It pretty much started as a lark. I had taken home a new book from the library where I work (ah, the employee perks) on yoga for people recovering from cancer treatment. I selected this book because the photographs demonstrated the poses nicely, the model had, in my mind, a realistic body-type, and because the poses, I thought, would be more conservative, rather than extreme. The photographs also showed the "beginner" version, along with an intensified version. One afternoon, with Sprout and Pip swinging from their Diego-induced vines, I took out the book and "taught" them two poses: Child's Pose and Bow and Arrow. They did them with ease and remembered how to do them correctly even after a few days. Hmmm. Maybe I was on to something.
Several weeks later, their 80-something ; ) Great Granddad, a lifelong yoga-practitioner, came to visit. They demonstrated their poses and Great Granddad taught them a new one: The Stork. Again, they seemed to enjoy learning new poses and I think part of the appeal was just in learning the names of the poses.
Today I wanted to unglue Pip from the computer, where he had headed after Sprout went down for a nap, so I popped in a free DVD that came with a yoga mat that I had purchased. Slowly Pip came round the corner and by the end of the video, he was doing Cobra and the other simple, gentle stretches. When the DVD finished, he rolled up my mat and told me, "That video wasn't bad."
I know virtually nothing about yoga. I have taken a single class here and there. I always feel that I am not working hard enough or working too hard, and I seem to have that classic obsession that I am some how not doing it "right." Yet seeing my children do some "yoga" has made me realize that it can just be about the names of the poses, just about having fun doing the poses, and maybe getting a little physical benefit on the side. Why do I make such simple things so complicated? Why does it take my children to remind me that sometimes it's just about the fun of it.
In any case, yoga for my children is something I think I will pursue. And maybe I'll find something in it for myself along the way.
1 comment:
It's funny that you just posted this. I just had a conversation with a good friend about how the kids love to do yoga. Our kids are relatively young and so it was a shock that they would stay focused long enough to even try a pose. I have done yoga for years (off and on) and had never thought about kids enjoying it. It's amazing what they will do when you think they won't do anything :)
Post a Comment