K I D S O N T H E M A T
YOGItimes magazine for the modern yogi
PADA HASTHASANA
STANDING FORWARD BEND
by Claudia Lewis Brainard
Ah! How good it feels to stretch the hamstrings. It keeps Yogi Doggi lively and limber. This simple pose can be done every day in order to keep the hamstrings and the spine supple, and stretch the back of the body – what a great way to improve your posture! It is said that it also invigorates the entire nervous system and increases the supply of blood to the brain.
To come into the pose, stand with your feet (or paws) together. As you take a deep breath in, raise your arms above your head. As you breath out, lift your upper body out of the waist and, keeping a straight back, bend forward towards your mat. Keep your legs straight, and let your body relax into the pose. If your hands touch the floor, you can place them by the sides of your feet. Otherwise, let your arms hang towards the earth. Take at least five deep breaths into the backs of your legs.
Now, if you have a weak back, please make sure that you bend your kneesand round your back as you come out of the posture. Otherwise, come up as you came down.
YOGA POR FAVOR
By Julia Simon
When I went to Ecuador for a month this summer I expected I wouldn’t have a toilet. I expected I would be doing hard manual labor. I expected I would be speaking Spanish to everyone. I expected I would eat rice and beans everyday. I expected I would be called "gringa" by the villagers. But I never expected that I would be teaching yoga to a group of nine and ten-year-old village children.
It all started when I met Michelle, a ten-year-old, stickly girl who looks like she’s six and acts like she’s twenty. When I first came to Pintag, the little village we were staying an hour outside Quito, she ran over and sat on my lap and started talking to me in Spanish.
She asked me where I lived and what I did for fun. I told her yoga. She asked me to demonstrate. I smiled, then, did a headstand (against the wall). She tried… and fell, of course, the minute her mother walked into the room. Her mother gave me a dirty look but after she left, Michelle asked if I could teach her and her friends yoga. I acquiesced.
Every afternoon, I would run into the tiny room I shared with 11 other girls, steal the sleeping mats, and bring them outside. Then, Diego, Jimmy, Sophia, Diana, Juanita, Michelle and I would begin our practice.
The kids were dedicated and talented. I taught them a pose and the next day they would come back with it perfected. The kids were doing things it took me months to learn, my mom, years to learn. They were doing vinyasas, Virabhadrasanas, asanas, chatarungas and bakasanas like it was “no-body’s business.”
At first, when I saw kids like them on the street, I would have pity. But these kids showed me their power, their diligence, their intelligence and their optimism. I don’t pity them anymore. While poor and disadvantaged, they have supreme potential and my respect for them is immense. They are not different from me, yoga helped me see that.
Yoga tries to kindle the inner flame of the self. This fire connects everyone and everything living. By teaching the Ecuadorian children, I realized how humans are all one and the same, despite our circumstances. Michelle struggles in hand-stand, just like me. Diego succeeds in crow pose, just like me. And the kids will keep practicing yoga, just like me.