In the 40+ years that I have been practising and teaching yoga I have never seen so much need as there is today for the wellbeing and emotional health of children and young people. We have a national crisis of mental health issues in the youth. I have always felt that Yoga and mindfulness for children gives children and young people the tools to navigate the vagaries that life brings. We cannot change what happens externally but we can change how we respond and react. As all of us that practise yoga and meditation know, it’s an ongoing practise to develop the musculature in body, mind, emotional and spirit. Giving this to children at a young age cannot but create a better world.
We have a responsibility to the youth of today to make the changes that are so necessary in our world for them, and for their children and their children’s children.
Even years ago when I first started teaching yoga in schools, the staff were always amazed at how the children settled into the starfish pose (savasana) at the end of the sessions. And since then it has been one of the most favourite and asked for parts of the yoga practise by the children. That tells me that yoga works because it gives the space for the children to rest, to be, to settle their erratic nervous systems, to nourish themselves and find some inner peace.
Mindfulness has emerged in the last few years, as has play yoga. Neither were around in my day! But the children have always enjoyed and benefited from a more therapeutic yoga practise. Children naturally have an inward knowing and curiosity. The richness of yoga in its philosophy, its enquiry through raja yoga/mindfulness, the fantastic feelings that the asanas and pranayama give you, and the yoga nidra, combine to fulfil that curiosity and enhance the innate intuition that lies within every child.
Children today are growing up too fast, they are disconnected from nature, from themselves, from the natural essence, and yoga brings all that back to them.
And of course yoga works for all children. Those who have autism/ADHD cerebral palsy and any other physical or developmental challenges can also hugely benefit. This is why we do what we do.
By Jyoti Jo Manuel
Founder and director of Special Yoga
www.specialyoga.org.uk