Back to School? Back to Yoga.

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Back-to-school time doesn’t need to be stressful, but even a little bit of stress caused by the excitement of a new school year can throw kids (and you!) a off your game.

Here are some ways to consciously slow yourself down when you recognize you’re stressed–and you can teach these coping mechanisms to your littles, too!

Take Five

(Breaths, that is.)

When you notice signs of stress, give yourself permission to close your eyes and take 5 deep breaths. The extra oxygen increases blood flow to your brain, and restores a sense of calm and well-being. Doing this simple exercise can greatly assist in relaxation of your body.

Taking 5 deep breaths is an easy way for kids to calm themselves and allow for clearer thinking.

Stretch Your Neck

Sit up straight, let your arms hang at your sides, and slowly lower one ear down to one shoulder. Hold for a few seconds, return to a neutral position, and repeat the exercise on the other side.

After that’s done, slowly bend your neck towards your tummy and simply let go. Carefully return to a neutral position, and repeat all three stretches if necessary.

Create a Personal Mantra

Softly chanting something soothing to yourself can be incredibly stress-relieving. This works great with kids, too. Choosing something like “I am calm” or “Be soft, be slow” can really work wonders.

Close your eyes, then breathe slowly and evenly while either verbalizing or thinking your mantra to yourself. Do this five times.

Meditate

Finding a quiet spot to sit with your eyes closed is key. Focus on your breath, and how your body responds to breathing deeply. Try to take a time out for five minutes, but even doing this for two minutes is helpful.

With meditation, it’s a great idea to create a routine each morning in which to start your day with a sense of calm. Meditating during acute times of stress is great too, but making it an everyday habit can help ward off that stress to begin with.

CLICK HERE to find some guided meditations for kids.

Come to Class

It really is the BEST. Practicing yoga regularly helps to combine everything we just recommended above. For a class schedule, visit our website.

By practicing the above tips, you and your kids can take charge of your back-to-school stress so that everyone experiences a better transition.

Namaste.

 

Bump to Baby: Taking Comfort in Prenatal Yoga

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Pregnancy can easily be named the greatest gift of a lifetime for an expectant mother, but with pregnancy comes that lengthy and sometimes overwhelming list of things to prepare for before the baby arrives. Nine months can seem like a long time to get ready (especially in those first few months), but trust us, it will go fast! Our best advice to you, for the sake of yours and your baby’s health and well-being, is to just slow down.

Take the time to find comfort and relaxation with your growing bump—try prenatal yoga! Expectant moms all over the globe find comfort in prenatal yoga, and here’s why:

Increases Strength and Flexibility

A common question we get at the studio from an expectant mother is, “I’ve never done yoga before; is that okay?” The answer is YES. You do not need to be an experienced ‘yogi’ when it comes to prenatal yoga. With very little impact on your joints, you can expect to tone your muscles, improve your balance and promote healthy circulation, all the while supporting the process of your growing baby bump.

Promotes Peace of Mind

One of the first things you’ll learn to do in a prenatal yoga class is to breathe—fully. This form of breathing is known as ujjayi breath.

Breathing very slowly and concentrating on each breath involves calmly inhaling through the nose and filling your lungs as your belly and chest expand. Then, gently release that exhale as your stomach compresses and your heart rate settles into a peaceful and calm rhythm.

Breathing fully promotes almost instant relaxation and peace of mind which will be very useful throughout pregnancy, during labour and delivery, and even into motherhood—those cute kiddies can be frustrating at times!

Many studies have concluded that a happy pregnancy equals a happy baby, and that makes perfect to us.

Allows Early Connection with the Baby

During prenatal yoga, you’ll find yourself in a natural state of self awareness, paying close attention to all the sensations in your body, including your thoughts and emotions. Don’t be surprised if you feel those first little fluttering taps in your tummy during a prenatal yoga class.

What a wonderful way to bond with your growing baby and feel an early connection!

Prepares you for Labour and Delivery

When it comes to labour and delivery, everyone has a unique story and there is no way to guarantee equal experiences. Through prenatal yoga, you’ll be naturally trained to stay calm when you need it the most. You’ll be well prepared to trust your body and allow the process to happen as it should.

Aside from being prepared mentally, your body will also be toned physically in the pelvic floor, hips and abdominal core muscles which will assist in the birthing process. The breathing techniques taught in yoga will significantly help you manage or reduce pain during contractions, too.

Once you’ve been given the go ahead from your doctor, we would love to welcome you and your baby bump to our studio. From 4 weeks to 40, our trained instructors will provide you with an amazing journey throughout your pregnancy. To preregister or to learn more about the benefits of prenatal yoga, we encourage you to email or call us at (604) 746-4070.

Namaste.

Resources

 

Mental Toughness for Young Athletes

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Physical strength is a quality that most athletes strive for. They train for it, they eat for it, and they live a life that contributes to healthy growth and repair.

But what about mental strength?

The kind of strength it takes to keep competing, even when it becomes more difficult than it was when the commitment was originally made? To be consistently focused on the desired result, to know that each experience brings wisdom and builds character, and to have the bandwidth and energy to remain motivated and inspired? To have the skills and support to be able to handle the pressures and demands that today’s young athletes are subject to?

