the gym, are good for kids academically.

Consensus on the Benefits of Exercise for Children from Researchers

They agreed on the easily guessable, common sense stuff, that exercise improves kids’ bones, muscles and hearts. They also agreed that the fitness levels of these in kids is a good predictor of whether or not the they will go on to develop heart disease, diabetes or other chronic diseases later in life.

8 Reasons why Exercise, Like Kids Yoga, Improves School Performance

The Copenhagen Consensus didn’t stop at the physical benefits of exercise; they reported on the mental and emotional effects of exercise. They agreed that:

Physical activity improves brain structure, brain function and cognition.
Physical activity before, during and after school improves performance in other school work.
Learning to master physical movements improves performance in school work
Regular physical activity can improve kids’ self-esteem and relationships with peers and adults
Focused physical activity creates a good motivational environment for kids
Exercise programs promote life skills and core values in kids
Two additional points that the Copenhagen Consensus group agreed on are worth highlighting. They agreed that a single session of physical activity helps kid’s brains. That means a single game of soccer, a single recess of tag, a single yoga class can result in measurable benefits to kids mental activity.
The next important point the group agreed on was that spending time being physically active doesn’t sacrifice performance in school work. On the contrary, spending time on physical activity helps overall school performance.

In other words, schools (and parents) have absolutely no good reason to declare their kids don’t have time for an exercise program because they are focusing on school work. Exercise increases performance in school work.

kids yoga teacher training, yoga for children — Even an exercise break in the classroom is good for kids brains.

Exercise to Improve Scholastic Performance

As yoga teachers we can stress the importance of exercise by asking: do you want kids to study for the sake of studying, or do you want kids to improve their scholastic performance?

Because if the aim is to create better students, then kids should spend some time with a ball instead of a pen and some time doing downward dog instead of sitting behind a desk.

You can read the full statement by The Copenhagen Consensus Conference 2016 here.

For ideas to bring kids yoga into schools, check out these two resources:

Kids Yoga Teachers of the World – Unite

When I was a kid I loved watching the Justice League, the caped crusaders who banded together to fight evil. It was exciting to see all that power in one room.

Many years later, one of my first yoga students owned a very popular restaurant in downtown Toronto. She came in one day talking about a new restaurant opening down the street from her. You might think she would be upset about the competition, but she was actually happy. Over the years their location had become known as a “restaurant district.” Great eateries banding together actually helped their bistro businesses boom. It was a lessons on how to be creative rather than competitive.

Banding together isn’t just for Super Heroes and Restaurants

Today I want to tell you about the incredible way Kids Yoga Teachers from around the world are banding together to create something good for all of us. Here’s how you can be part of it.

Leah Kalish, founder of Move with Me Yoga, is a finalist in the Partnership for a Healthier America – End Childhood Obesity Innovation Challenge. She is now 1 of 10 finalists vying for the top three spots, to win prizes that include a lot of exposure for kids’ yoga! If we all band together to get votes we can put her into the top three.

It’s just great in so many ways. You help children because:

“Pre-schoolers who are overweight or obese are five times more likely to stay that way. Pre-school is the key time to instill healthy physical activity and self-regulation habits that will last a lifetime.”

– Leah Kalish, Move with Me

It’s also great because you can:

Win One of 65+ Prizes from the Kids Yoga Community

Equally inspiring to me, is the support the Kids Yoga Community is showing. To get people to vote, over 65 kids yoga prizes have been donated by Children’s Yoga Leaders from around the world. These include Young Yoga Masters prizes:

The Frog Yoga Alphabet Teacher Training Double Pack
Yoga Man vs. The Stressor, Yoga for Boys Teacher Training
The Frog Yoga Alphabet - one of the prizes to be won.

Here’s how you can band together to promote kids yoga. Then if you want, enter yourself for the draw for some great prizes:

Vote now for Move with Me Yoga in the Innovation Challenge Contest here.
Then Enter the Raffle here for a chance to win one of the 65+ Prizes (see the full prize list here too).
Tell your friends and get more entries for the 65+ Prizes here.

If You Believe Yoga Can Help End Childhood Obesity – Vote Now

Not only will you be helping a wonderful kids’ yoga teacher, you’ll be helping to get kids yoga recognized as an innovative way to end childhood obesity. Which in turn adds credibility to all the kids’ yoga teachers of the world.

Do what you can to help. I’d love to see a Young Yoga Masters blog reader walk home with some sweet yoga for children loot.

Please leave a comment if you have any questions or any problems filling in the info.

Yours truly,

Aruna Kathy Humphrys
www.YoungYogaMasters.com

P.S. At the time of this post Move with me had slipped to 4^th place in the voting (5 votes behind the important 3^rd place spot). We need your help to get to 3^rd or 2^nd place. Get kids healthy and get kids yoga recognized too! Vote now.

