YOGA SO GOOD FOR CHILDREN

Even little kids enjoy the benefits of yoga.

Listening to stories, dancing and pretending to be everything from trees to flowers to sleeping snakes, the children in a Yoga Play class at Yoga North in Duluth had fun while learning yoga earlier this month.

Kyle Elden, who taught the class of 3 to 5 year-olds, said teaching children about yoga gives them a toolbox they can use to have fun and relax.

'It's a healthy way to feel good,' she said.

Libby Fena of Duluth said her 4 year old son, Benjamin, loves doing yoga.

Benjamin sometimes does a yoga pose called the volcano that helps him deal with anger, she said. In the pose, you start with your palms together at the heart, then raise your arms over your head and explode them like an erupting volcano.

Benjamin said the volcano is his best pose. 'It helps calm you down,' he said.

Fena said yoga has really helped her son. 'Not just with movement, but with life wisdom,' she said. 'We're very psyched about it.'

During the class, Elden showed the children how to do a 'bunny breath.'

'Sometimes we get mad at a brother or sister or a friend and we feel like stomping around,' Elden told the children. 'You can do the bunny breath and it can help you.'

They children sat quietly, took three short inward breaths just like a bunny, then exhaled with a big sigh.

'Don't you feel nice and calm now?' Elden asked.

Elden also wove in a little yoga philosophy during snack time. As she passed out yogurt covered pretzels and dried cherries, she explained what it means to be mindful when you eat.

'Everything we eat comes from the earth,' she said. 'You look at the food and you remember where it came from. You can thank the Earth and the sun and the rain that made this for you.'

Mindfulness also means taking your time when you eat, she said. She asked the children to look at the snack, then to smell and taste it before slowly eating it.

Throughout the class, whether they were tasting snacks or dancing to music from India or playing yoga games, the children threw themselves into every activity, living joyfully in the moment.

By LINDA HANSON

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