Yoga Stories for Kids

I just wrapped up my six week kids yoga session last week, and thought I would share some ideas for all the parents out there needing constructive, active things to do with their kiddos over the holidays.  My class consisted of 3-6 year olds, but these would be good for older kids as well.  [This also assumes that the parent or adult is already familiar with basic yoga poses.]

Poses with sound effects

As you know, many poses in yoga are named after animals or nature. Why not add sound effects to the pose? Moo like a cow, meow like a cat, roar like a lion and don’t forget be quiet as a mouse — these are great fun and keep your kiddo’s attention and focus.

Yoga Story Time

Once you and your child have a general understanding of the poses, you can create storytime. Tell a story using yoga poses throughout the story.  When your child hears the pose name, they come into the pose.  An example beginning might be:

A little boy was walking through the forest and saw a big, tall Tree.  (Tree Pose)

Don’t worry — you don’t need to be a professional storyteller — just have a general idea of the poses you and your child both know, and let your creativity go from there. After a few times, ask your child to help you with the story and eventually switch places and let them tell the story.

Relaxation Time?

The most asked question I get when I mention that I teach kids yoga, is whether they sit still at the end for Relaxation.  And the answer is yes, they do.  The key is to start small and make sure the yoga class has been pretty active prior to relaxing at the end.  Start with just a minute or two — and give your child/children options — lying on their back, or side or sitting tall.  Let them know the boundaries — this is a quiet time, but allow them to find their comfortable position.  Give them options on what to think about — focusing on their breath might be too difficult. But, they could imagine they’re in their favorite room of their house, or on their favorite vacation, etc.

 Yoga has so many benefits for all of us — including kids. It helps their breathing, muscle tone and fitness. It helps their concentration, focus and ability to handle stress.  What a great thing to do together…

Healthy Habit #2: Nasal Rinse

By now, I’m sure many of you have read or seen information on the importance of nasal washing.  Yes, it takes a little getting used to as you’re gently squeezing warm salt water in one nostril and it comes out through the other nostril and sometimes your mouth — BUT it is so worth it.  For our family, it’s helped tremendously with allergies, the fall sniffles and general sinus trouble.

If you prefer to do this the traditional way, you can buy a Neti pot or nose bidet.  We have been very happy with NeilMed’s SinuRinse bottle and saline packets www.neilmed.com.  I’ve seen these at several area pharmacies if you’d prefer to see it in person first.  For me, the bottle’s easier than the neti pot, and ease of use is an important factor in making it part of my daily routine. Each morning, I do the nasal rinse and jump in the shower. One of my clients shared that she saves time by doing her nasal rinse in the shower – that’s a great idea.

 As we approach the cold & flu season, this is just one of the more natural ways we can stay healthy…

YogaXoga Demystified Yoga DVD

I’m starting a new category to keep everyone updated on my exciting journey creating, producing and distributing YogaXoga’s first yoga DVD, Demystified Yoga. In what felt like a whirlwind that began last spring as just an idea, became 10 boxes of DVDs delivered to my house in July and is today becoming a growing part of YogaXoga.

Today was a very exciting day as the DVD will be available (at the end of this week!) at all of  the Borders and Barnes & Noble stores in the Kansas City metro! This is very exciting — the DVDs will be in the stores for the holidays and for new year resolution shopping.   [For those of you just learning about the DVD, you can learn more at www.yogaxoga.com/dvd  or search for Demystified Yoga on www.amazon.com to see all of our customer reviews! ]

I’m not sure if it was all the rest & sunshine in Hawaii (we had a great time!) or just the time away, but I came home with a new surge of energy and focus to share with more people that yoga doesn’t have to be just for the very fit & flexible!   It doesn’t require that you become a human pretzel or a highly enlightened pretzel. 

I’m very excited and humbled at the amazing feedback through customer reviews and personal emails & notes regarding this DVD.  It’s truly meant for REAL people. It’s for people who want to relieve stress and chronic pain, feel better and move more easily. It’s for people who just need 30 minutes or an hour of movement, breathing and relaxation so that they can look at the busyness and stress of their life with new eyes, with a new perspective.   Those of you who are YogaXoga students know this – but the DVD enables many more people than I could ever reach in llive class to experience the many benefits of yoga.

Stay tuned for more…

Enjoy & be well,

 Heidi