Australian Yoga Journal - April 2016

PHOTO: SHWEPSA/ ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

PARENTING

Om

BETTER GRADES?Improved exam

performance? Increased initiative? Greater

accountability and efficiency? The ability

to concentrate on a task and follow it

through to completion is a common

denominator to gaining all of these

outcomes for your children or teens. Their

ability to focus is the foundation of their

achievement. A regular practice of yoga

provides the training ground on which this

can be developed and, once established, it

can help enhance other areas of life.

Case in point: after one year of yoga at

a local high school for girls, the principal

noted that fi dgeting in class had stopped,

the students paid more attention and they

were more focused.

In the fast-paced world that our

children are raised—where teens’ minds

are ‘trained’ to focus in 30-second bursts

via their phones—there must be a balance

between being able to focus sharply when

needed and pay longer term attention

when required. How better to learn this

than through yoga?

Here are some of the best exercises

yoga has to offer.

Standing balances

The place to start is by quieting the child’s

mind and the easiest way to do this is

through movement. When faced with a

hyperactive fi ve-year-old or a distracted

teen, try balance poses. My favourites are

postures as simple as balancing on your toes.

Instruct your child to bring their palms

together in front of their heart and, on an

inhale, raise their arms and, on an exhale,

lower their arms. Then introduce a

balance. As the arms go up, tell them to

rise up on their toes and as they exhale, to

lower back down.

Now comes the magic that will

encourage the mind to fully focus. After

going up and down about four times,

introduce a hold unexpectedly. As they go

up on their toes with their arms raised to

the ceiling, ask them to hold for two counts

and then lower. Repeat this two times and

then introduce a longer hold and a longer

hold, until they hold for 10 counts.

Once the body repeats a movement

more than twice, the movement becomes a

habit and concentration stops. To extend

focus and concentration in your child, add

a longer hold after every two repetitions.

Challenge teens further by including

Tree Pose or Eagle Pose and then return

to a basic standing balance.

The key to developing focus through

movement is staying present in the

movement and balances are key to this

because if the person’s mind wanders,

they fall over! However, when teaching

children or teens, it’salso a good idea to

create unpredictability as they have

shorter attention spans and the

variety keeps them interested and

focused for longer.

Once the mind is quiet, we can

work with extending a person’s

focus and concentration. A

fast and effective way to do

this is through breathing.

Try the following two

techniques:

26

april 2016

yogajournal.com.au

&future

PAST,

By Loraine Rushton

Bumble Bee Breath

This is a favourite with young children. Ask

them to sit comfortably and place their thumbs

over their ears and press gently to close out all

sound. Their fingers rest on top of their heads.

They are going to hum a continuous sound

like a bumblebee. It’s up to the child if they

would like to close their eyes. Ask them to

take in a deep breath and hum for as long as

they can and repeat 4 times.

Ball of Light Breath

For older tweens and teens, using a kriya

breath is one of the fastest ways to silence

thoughts and hone concentration skills.

Instruct them to sit or lie on their backs. They

start by imagining a ball of white light at the

base of the spine. As they breathe in, theball

of light travels up the spine to the top of the

head and as they breathe out, the ball of light

travels back down the spine. This is an extremely

calming and effective technique, but if they get

sleepy, ask them to sit up.

The faster your pace of life, the busier

your mind will be, and it’s this endless

mental chatter that gets in the way of most

children being fully present becasue their

attention is scattered.

One six-year-old girl I worked with

explained it perfectly when I asked her

why she was getting into trouble at

school and not paying attention in class.

She pointed to her head and said, “Because

it is so noisy in here.” Yoga can provide the

gift of focus to children, which

sets the foundation for a

mind that can be present,

focused and crystal clear.

present

YOGA: A foundation of focus and clarity for children