Mental Toughness for Young Athletes

This type of toughness—mental toughness—is what clearly separates athletes who succeed in all areas of their lives (not just in sports), and those who don’t. A great definition of mental toughness (taken from Building Mental Toughness) is as follows:

“A mental ability to overcome adversity and persevere through difficult and challenging situations or circumstances, to remain focused on the goal.”1

So how do we emphasize mental toughness and teach our kids that our minds are more powerful than our bodies will ever be?

One way, is to help your child or athletes routinely ask themselves the following questions:

  • What routines can you implement into your daily life?
  • How do you get focused for each day?
  • Are you aware of your goals and targets?
  • Do you have a plan of attack?
  • How do you respond to stressors?
  • Do you remain strong under pressure?

This helps young athletes to stay positive, and focus on their own process.

Tips and Tools for Mental Resilience

Other ways to improve one’s mental resilience, is to:

Breathe: Remember that increased oxygen lends to a calmer, more relaxed state of mind. Learning to consciously breathe in times of stress can be a fabulous tool to not only teach young athletes, but every adolescent.

Exercise: This may sound redundant when referring to athletes, but exercise that isn’t part of their daily or weekly program can be stress-relieving and enjoyable. Yoga and Tai Chi are both examples of highly beneficial supplementary exercise programs.

Be present: By not multitasking, young athletes are better able to be in the moment and consciously enjoy it. Mindfully keeping oneself in the present is another great tool for anyone, not just athletes.

Stay focused: This is important in maintaining mental toughness. Staying focused on the original intent and desired result can help aid in decision-making and prioritizing.

Manage expectations: Start small, and build to bigger and better goals. By making goals realistic, you increase your chances of attaining them, which builds self-confidence and drive.

Practice positive self-talk: Mostly, because negative self-talk will only be harmful. Positive self-talk increases self-confidence, which is paramount when it comes to succeeding as an athlete.

Get out of your comfort zone: Surprisingly (or not), stretching your comfort zone results in higher confidence and lends to a better variety of experiences. When equipped with the right tools to navigate the expansion of one’s comfort zone, the results can be thoroughly enjoyable and confidence-boosting, and assist in building mental toughness.

Keep perspective: Above all, remind young athletes that life is about more than the game. It’s about friends, family, experiences, and growth. One loss is not the end of the world—grow from it. Not being able to participate in a particular event will not end your dreams—learn from it.

Reinforce to your young athletes that mental toughness is a skill that’s cultivated—and the people that focus on it and mindfully improve upon it will ultimately reap the rewards.

Namaste.

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References:

1- http://buildingmentaltoughness.com/what-is-mental-toughness/

5 Ways Yoga Can Help Young Athletes

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When you have a competitive kid, you’ll do anything to help him or her gain an edge on the competition. For years, professional sports athletes have been trained in ballet and other types of dance to increase and fine-tune agility and fine motor skills. The trend in athletes going vegan in order to cut down on recovery time and increase overall energy is only getting stronger.

So why not throw in yoga?

Yoga is beneficial to all of us in so many ways, but for young athletes, yoga can contribute positively to a variety of factors that increase athleticism and related skills. Here are 5 examples of how yoga can help our children get ahead in athletics:

Boy leaping to catch a baseball

Physical Awareness

Let’s face it: yoga helps to develop a unique relationship with one’s body. It forces you to learn about it, to know where you can push yourself, and when you need to stop. The effects yoga has on your body are quick and obvious, so that the more you practice, the faster you’ll see your body change.

For a young athlete, yoga can help bridge the gap between brain and body, the emotional and physical. In relation to sports, this is helpful because your mind is powerful, and your body responds to signals your brain sends to it. By learning, through yoga, that your body will do what the mind envisions it doing, young athletes can become better competitors, both physically and mentally.

Flexibility

This one’s a given, right? One’s flexibility literally determines how far one can bend and move. If movement is held back by tight muscles and fascia, then you can never experience the full scope of your ability. It only makes sense that flexibility can help or hinder one in sports—especially in regards to recovery. Which brings us to…

Injury Prevention and Resolution

Yoga is extremely helpful in the realm of preventing injuries, as well as treating current ones. There are countless studies that cite the positive effects that yoga has on prevention and treatment of spinal, hip, back, and hamstring injuries.

And it makes sense!

By routinely stretching your body and using your own body weight to put pressure on specific muscle groups, you are strengthening and toning in a much safer way than any other.

Young boys playing soccer

Fascial Fitness

Fascia is a tight web of muscles that encase larger muscle and joints. It takes extra effort and conscious care to knead and stretch fascia properly, and yin and restorative yoga is great for this. If left alone, fascia quickly becomes hard as plastic, and equally as inflexible.

The head trainer for the BC Lions Football Club (Chris Boyko) takes care to make sure his players conduct fascial stretching every day—it’s that important.

Cognitive Competence

Yoga positively increases mental health. Like any exercise, yoga increases circulation to the brain, which increases oxygen deposits, which make you feel better.

But unlike other practices, yoga is all about care and acceptance and finding a deeper connection to your whole self. It allows for deep breath and downtime and calmness and a different type of movement than what’s found in other activities.

Parallel Sports Performance

Our sports performance studio has just opened. Offering sport-specific yoga for the individual or team, we can custom build a program for you! If you’re interested in checking it out, or have questions for Kara, please contact us HERE.

Namaste!