by Katie Samye
When I first started learning to teach children yoga, my daughter was 10 months old and my son was 2 1/2 and I wanted to explore how to include my children in my yoga life. My yoga life had previously been my own life. My yoga life was now my family life. My life was now unstable and unpredictable. Sometimes I would get up to practice. Other times I wouldn’t. Other times I couldn’t! For four years I didn’t get a good night’s sleep. And I usually got crawled on when I did wake up and try to practice. So I learnt how to teach children yoga, and then I learnt how to teach babies yoga. And through this process of learning I learnt that what was at the heart of yoga practice differed in each stage of our lives.
When we have our babies, the greatest gift we can give to them is positive physical and emotional bonding, and that is the basis of Baby Yoga, our Sadhana (this means our Yoga Practice). When babies experience positive physical touch and voice, it makes them feel happy. It has a positive impact on their nervous system, their brain development and their future emotional and physical health (scientific studies back this up 100%). It makes us feel happy too. And that has a positive effect on our health and on everyone else around us.
If/when our bodies need repair in the years after giving birth, our practice should be compassionate to our mental, emotional and physical needs. Parted tummy muscles may need rejoining and strengthening, pelvic floors may need to learn again how to be strong, exhaustion reigns and also the need for a bit of me-time amongst the all-encompassing needs of our new child. Our Sadhana (yoga practice) should directly attend to the needs of the mother, compassionately and with a dedicated practice.
When our babies grow into toddlers, they need boundaries but also love and the witnessing of their parents’ yoga practice along with the opportunity to join in. Our practice may not be what it once was and may not have yet become what it will be. But it is good to come and be in the company of others and there are some things that we know are good to do. A moment of calm where the children witness parents meditating for 10 minutes at the start of each class. Then greeting each other, saluting the sun and greeting the earth. Routines to develop balance and encourage stretching. Going upside down.The contrast between action & stillness. The beginning of creative play. Positive breathing practices practiced and copied.
As children continue on from those first steps of independence, they need a sheltered space where they can flourish and grow and come into their own being. In children’s yoga, parents also sit on the mat, sometimes they get involved but mainly they are there to support their child when they attempt to balance like a star fish or need a pretend mouse to practice massaging on. Children work together copying the shapes, sounds and movements of animals seen in nature, flying rockets to the moon, and swimming deep under the sea. They become aware of their bodies and connected to their breath. There are breathing practices (pranamyama) at the beginning, asana (physical postures) and stories in the middle and relaxation at the end. This is their Sadhana (their practice), and week after week, they understand the rhythm of it and seek peace in its practice.
And all along, as their parents we grow. The seasons pass. Our needs change. And our children mirror our lives. They watch our struggles and let go of their own and begin to mirror ours. What they see in the cold light of dawn is how they will learn to live for themselves. If they see their mum seated in meditation each morning when they awaken, they will learn that devoted practice is a real option (and perhaps a necessity) for their lives. They will know how it feels to be with you when you are doing your practice. If they see their mum eventually regaining her former practice or struggling with even half of it sometimes, they can even at 3 or 4 (and certainly at 5 and 6) learn to respect the perfect space that is created through our Sadhana (our practice) and know instinctively when to come into that space, even when to help (my children sometimes come and support me in different poses), and when to wait for when it is over and we are finished. Sounds like a miracle?
Someone once wrote something that resonated deeply with me…
‘It seems these children are dream whisperers. That if you are ready to give up your dreams for them, put yourself into service to fulfil their dreams, then by some strange, shamanic alchemy your own dreams begin to come true.’ The Long Ride Home, Rupert Isaacson.
I came to the conclusion that my children were my yoga practice. And as I let go and did a practice (loving them and meeting their needs) that was relevant to my needs/ the stage of life I was in, a miracle occurred.. not only did they learn yoga, but they learnt about being yogic and began to support me in regaining my physical practice.
You see, children’s learning is inseparable from you. The children are our future, it is not us. We are transformed by our children by letting go of the old version of us and inviting the new version into our hearts, allowing heart and mind to operate in unity, supported by practice.
How is it not possible for a child to learn yoga from this?
KS