Oct 09 2007
Little Yogis
Children are natural yogin. You can observe babies, toddlers and school age children spontaneously moving into yoga postures. Many of us, as adults, may even be led into our first sarvangasana (shouldstand) recalling our own childish joy of lying down and sticking our feet up in the air to ride an imaginary, upside down bicycle.
Admittedly, for some that may not be a joyous recollection. I once led a class into legs up the wall pose as a primer for sarvangasana when one gentleman immediately stopped what he was doing and said, ‘my mother would kill me if I ever put my feet on the wall!’. Fortunately, Yoga helps us to transform old obstacles and that man, once assured it was okay, found even more fun and freedom in the pose.
I sometimes refer to Sphinx pose as the children’s version of TV-watching pose. Babies often explore becoming vertical by passing between Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward Facing Dog) and Uttanasana (Standing Forward Bend). And how many of us as children tried out a Reverse Table Pose just for the fun of it? How about all those delightful and silly sounds children make, everywhere from the grocery store to the playground; humming, exhaling like dragons and HA!-ing? Those are the sounds my adult friends only dare to make on the yoga mat.
There is no question in my mind why children naturally erupt into Yoga practices. My own daily experience validates my belief. It feels good!
Ahhh, the wisdom of children.
Schools are becoming more and more inclined to incorporate Yoga in the classroom. Read a CNN report about it here.


From CNN, a really lovely interview with Guru ji. Read it 