YOGA TIP
You may have noticed that I don’t usually take photos of myself and my daughter practicing yoga. Many people say that would make our site more engaging, but we just aren’t your typical Instagram-mother-daughter yogis. So when I asked my six-year-old daughter if we could take a couple of pictures of us in partner poses last weekend for our Mother’s Day post, I’ll admit I was a little nervous.
We put out the mat in front of our house, and let’s just say she was not agreeable to taking photos. Can’t say I blame her, to be honest. But I thought it might be useful to see what the partner poses look like with an adult and child together.
I got on the mat in Seated Cat Pose, took a few breaths, and waited to see if she would join me. Guess what? She did! She was wiggling at first, and then like magic, she calmed right down. We then turned around back-to-back to do the Partner Easy Pose. As my husband snapped a few photos, my daughter and I sat there in complete silence. It was a warm evening, the birds were chirping, and there was a light breeze.
One of those magic yoga moments hit me. “Just do the work,” my mind said.
Today’s yoga tip is to remind ourselves that life with children is often difficult and messy. Our yoga classes don’t always go as expected, our children don’t always want to engage in the yoga practices, and we often feel deflated with our efforts. But the most important thing is to keep going. Keep doing the work. Yoga works.
If your class has lost control, take a few deep breaths. If your children don’t want to join you in a daily meditation, try another day, but still meditate yourself. If your yoga lesson planning is driving you crazy, take a few moments to hold Downward-Facing Dog Pose to change your perspective. Just keep doing the work. We got this.
Watch “4 Steps to Teaching Yoga to Children” here.
See “Behavior Management Tips for the Yoga Classroom” here.
