About six months ago, I realized that my objective in life was to make kids happy. That is what I now refer to as “my intention”.
Given my “relatively new” fondness of yoga, I naturally thought of teaching kids yoga. Through the yoga practice indeed, kids can have fun and stay healthy at the same time.
I found out that yoga for kids can help students to release some stress and feel more joy in their life. As children learn to relax, concentrate and be gentle in a fun, creative and non-competitive environment, they are also introduced to a healthier lifestyle.
I read lots of articles and studies, showing that yoga can teach kids and young adults positive ways to deal with their lives. Benefits come in multiple shapes: physically (flexibility, core muscle strength, stamina / vitality), intellectually (sense of focus, concentration) and emotionally (releases stress, self-confidence)…
However, I never thought, until my training with Tirisula has started, that it could also bring great values for kids, besides patience and discipline.
As I am learning the yoga philosophy through the 8 limbs of Ashtanga, from Patanjali, I realized that most of the elements should be instructed to kids. The first two limbs, essentially, comprise most of the values I would like to convey to the next generation, starting with my kids and my young students.
– Yama is based on non-violence, truthfulness, no stealing, respect, and non-covetousness.
– Niyama lies on purity of thoughts, speech and actions, notion of contentment, focus, and self-awareness.
I leave aside the spiritual aspect for now, quite sensible, especially with kids.
I decided to structure my classes in such a way that at every lesson, kids could take away one “value” to easily remember. Since the classes are based on imaginary travels, or experiences, difficult concepts could actually be illustrated in a child’s way. For instance, during a class, kids can imitate animals’ poses such as the snake and the crocodile. In our imaginary story, both animals could actually very helpful and nice. The notion of non-judgment and neutrality show up here, and be reminded when kids meet a new person for instance.
Sophie
200hrs, weekday