Exploring Kids Brains On Yoga

In the first post on kids’ brains on yoga we saw how the three E’s, Exploring, Energizing, and Engaging help develop healthy brains. This post looks more deeply at the importance of the first E: Exploring.

How Exploring Builds Better Brains

In our mother’s womb, sixteen weeks after conception, our brains start receiving signals from our ears. This experience of sound begins a life long bombardment of stimulation from the senses to the brain. When we are thrust into the light of day our baby brains are flooded with all the senses: sounds, sights, smells, tastes and touch.

Our baby brains begin organizing neurons to understand this onslaught of sensation. Making sense of our senses becomes a life long project we undergo as infants, toddlers, kids and eventually as yoga teachers.

As we age we experience ourselves as a “self” exploring a physical world; a self that faces the ultimate questions of life. Who am I? Where am I? What can I do? Modern brain scanning techniques reveal our brains take a starring role in our exploration of the world. These brain scans also reveal Exploring builds better brains.

Three Ways to Encourage Exploring with Kids Yoga

Kids engage in exploring when they interact with their environment in new and novel ways that pushes their physical, mental and emotional boundaries. Through exploration kids push their brains to develop new connections and learn new skills.

You can foster healthy brain development by providing good exploring activities for kids:

Moving the body– Teaching big movements that involve the entire body and small movements that involve just parts of the body. Kids Yoga: try a rocket ship launch – start in a squat position and use your fingers to do a countdown from ten to one (small movements) then stand up slowly like a rocket ship launching and flying to the moon (large movements).
Explore Music in Yoga – Try a Singing Bowl
Handling physical objects – Teaching the handling of age appropriate toys, props and musical instruments. Kids Yoga: Introducing a Singing Bowl during class is a fun way for children learn to play it, while the other children watch and learn how to play and listen for the sound of the bowl singing.
Interacting with others– Teaching singing, dancing, game playing and partner yoga. Kids Yoga: consider partner yoga bicycle legs (see picture). For toddlers try adult/child partner yoga, with the adult moving a child’s legs like they are riding a bicycle. Then switch and let the toddlers grab the adult’s feet while they slowly bicycle.
Partner Yoga – Bicycle Legs

In the Young Yoga Masters kids yoga teacher training we emphasize choosing postures and activities appropriate for the age group. Remember for toddlers merely standing up is a balancing posture.

Exploring Develops Confidence

When kids Explore they not only develop problem solving skills and motor skills they also develop emotional strength in the face of hardship. Kids faced with a hard task or a complex movement will struggle and learn to deal with struggling.

Kids’ yoga teachers need to be keenly aware that stress can be devastating for children; nevertheless, they shouldn’t be too quick to help a struggling child. Struggle in the right doses helps kids go from not being able to do something to being able to do it easily. We don’t want to deny kids this lesson as it is one they will benefit from for their entire lives. Ziggy Marley and Paul Simon explain it perfectly in song, “Walk tall, walk tall, even if you fall get up.”

In encouraging kids to Explore kids yoga teachers foster problem solving and perseverance in the face of obstacles. Kids become stronger and smarter in a fun, playful and safe environment. Who could ask for anything more?

For a great resource on kids brain development take a look at the Baby Brain Map on the Zero To Three Website.

Written by: Aruna Kathy Humphrys and Hrishikesh Singh

Upcoming Events: Don’t Miss Out!

People are registering for the Young Yoga Masters Kids Yoga Teacher Training from all over the world. Summer is a great time to visit Ontario, Canada and upgrade your skills. Please check out the link or contact me for information on our six certificate weekend trainings and Registered Children’s Yoga School with Yoga Alliance.

You can bring Yoga Yoga Masters to your area – This training is like no other! Contact [email protected] to discover the delightful world of kids yoga and become a kids yoga teacher.

Kids’ Brains On Yoga

A Child Enjoys Her Happy Brain during a Young Yoga Masters Kids Yoga Class

For decades scientists have been studying human brain development to find out what helps in forming healthy brains and what doesn’t. Recently they’ve turned their attention to kids’ brains.

Psychologists, doctors and neuroscientists have discovered when children are not engaged with good learning activities, especially in their earliest years, brain development suffers. While adults might damage their brains by what they do, such as using drugs and intoxicants, kids’ brains can be damaged by what they don’t do. It turns out talking, moving, and playing are all vital activities that help develop kids’ brains.

Kids Yoga Is Brain Friendly

This is all great news for kids yoga teachers because so many of the things they do are brain friendly. In this and the next article we’ll take a look at how kids yoga teachers can apply the findings of modern science to develop healthy kids brains.

The most important aspect of a kids yoga class is you the teacher who is there as a live person interacting with the kids and responding to them in real time. This is significant because a few years ago there was an explosion of baby genius videos which encouraged caregivers to plop toddlers down in front of televisions. Subsequent research showed this was not the best brain developing strategy.

