Yoga for Children is necessary. I say this as a Yogi, a nanny and more importantly, a mother.

The world needs more Yoga. It needs to be practised by all from a young age for the benefit of our world. Children are under an immense amount of stress and demand from school, peers and families. They need a way to deal with this stress. There has to be an outlet.

It is simple. Sit in lotus with your child. Breath with them. If he or she is more hyper or excited, go for a nature walk and pretend to be the trees, swaying in the wind. Make the sound of the wind. This will encourage him or her to breath, to blow. Lie on the grass in corpse pose. Watch the clouds and pretend to be those clouds. This is all meditation. With older kids, take a nature walk and slowly breathe in the air through the nose, using ujjayi breathing.

I like to do candle legs with children, too. This is awesome. We lay under a tree, lift our legs to the sky and rotate our ankles. This allows blood to flow through their very active legs. It also allows for many giggles, as with all yoga for children. The kids will start pointing toes, lifting legs higher, eventually doing shoulder stands!

Another great exercise is seaweed arms. We sway from side to side across the sky. This uses the imagery of seaweed. Here we are doing lateral flexing. I also like to incorporate the image of an octopus and a peaceful jellyfish. We are warming up the back and the sides. Bringing circulation throughout the body.

Tree pose helps with focus and balance. We pretend we are tall trees, sprouting branches from our arms and head, getting higher and higher. Eventually we would be so tall that Jack would want to climb and get to the castle in the sky!

The imagery of Kundalini as the coiled snake rising is wonderful to practise. This can be done laying down or standing up, rising out of the skin. With laying down, I like to get the children in pairs and have one be the snake and the other the bridge under which the snake slithers and then we rotate! It is so much fun, yet effective!

The warrior poses are used to focus, open the hips and also engage the glutes and core. We pretend we are peaceful warriors cutting down hatred, greed, fear, jealously. We are all one. We are here to be a positive force in the world. The happy warrior converts into the happy monkey. I love to get sounds going. I learnt this from my guru, Jen Fish. She is a Yoga Goddess. Her technique is like non other. Dance plays a huge role in her communication of Yoga! I love to have the children dance. I think that it is a powerful tool to incorporate with yoga. We are all dancers, naturally. Yoga dancers!

Yoga for children need not be a difficult task. There are tons of resource available. Classes can be costly and not as accessible to many families. It is however, recommended that one be taken. Yoga DVDs and books are great tools to incorporate. It is a practice that can be done with the whole family in mind. It will improve the health and well being of each member.

Kevala means whole, absolute, pure and perfect. Yoga means union. To me, Kevala Yoga is perfect, pure union! Children are perfect and pure, and are part of our union! Yoga teaches compassion, acceptance, love and individuality.

One love and eternal peace!

Namaste