Unwinding with some rejuvenating supported postures for an hour and a half sounds perfect. But moments after you close your eyes and immerse yourself in the first pose. The pose feels as though it’s going on forever, and although your body isn’t moving, your mind won’t stop racing. You feel restless, agitated, and out of control. This is supposed to be “restorative” yoga. What happened?

Restorative yoga is a passive practice

Poses like Reclining Bound Angle Pose or Legs-up-the-Wall Pose are held for several minutes at a time, propped with blankets, blocks, and bolsters to minimize the amount of work that the muscles are doing in the pose. A restorative practice can rest your body, stretch your muscles, lower your heart rate and blood pressure, and calm your nervous system, moving you into a peaceful state of deep relaxation. But while the practice of restorative yoga comes easily to some people, it can present real challenges for others.

The practice of being still and restful provokes anxiety for many people. And during times of extreme stress, such as illness, a difficult transition, or grief, releasing control of the body can overwhelm the nervous system. Passive postures can evoke feelings of discomfort for myriad reasons. On a physical level, Pransky says, the body is in a vulnerable state: You are releasing control of all your muscles, lying with your eyes closed and your chest and abdomen—the location of your vital organs—exposed. In many restorative poses, the body is also splayed out, and often the bones are not resting in their sockets, which can leave you feeling physically unstable or insecure.

On an emotional level, restorative poses can be challenging because, when the body is in a passive posture, the mind has fewer physical tasks and sensations to focus on than it does in more active poses, making your attention more likely to turn inward. Any emotions you might have been suppressing throughout the day—fear, frustration, sadness, anxiety—are likely to come to the forefront of your mind once your body begins to relax.

Finally, if you go very deep into the meditation of the pose, says Pransky, you can lose a sense of your physical shape. If you are in a content and secure frame of mind, this can deepen your experience and provide a sense of bliss.

Is restorative yoga for you?

But just because restorative yoga can trigger anxious or uncomfortable feelings doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. In fact, times of high anxiety or stress are the times you can most benefit from the healing aspects of a restorative practice. The solution is to support passive postures with props in such a way that the body and mind feel grounded, safe, and integrated. That way, you can still experience the benefits of restorative yoga, and can eventually learn to use the practice as a tool for being with all those feelings.

Children experience many of the same physical benefits adults do from practicing yoga.

The benefits of yoga for kids

Yoga for kids  enhances self-awareness. Children who practice yoga learn early on to tune into their bodies. Self esteem is bolstered as the children gain control over their bodies and minds.

Yoga for kids enhances imagination and empathy. Children are asked to strike poses from nature. They might assume the pose of a snake, or a tree, or a dog. Then they are asked to imagine what it would be like to be those life forms. In this way, children learn early on to connect with all the life on the planet and realize that similarities far outweigh differences.

Yoga teaches children to have fun and move their bodies in a con-competitive environment. Yoga isn’t about being right or wrong, or being best or worst. It is about bringing unity to one’s own life. Children can work together to help each other reach this goal.

Yoga for kids teaches self-discipline. As part of the practice of yoga, kids need to slow down, hold certain postures, breathe or think in a certain way. Yoga encourages children to master themselves rather than wait for an adult to control them.

Yoga for kids can also be a way to strengthen families. Yoga is an exercise that parents and children and even grandparents can practice and talk about together. As children participate in yoga with their families, they feel closer to their loved ones.

Through practicing yoga, children can learn ways to relax and get control of stress in their lives. A child worried about a test, for instance, might use the meditation or breathing techniques of yoga to help her calm down and focus.

By teaching self awareness, self control, and concentration, yoga can also help to manage children who have been diagnosed with ADHD – attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder. Yoga has also been used with some success to help children with Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, and autism. Yoga for kids has also been used to help kids with cancer cope with their diagnosis and with scary medical procedures.

Overall, children seem to derive great benefits from doing yoga. The next time you put on the DVD for your own workout, think about including your little one in the fun. Chances are you’ll be glad you did.

Most autistic children are more familiar with being told to sit still than to take tree pose. But due to a new yoga-based treatment called Integrated Movement Therapy (IMT), 35 kids in the Seattle, Washington, area have dramatically improved their balance and sociability as well as their communication and problem-solving skills-results that are often not easily attained through conventional therapies. When touch or movement are combined with verbal exercises, kids generally experienced more spontaneous speech and improved mood.

How yoga classes might be structured to benefit children

Therapy blending speech-language exercises, self-esteem building, self-calming practices, and yoga postures might address the characteristics associated with autism disorders. Although autism is a complex condition that can vary from child to child, there are a few common threads.  By merging the principles of yoga with conventional behavioral, mental, and verbal therapies, IMT encourages a child’s physical, emotional, and social growth.

The classes range from formal pranayama or asana practice to simple game playing. For example, a class of 5- to 7-year-olds might begin with breathwork and then move into a game of Red Rover, in which each child runs to the front of the room to perform his or her assigned yoga pose when called. By learning that self-calming techniques can be an adjunct to activity, autistic children discover that being asked to quiet down doesn’t always have to be punitive.