Alice Park in a Time magazine article writes,

The claim always seemed too good to be true: park your infant in front of a video and, in no time, he or she will be talking and getting smarter than the neighbor’s kid. In the latest study on the effects of popular videos such as the “Baby Einstein” and “Brainy Baby” series, researchers find that these products may be doing more harm than good. And they may actually delay language development in toddlers.

She goes on to report that the best activity for toddlers is face time with real human beings.

Kids Need A Real Teacher

In this video, one of the world’s leading kids brain development scientists Patricia Kuhl sums it up in five words, “People need people to learn.”

3 Keys to Good Brain Development In Kids

Different researchers categorize healthy brain development activities in different ways. We can organize them generally into the three E’s:

Exploring -moving around, getting to know their bodies, using imagination
Energizing – stretching poses, balancing poses, poses that develop motor skills
Engaging – conversation, problem solving, music and play

Kids yoga teachers have a giant supply of imaginative games, fun yoga poses and cheerful music that gets kids moving, thinking, and feeling. So the next time you are leading a kids yoga class remember the most important aspect is you as a real live person interacting with the kids. You may be having fun, inspiring character and playing games but that’s not the only thing you’re doing. You’re also building beautiful brains.

Written by: Parampreet Singh
Thanks to Parampreet Singh for today’s guest post. Parampreet not only does yoga and mediation (for about 20 years) but is also my husband! Thanks for helping me out as I get ready for our booth at the Toronto Yoga Show.

Upcoming Events at Young Yoga Masters:

Upcoming Kids Yoga Teacher Training Courses and Dates in Toronto at this link — Our next Kids Yoga Teacher Training starts soon!

New Standards in Kids Yoga Teacher Training

With the launch of my kids yoga – printable teacher training package many parents and teachers have been happy to get their hands on teaching tools for their kids yoga classes. By offering a training download, teachers can learn from home. It saves time, money, travel, you don’t have to get a babysitter, and so on.

Now according to the brand new childrens’ yoga standards introduced by Yoga Alliance in the USA only 8 hours of kids yoga training can be non-contact hours. The new standard in the USA is 95 hours of kids yoga training.

Still, these standards are voluntary! As far as I know at this time anyone can legally teach yoga (please double check this in your country). There are no government regulations for yoga, the few attempts at regulations have failed. There are industry standards, but it is up to each teacher whether they will comply with or join an alliance or association.

What Makes a Kids Yoga Teacher?

I’m a registered yoga teacher with IKYTA (for Kundalini Yoga teachers). We seem to be among the strictest of the yoga regulations – not only do we have to take the 200 or 500 hour training, we also pledge to be a vegetarian and abstain from alcohol to be a teacher.

When I started teaching kids yoga over 10 years ago, there were no universal standards, even for adult yoga. There weren’t any 95 hour kids yoga training courses. They didn’t exist. After I did my adult training I had about 30 hours of kids yoga training in total spread over four years. The rest I learned from books. Which is why I also offer down-loadable trainings. It worked for me!

So I keep going back and forth on how I feel about this new 95 hour training requirement.

Is Yoga Teacher Training a Money Grab?

It could be easy to fill 95 hours of training – but does a new teacher really need this much training to teach kids yoga? Is it worth paying hundreds of dollars a year to register Young Yoga Masters as a training school with Yoga Alliance? Can students afford the extra tuition?

New Standard in Childrens Yoga from Yoga Alliance (USA)

This is where yoga has arrived at today, standards for a practice that existed for 5000 years without them. Take a look at this 95 hour outline on the Yoga Alliance USA Website:

Curriculum must incorporate training hours in the following educational categories:

General Background in the Specialty Area: 12 contact hours
Techniques Training/Practice: 20 contact hours
Teaching Methodology: 15 contact hours
Anatomy and Physiology: 10 contact hours
Yoga Philosophy, Lifestyle and Ethics for Children’s Yoga Teachers: 12 contact hours
Practicum: 18 hours
Remaining Hours (8 hours)

Total: 95 Hours, Total Contact Hours: 87, Additional Teaching Outside Curriculum: 30 hours

Tell us what you think of the new standards:

What do you think of the new 95 hour childrens yoga training standard from Yoga Alliance USA?

Yoga Teachers: Are you going to get the training? Do you feel you need it? Do you already have it?

Parents: What training do you want to be able to do yoga with your kids at home?

School Teachers/Educators: What training do you want to be able to do yoga with your children in the classroom or daycare? Would you feel more comfortable with a longer training?

Everyone: If the government doesn’t require it, do you think it is necessary to train 95 hours?

I’d love to hear what you think of this topic that kinda/sorta affects us all!

Yoga Man vs. The Stressor: Save on this Kids Yoga Teaching Tool

Help kids learn about stress and help yourself with 10 new games, 12 coloring pages, and 6 activity pages that you can print out for your classes with this instant download package. You could be teaching new material today! Click here to save $5 now. (discount expires Wednesday Nov. 24, 2010 at midnight – only 2 days left to save!)