Yoga for School Children: Our fast-paced world provides few opportunities to slow down, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the lives of today’s children. Typical days can include pre-dawn wakeup calls, 6-hour school days, after-school clubs, jobs, and a litany of activities. Last minute dinners are followed by sleepy homework sessions and late bedtimes. This exhausting process is repeated over and over, day after day.
While this goal-oriented, forward looking lifestyle certainly has some benefits, there are negative effects as well. Among our students are unprecedented rates of stress, bullying, obesity, learning issues, school violence, and depression.
Indeed, childhood is an intense period of physical, emotional, social, and intellectual growth. Often when confronted with these stressors the body’s sympathetic nervous system is triggered, resulting in an elevated heart rate and blood pressure which, over time, contributes to a lowered immune system, low self-esteem, depression, and isolation.
Research has shown that school curriculum incorporating stress management programs improve academic performance, self-esteem, classroom behaviors, concentration, and emotional balance. In addition, there is a decrease in helplessness, aggression, and behavioral problems of students.
Yoga is a holistic, comprehensive approach to stress, and can offset stressors by providing a moment of pause amidst all the activity. The word yoga originates from the Sanskrit meaning “to yoke,” to bring together in the mind, body, and spirit. Using breathing integrated with physical postures and relaxation methods, yoga creates experiences to develop a healthy and balanced life. This safe and nurturing environment can also foster physical, intellectual, and spiritual development. Yoga offers a way for students to reconnect their bodies with their minds.
Pranayama, the practice of breath awareness prominent in yoga, encourages parasympathetic drive, allowing the body to slow down and bring the mind and body back into balance. Transferring this skill of breath is key to handling stressful situations—for instance, before taking a big test—and emphasizes a creative outlet to balance overly structured and stressful atmospheres of classrooms. Yoga can also be used as a tool to help foster students’ motivation, cultivate an internal locus of control, and facilitate deeper and more restful sleep.