The one activity that will profoundly change your child’s entire life.

Kids these days are so over-scheduled. They have sports, and tutoring, cooking classes and religious school, school, camp, not to mention all the parties, playdates and other social commitments. There’s almost no time for a child to breathe.

Which is why your peoplets need one more activity. Sound crazy? Read on.

The one activity that will profoundly change your child’s entire life.

In these crazy times, stress and anxiety are the norm–rather than the exception–for today’s children. We have kids interviewing for preschool, carrying backpacks of homework that weigh more than they do, and being expected to perform at higher and higher standards. But they’re not being taught to cope.

They’re grappling with attention, hyperactivity, and spectrum disorders…and there’s gotta be a better solution than drugs.

Enter yoga.

Why yoga? Because it’s not just about sitting around and humming, standing on your hands or twisting yourself like a pretzel.

Yoga is about life tools.

We sat down with Shana Meyerson of mini yogis yoga for kids, one of the pioneers of the children’s yoga market, to talk about the extraordinary benefits of this age-old practice.

Peoplets.com: What would you say are the primary benefits of yoga for children?

Shana Meyerson: Honestly, the benefits of yoga are so vast, they are almost difficult to quantify, as they span every system of the body and seep over into the mental, spiritual, and emotional structures, as well. But for today’s children, I would say the number one benefit is teaching children how to self-regulate and calm themselves down. Through the practices of meditation and controlled breathing, kids learn how to center themselves on command, how to go from 60 to 0 faster than a Ferrari can go 0 to 60, and how to clear their minds of clutter and disruptive thoughts.

Peoplets.com: Kids these days are so over-scheduled. Why encourage the addition of yet another activity?

Shana Meyerson: It’s a bit of a conundrum, I know. But it’s because of this over-scheduling that children need yoga. Kids have too much on their minds and too much on their plates. Yoga teaches them to deal with the stress of all the expectations, while compartmentalizing one activity from another. Along with the focused activities comes the ability to maintain concentration on one task at a time. So we are training the mind to think only about a test while in an exam, only about a sport while competing, only about the family discussion while at the dinner table, etc. By teaching children to be present with an uncluttered mind, they become more efficient, more able, and less stressed.

Peoplets.com: How would you say yoga differs from other mind-body (or mind-body-spirit) practices such as martial arts?

Shana Meyerson: The martial arts are fabulous for teaching the same discipline, focus, and self-control as yoga. Where children’s yoga departs from martial arts and other similar sports is that yoga is, by definition, completely non-competitive. In yoga, no one has to worry about being right or wrong. No one has to worry about the recital, the belt, or the trophy. All there is to think about is trying one’s best. Children’s yoga is the one activity I can think of where there is no failure, no reprimand or repercussion. You know the old saying “what would you do differently if you knew you could not fail”? Well, that’s yoga. And it is a safe environment to learn, take risks, and yes, sometimes fall, but to always get back up and try again. Isn’t that what life’s all about?

Sort of makes you wish you had yoga when you were five, huh? It’s the one activity that will profoundly change your child’s entire life.

To find out more about mini yogis yoga for kids and the benefits of yoga, visit www.miniyogis.com.

Originally seen in Peoplets.com