"Dad, we're gonna be late for my yoga class!"

My dad was always late which is the inspiration for this title. I gave him a lot of sh**t for it… sorry Papa. Later on in life, I became the one who was always late, but that’s not what I’m here to discuss.

I was thinking the other day, after being around supportive parents of young athletes, that the phrase, “We’re going to be late to yoga practice -” is not one I’ve ever heard. We see parents signing their kids up for activities like music and sports, but I haven’t seen yoga becoming an after school activity to the degree that it should, in my humble opinion, especially in the times we live in.

It’s interesting that a physical activity like yoga, where competition is internal, [there really is no winning or losing to others in yoga] isn’t more practiced by kids. We are all focused on team sports, which are wonderful, but in a world of overstimulation, a healthy dose of body, mind, spirit yoking is in my opinion, really important for our youth. It’s not every day that you hear parents say they’re taking their kids to yoga class but maybe it’s time to make it a thing?

I teach kids and am often reminded of how much yoga helps them stay focused, release difficult emotions, be fit and build confidence.

Yoga helps bring awareness to the present moment — to our connectivity to our breath and bodies. We are in a time of unbalanced escapism (opposite of presence) and it’s no different for kids. They are glued to TV, video games and YouTube at a young age, and have a hard time understanding why they’re being asked to spend the majority of their day in outdated school systems when there are so many other things to be doing.

In order to be truly happy, we have to be happy with ourselves, anywhere we are meant to be, in the present (make that our habit) — and subsequently act from a place of knowing that we have the ability to push through, work hard, and recreate our future. The mental Bounce Back is real and cultivatable. That’s what I’d like to teach kids — that they have the potential to be focused, creative and in tune with their path and healthy, even in tough or boring situations.

Escapism: the avoidance of unpleasant, boring, arduous, scary, or banal aspects of daily life; it can also be used as a term to define the actions people take to help relieve persistent feelings of general sadness.

I’ve always wanted to teach yoga as a tool for resiliency and as it relates to kids specifically, how yoga can teach them to be self-empowered, self-driven, at peace with themselves and strong in their mind. Kids sit in classrooms, often bored and unseen, for the majority of their day. What if we taught them that yoga isn’t just on the mat, yoga is the awareness of self. The unconscious “I’m bored”thoughts can be dangerous and perhaps lead to unintentional acting out which is often later regretted, building into guilt, and before we know it we have a bored, sad, hyperactive and unmotivated child. But what if they learned that they can beat boredom? That they can find ways to direct their brain to figure out ways to make whatever they’re doing fun, internally and externally. If they’re bored out of their mind, instead of escaping to distractions, they can work on their posture, they can play around and try to memorize things in front of them and make them fun. I have seen the power of a yoga practice for kids and have heard the results from teachers and parents alike.

I’d love to see a more mainstream yoga practice for kids while we rebalance this planet and beyond.

Namaste.

PS: We teach yoga in schools! Send us a message to learn more.