Meditation, Yoga, & the Distracted Child: Slowing the Juggernaut

Yoga and meditation are a bit of a tradition in my family, with my mother leading me through guided meditations starting from around fourth grade and my aunt inspiring me to take up the practice of yoga sometime in early middle school.  Seeing the extreme levels of hyperactivity and distraction that the J-Rex apparently came pre-programmed with and knowing how well the practices of both yoga and meditation have served and still do serve me in my own life, I began teaching her these twin arts at an even earlier age than I was taught myself:

We began with a Yoga for Kids VCR tape (yes, they do still exist) when the J-Rex was five.  She liked the movements, but her visual impairment made it difficult for her to fully see and understand the instructions being given.  We weren't homeschooling yet and our lifestyle was much busier, so yoga became an occasional distraction, but not a discipline that had any impact on the J-Rex's life.

Last year, though, my mother-in-law bought the J-Rex a book, Fly Like a Butterfly, and a yoga mat after seeing the enthusiasm with which the J-Rex would imitate her grandmother's stretches in the mornings.  The J-Rex quickly took to the routines in the book, with their child-friendly descriptions of the poses and fun stories to visualize during each asana, and has been practicing her yoga and meditation with a semi-regularity every since...

...and what a difference this practice is making: I watch her focus improving on a daily basis as she finds ways to ignore and avoid the distractions that tend to plague her.  I see her ability to self-calm surpassing my own even as she goes through the emotional transitions of her seventh year. I observe as her strength, flexibility, balance, fine motor skills, and stamina steadily accelerate forward right along with her mental growth.

With children, because they are in a state of constant flux, the cause and effect of parenting or schooling practices can be difficult to determine.  This is even more true in the normal chaos of homes where practice is never perfectly consistent and data logs are simply burned-out parental memories - places like our house. Even still, the pace of the J-Rex's acceleration has increased recently and, as the timing coincides fairly well with the increase in her involvement with yoga and meditation, a correlation seems evident.

As this is a practice we are planning on turning into a life-long habit, there will surely be more to come about some of the particular techniques that have been working well for us.  Until then, though, here are a few sites that might help if you're interested in learning more about the hows and whys of introducing meditation and yoga to juggernauts* children:
 
Meditation For Kids: Parents Turn To Mindfulness Practices To Help Children Stay Calm

How Yoga Can Save Our Schools

Meditation for Kids: 4 Ways to Start Kids Meditating



*Side note that I found amusing: Did you know that juggernaut is a term that is derived from the same area that our knowledge of meditation and yoga comes from?