Why yoga for children? Ten years ago, that question was most likely asked about martial arts. Now there are classes for children at martial arts studios around every corner. And, like martial arts, yoga develops many wonderful qualities in children. Beside the obvious benefits of exercising the physical body, both sharpen the child's ability to focus, give self-confidence, and self-discipline. And yoga, practiced regularly, helps children become aware of themselves from the inside out. From this awareness, changes and growth in new and positive directions can blossom.

More and more professionals who work with autism, special needs, sensory integration, learning disabilities, and ADD/ADHD are being trained in children's yoga, and with great results. There is a natural affinity between these children and yoga, since yoga addresses the whole child, including the brain/body connection.

In my twenty-some years of teaching children's yoga, I never fail to delight anew in the self-discoveries that children make through yoga. Children are so fresh and unhampered by the dictates of society. Their approach to life is unique. And yoga encourages their creativity to flow, their fears, anger and sadness to release, their trust in the inner self to shine, their minds and hearts to be in synch.

If there is one thing I learned in my years of experience as a Montessori teacher, it is this: Children are capable of much more than we think they are, and if given the right environment they will excel beyond our belief. In l982 I started a small Montessori school in Baltimore. In my cozy little school I applied this same understanding to teaching children yoga. Their creative, innocent selves expressed such simple truth, that I realized I was learning as much from them as they were from me. The reality became this: I gave them the tools of awareness, and they expressed that awareness with such clarity and wisdom that within me was born a deep respect for them. Quite often they have shown themselves to be my teachers!

Recently I was teaching yoga to a group of children between the ages of four and seven. They flexed their spines in cat and cow, mooing and meowing enthusiastically, stretched into cobra, hissing all the while, balanced on their bottoms holding their legs up in lotus flower pose, and focused as fierce warriors in archer pose. The active yoga exercises are always followed by a deep relaxation, on their backs, arms and legs straight but relaxed. In this particular class, I guided the children into a visualization where they imagined they were lying on a warm, sandy beach. As they breathed in they imagined the waves of the ocean coming up to the shore. On the out breath, the waves returned to the sea. As I looked around the room at the various children, I noticed that each of the children internalized these images in such a way that he or she relaxed more profoundly than in deep sleep. They were consciously relaxing, bringing their minds and bodies together to achieve a peaceful awareness of inner space. This is the basis of yoga and meditation. And it is the basis for a happy, peaceful life. The inner experience of yoga gave these children a gift they can never lose, because it is within them all the time.

After our relaxation, we sang a song together---me strumming my autoharp, and they singing with gusto. The song instructed: "You can make the sun shine any old time, Even when the clouds are there." We sang for a while then I said, " Does anybody have an idea what this song means?" One five year old girl answered immediately, " It means that even when things are not so good, you still have the sunshine in your heart, and you can make things better!" Need I say more? Tools for life.