Older students learn coping skills through performing through yoga stories. The game begins with each student picking a handful of cards printed with specific poses. One at a time, each student must tell a story using his or her cards while performing the poses for the group. Probably the most remarkable changes have been in terms of social interaction and how the children feel about themselves. If you have have a child with autism who has experienced a yoga class then we would love to hear your story.

By aiding in stress reduction, reducing anxiety, increasing body awareness, strength, and flexibility and increasing self-regulation. Persons with Autism may particularly benefit from yoga in that heightened anxiety, poor motor coordination and strength and weak self-regulation are three areas in which most persons with autistic spectrum disorders struggle and for which there are few other solutions. Yoga poses and breathing techniques could prove to be very helpful interventions for increasing the quality of life for children and adolescents with ASDs. By practicing a simple warm up, strengthening, calming, and tension-releasing exercises that are suitable for reducing coping mechanisms such as hand-flapping, and increasing muscle tone, muscle strength and body awareness. They also offer a range of short and long sequences that can be tailored to fit the needs of the individual child.

“I have a grandson with Asperger Syndrome who has been doing yoga for about a year. He does especially well with a modified Tree Pose and the modified Spinal Twist. Both poses are relaxing and keep his arms occupied. The Tree is wonderful for strengthening his muscles and helping his balance. The Spinal Twist is a very gentle twist that is good for his upper torso. These yoga poses have helped him release energy in a positive way.”
Judy Waldman, Former Primary School Teacher

The incidence of diagnosed autism has risen sharply over the past 20 years; some estimates put the rate as high as one in 500 children. Yet I have found very few articles based on yogic training and autistic children. One program in Seattle maintained positive results with a yoga-based treatment called Integrated Movement Therapy; the children reportedly improved their balance and sociability as well as their communication.

Does anyone know anybody who has worked with yoga and autism? Or has anyone got any reading recommendations?

Many adults practice yoga not only for the ways that it benefits the body, but also for its well proven effectiveness in improving mental clarity and emotional balance, and now growing numbers of children are discovering that this type of exercise can be good for them, as well. Some schools have begun to incorporate “yoga for kids” classes into their curriculum, recognizing the positive effects that yoga can have on students.

Benefits of Yoga for Children

The benefits of yoga are far-reaching, with participants in yoga classes for children experiencing all sorts of physical and emotional changes. Yoga is calming and is a wonderful stress reducer, which can be quite helpful for today’s generation of over-scheduled, high stress kids. Unlike a generation ago, modern kids are often kept busy with a number of organised activities, allowing them very little time to simply unwind and relax, but yoga helps them to do just that. While all kids can benefit from yoga, those with hyperactivity or anxiety conditions may be especially well suited to yoga classes.

In addition to the emotional benefits of yoga, kids who enrol in yoga for children classes reap a number of physical rewards. Increased strength, flexibility, better balance, improved coordination, and heightened body confidence are common for those who practice yoga regularly, and with continued practice, many people notice an enhanced spiritual connection to the exercise.

As kids get older and are better able to take direction, parents may want to consider enrolling them in classes specifically labelled “yoga for children” or “yoga for kids.” Children are not simply small adults, so they need to have instructors who are educated in paediatric physiology and have the personality to offer patient, positive, and careful direction.

Incorporating Yoga into a School Curriculum

When presented with options, many parents would choose to include yoga as part of the physical education programmes at their children’s schools. Some schools haven’t made changes to their curriculum in years (in some cases, it may even have been decades!), but today’s forward-thinking educators are often enthusiastic about offering children a well-rounded educational experience. Interested parents may wish to contact their children’s teachers about incorporating yoga instruction into their kids’ school days.

Yoga is an age old practice, but has enjoyed a resurgence of interest in recent years. Today’s busy lifestyles often require that people of all ages (kids included) actively seek healthy ways to relax and release stress. Yoga is an ideal choice for many, with benefits that are far reaching. Additionally, yoga teaches a respect for the body and spirit, encouraging participants to look at their overall health and lifestyle choices to see that they are making sound decisions regarding their nutrition, environment, and relationships. Such thoughtful introspection is an especially good habit to install in childhood, when many lifelong attitudes are being developed.

Those are the calming whispers of Miss Carr, teacher at Quarry Brae Primary and newly trained yoga instructor, who has a class of 10 and 11-year-olds huddled in front of her with their legs crossed, eyes closed and thumbs and index fingers forming the yoga Mudra.

The lights are dimmed, a lavender candle is burning nearby and, with a Glaswegian twang, the children chant “Ommmm”.

It is not what you might expect from a classroom in Glasgow’s east end.

Quarry Brae is in Parkhead, a stone’s throw from Celtic football ground, and by the head teacher Sara Adam’s own admission is a deprived area that is finally getting much-needed investment.

In October 2009 the area of Parkhead West and Barrowfield was identified by the Scottish government as the most deprived in Scotland.

Things are on the up though, and rusty swings and litter-strewn parks sit next to new housing developments.

