Yoga, Kids and Play

For kids, yoga-time and play-time are sometimes indistinguishable.

Adho Mukha Svanasana – Downward Facing Dog Pose. Hey, who put this floor down here? Sonalli Kurlekar sent this photo in of her daughter.

This is Martine from Bogota, Colombia. How much fun it is push into Upward Facing Dog Pose (Urdhva Mukha Svanasana) on a soft, furry rug.

Dandasana – Staff Pose. I see ten toes!

This is one of the original pencil sketches from Watch Me Do Yoga.

Now this is what I call a real Tree Pose (Adho Mukha Vriksasana)!

Madeline Cook is only two-years-old, but she has yoga in her blood: both of her grandmothers are yoga teachers.

Here is Madeline’s older sister, five-year-old Amelia. Amelia loves looking at books about yoga, and likes to learn (and pronounce) the Sanskrit names of the poses she copies from the illustrations. Recently, her grandmother Leah Bray Nichols (Evergreen Yoga, Memphis) found her “reading yoga books to Madeline. Looks like teaching yoga runs in the family!”

Neither of the girls has been to a kids class. Just reading, playing and doing. Leah says that when she cleans her studio,” I take them with me and they play on the ropes and make-up poses and make forts with the props.”

Here is Francesca, daughter of Lara Warren who teaches at the Iyengar Yoga Institutes, of New York, and Brooklyn. The exuberance of this pose says it all! The rope wall was installed by Lee Christie-Irvine.

Vicky Ewell’s five-year-old granddaughter Marley lifts her chest high and moves her dorsal spine in as she pushes up into a a backbend (Urdhva Dhanurasana) in front of her pink princess tent. Vicky’s studio, the Yoga Loft, is in Sheffield  Village, Ohio.

Fern likes to create her own poses. This one was sent in by Suzie Dodd, “I call it Fernasana!”

These knees are sure to please. Halasana – Plow Pose.

Thanks to everyone who has sent me photos of their kids who were inspired by my book, Watch Me Do Yoga; please keep sending them in. I try my best to correctly credit all the photos, but if I’ve forgotten your child’s name, or the parent or grandparent who sent in the photo, please send it to me, and I’ll update the post.

©2017 Bobby Clennell.

Nova Petrópolis, Brazil: September 2016

A five day retreat in scenic Nova Petrópolis, Brazil.

Mulabandasana (Root Lock Pose). Mula means the root, the base, the beginning, or the foundation.

Bandha means a fetter, bond, or posture. A posture where the body from the pelvic floor to the navel is contracted and lifted up and towards the spine.

Benefits: Exercises Muladhara Chakra. For men, it exercises the prostate gland and gonads. It helps correct hydrocele – fluid swelling of the scrotum, impotency, spermatorroea and sterility. It controls excessive sexual desire and helps to save energy. It therefore helps control and still the mind.

For women (as well as men) it stretches the pelvic floor. When practiced with perfect alignment, it aligns the internal pelvic organs (uterus, fallopian tubes). It also elongates the inner thigh muscles and inner groins, mobilizes the hip joints, knees and ankles, and helps correct flat feet.

Sit on one or more blocks, at the wall, in Dandasana. Then come to Baddhakonasana. Clear some space from inside the folded knees: with your thumbs, slide the flesh and muscles between the inner knees from inside to outside. Roll the upper calf muscles out. Insert your hands between your thighs and calves and clasp your outer feet.

Raise your heels (move them away from you), keep your toes on the ground and pull your feet toward your perineum.

Join your soles and heels.

To maintain the upward position of the feet…

…and the upward lift of the pelvis, and to bring the pubic bone level with the sacral bone,

wedge a block or thickly folded blanket between your feet and pubic bone.

Press your hands down on blocks at your side and lift the anterior spine. Contraindicated: knee or ankle injury.

My little candy colored cabin.

The hanging bridge that took me every morning from my cabin to the asana room.

© 2017 Bobby Clennell.