Children Will Benefit from Yoga Training

By Faye Martins

The discipline of yoga provides school children an opportunity to connect mind and body, increase self-awareness and encourage healthy living. In a study of 48 fifth graders with abnormal test anxiety, students were divided into a control and experimental group that received yoga instructions for 60 minutes in 15 different sessions. Stuck and Gloeckner, of Leipzig University in Germany, evaluated students before the study, after the study and three months following the study (Early Child Development and Care, 2005). They found that students in the experimental group had long-term results of emotional balance with decreased feelings of helplessness, fear and aggression. They transferred what they learned to situations outside of school to control their feelings of negativity and improve their sense of well-being.

Another study compared the before and after spatial and visual tests of three groups of children either attending a fine arts camp, yoga camp or in a control group. The yoga camp focused on breathing, posture exercises and meditation. Only the yoga group improved their spatial memory and right brain activity by 43%. In a similar study, children ages 9-13 years were divided into a control group and a yoga training group that had exercises in breathing, visual focusing, silence, posturing and games to increase memory and attention span. The yoga group had a 17% increase in ability to control their bodies and mind.

In a study by Kiselia, Baker, Thomas and Reedy (Journal of Counseling Psychology, 1994), stress management programs showed an improvement in self-esteem, concentration, academic performance, classroom behavior and emotional balance. It also decreased feelings of aggression, helplessness and behavioral problems. Yoga adds an internal locus of control, helps motivate students and gives them restful sleep. Students start listening to their own emotions leading to increased self-awareness that provides a buffer against the negative aspects of our culture that encourage unhealthy eating habits and poor body image.

Yoga is an effective discipline for students to learn from kindergarten to high school. It also assists children with learning behavior issues, cerebral palsy, autism and Down syndrome. Yoga practices can be adapted to physical education and after school programs in a safe and accepting environment. The emphasis is on the individual rather than competition among students. Calm, centered and focused students have better social skills, learning behaviors and are happier. There are many resources, including DVDs, articles, books and podcasts, available to parents and educators. 

© Copyright 2013 – Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division

To find our how to become a certified yoga instructor or to see our selection of affordable yoga instructor training intensives, please use the yoga resources on the right side of this page.

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Yoga Lifestyle and Giving the Mind a Break

By Bhavan Kumar

There is always an overzealous team mate or coworker that refuses to take breaks throughout the day. While they may feel extra-productive, their attention span is going to take a major plummet simultaneous with the body. Even the group that takes their regular breaks could be at risk for fatigue and lack of circulation for lack of know-how when it comes to restful pauses. The 'quick fix' attitude of the modern age has convinced us that a thirty minute sitcom with a microwave dinner is good enough use for our spurts of free time. This misconception has made the present practice of yoga all the more medicinal and restorative.

Alternative Breaks

One famous speculation from Dr. Shelly Gable integrates the mental and physical uses of yoga training. During a general review of the 'positive psychology' concept at the University of California (Santa Barbara 2005,) Gable and a colleague made definite claims for the potential of cognitive and emotional benefits. She accredited yoga as one of the top alternate self-improvement techniques, capable of optimizing breaks for an even more fulfilling moment of how the blend of exercise, meditation, and wellness to allow the individual to maximize his or her body's rejuvenation and functionality. 

Breaks Today

The waste (smoking) and grease oriented (fatty food) breaks still continue at the same frequency after the general review was released. A great deal of the population is so captivated by their daily lives that breaking routine is unsettling and oftentimes out of the question. These folks are harder to pull on board with the recently accepted evidence of rewards for healthy living. They will be more rigid when trying to ease into a pure form of holistic exercise with a strange new clarity of mind. The brutal truth is that the continuations of ‘work breaks’ will only bring the inactive, frozen food consuming, and anxiously disgruntled traditionalists closer to death. These tragic souls will never be able to enjoy a moment to pause from their work the right way.

Shelly is not the only researcher looking to help add years to these peoples' lives using energy management. In 2008, a Harvard graduate by the name of Stephen Covey offered his own input on the matter through his medium of text, "Principals of Balanced Self Renewal." He outlines seven rules for personal improvement and refreshment, the last of which is 'sharpening the saw' of positive traits. A pause in daily life to focus the mind and condition the body radically strengthens each aspect.

© Copyright 2013 – Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division

To see find out more about how to become a certified yoga instructor, please use the yoga resources on the right side of this page.

If you are a teacher, yoga studio manager, blogger, e-zine, or website publisher, and are in need of quality content, please feel free to use my blog entries (articles). Please be sure to reprint each article, as is. Namaste! 

Yoga for Couch Potatoes

By Clyde Granger

It is human nature to want changes in some areas of the body more than others, and you are confined to a couch because of a health condition and are in more difficult position to do the usual set of postures taught in yoga classes. The yoga workout for couch potatoes is specifically designed for total body balance, which is the key to getting shape when you are idle on the couch.

The best way to do yoga exercises of this kind is with a simple posture where you place a mirror in front you, sit and take a good, hard look at your body. What parts of your body needs to be reduced? What needs to be worked on? A self-assessment of your body will help you realize the perfect postures needed to correct them. These yoga postures are all simple enough to do sitting on a couch, with no other equipments but your body. Simply sit on an armless chair or a couch, with your back erect and shoulders back, knees bent at 90 degree and hands either on your knees or joined together. 

You should be able to see your toes without bending. Your mind should also be cleared off the clutters, as well as relaxed. With this position, you can now get engaged in core exercises, neck muscles, thighs and feet with your yoga training session for the day. You can do them all at home, or in your hotel room bed or a friend's when you are traveling. After these postures, eventually, you will be self-motivated enough to enjoy the yoga routine so much that you will be able to move to the next level.

Your routine with yoga couch exercise plan should take no longer than thirty minutes, no matter how many postures you decide to include. As you already know, here more time is spent doing mild postures that are counterproductive not only to the hands and legs but neck muscles and face. 

As for when you do your yogic exercises, the morning is optimal to charge your metabolism and clear your mind for the day. While you need to stick to the program and do all the exercises in each section, you can surely change the order of these postures. However, the most important thing is that you make time for these exercises. Yogic exercises for couch potatoes is not a comparison study to other workouts. It's a program for life. 

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