For Quarry Brae Primary teacher Ms Carr and head teacher Mrs Adam, yoga is bringing a calming influence to the children and helping to get them in a mood to learn.

“Perhaps they haven’t got that support for education at home,” explained Mrs Adam.

“They may not be coming out to school ready and settled, which contributes to children    learning.

“Yoga combats those issues because lots of children need movement and breaks in the day when they can get their self-discipline back.”

Peace island

Yoga being incorporated into the classroom, with breathing exercises sitting between math and English lessons, is the dream of Scottish Indian couple Sam and Sunita Poddar.

They moved to Glasgow in the 1970s and, after making their fortune in care homes, last year bought an island in Ayrshire called Wee Cumbrae (now Peace Island), which they are busy turning into a yoga retreat.

I used to have a quick temper and yoga has calmed that Quarry Brae Primary school child Brandon

The project to bring yoga to schools is a collaboration between the Poddars’ charity – Patanjali Yog Peeth UK Trust – and Glasgow City Council, with 15 schools in the city involved so far.

The scheme involves Mr Poddar giving a taster lesson to pupils and then inviting teachers to free training so they can deliver the yoga classes without him.

Ms Carr is one of the first to complete her training and says it is helping both her and her pupils.

“We have a laugh and we have good fun with it,” she explained. “It’s really improved my relationship with the children, their concentration levels and their attitude to one another.

	Yoga hits those hotspots because lots of children need movement and breaks in the day when they can get their self discipline back Quarry Brae Primary head teacher Sara Adam

“Teaching can be quite stressful and the yoga class is a nice time for me and the children to connect.”

Brandon, 11, is quick to back her up and just as quick to try and give yoga tips.

“I got hit in the face with a ball,” he explained. “Usually, I’d go up and start a fight with whoever did it but I don’t any more. I used to have a quick temper and yoga has calmed that down.”

When we think of inverted poses, we tend to think of poses such as the Sirsasana (headstand) and Sarvangasana (shoulderstand). These are often described as the “King and Queen of poses”.

What is an inverted pose?

An inverted pose – or inversion – is a pose in which the head is lower than the heart.

A list of some inverted poses:

• Viparita karani – Legs up the wall
• Ardho mukha svanasana – Downward facing dog
• Sasankasana - Hare pose
• Prasaritta padottanasana A,B, C, D

Other inversions (not usually for beginners) include:

• Halasana – Plough pose.
• Karnapidasana - Ear pressure pose
• Urdhva padmasana – Inverted lotus pose
• Urdhva dandasana – Upward staff pose
• Adho mukha vrkasana – Full arm balance
• Pincha mayurasana - Elbow balance

Inverted poses are said to have many benefits on the body, which include:

• Giving the heart and lungs rest
• Increased blood circulation
• Fresh oxygenated blood to the brain
• Hormone balancing
• Flush and drain the belly
• They both calm the mind and enhance the ability to focus
• Inversion will give you a whole new perspective on life and give you the chance to view things from a different angle and perspective.

Pregnant women and people with high blood pressure should consult a doctor before practising inversions

Determination in yoga is not any version of stubbornness or will power or fortitude, qualities that are often considered positive and that we sometimes associate with determination. I try to keep such qualities out of my yoga practice, because I don’t want to consciously bring anything onto my yoga mat that might make me aggressive or willful.

This doesn’t mean that I want to be lazy or less than fully involved and engaged in my practice, but simply that I want to approach my yoga less forcefully. Yoga does require commitment: commitment to showing up on a regular basis, to being willing to gently try even when you feel tired or checked out, to being open to whatever presents itself, to responding to what is actually happening and not what you think should be happening. As I’m sure you have heard many times and in many forms, yoga is about being true to the present moment. This means developing our conscious ability to observe and participate in the present moment, and learning how to use our asana practice as a forum for experiencing and enhancing this awareness.

Being present, however, also means that we cannot come onto our yoga mat with an agenda. Often when we are determined we become committed to a plan or an idea that obstructs our ability to be open to the present moment.

From shoulderstand, exhale and bend from the hip joints to slowly lower your toes to the floor above and beyond your head. As much as possible, keep your torso perpendicular to the floor and your legs fully extended.

Plough Pose Step 1

With your toes on the floor, lift your top thighs and tailbone toward the ceiling and draw your inner groins deep into the pelvis. Imagine that your torso is hanging from the height of your groins. Continue to draw your chin away from your sternum and soften your throat.

Plough Pose Step 2

You can continue to press your hands against the back torso, pushing the back up toward the ceiling as you press the backs of the upper arms down, onto your support. Or you can release your hands away from your back and stretch the arms out behind you on the floor, opposite the legs. Clasp the hands and press the arms actively down on the support as you lift the thighs toward the ceiling.

Plough Pose Step 3

Halasana is usually performed after Sarvangasana for anywhere from 1 to 5 minutes. To exit the pose bring your hands onto your back again, lift back into Sarvangasana with an exhalation, then roll down onto your back, or simply roll out of the pose on an exhalation.