FROM STUDENT TO TEACHER

Husch stops reminiscing to explain more about yoga. “There are seven different branches of yoga, each with a different emphasis. Yoga is not a religion. It is the union of body, mind and spirit. The yoga greeting, ‘Namaste,’ simply means, ‘The essence of me greets the essence of you.’”

Yoga changes people, Husch says. “For one thing, when you practice yoga, you pay attention to what you are doing right that minute, and that rests the mind from the many distractions and concerns in life.” She pauses and laughs. “Whenever I feel myself getting frustrated, I go into my yoga mode, and I feel a sense of calm. I really value that.”

Husch took yoga classes for a couple of years after her son died and then decided to teach yoga. She called St. Louis Community College at Forest Park and was given the opportunity. “Yoga got really big for me,” she says. “And teaching made me feel useful again.”

Husch had previous teaching experience. For a time, she taught health classes at University City High School and served as a sex education specialist for the Girl Scouts. Husch also worked with other teachers to help them feel more comfortable talking in their classrooms about sex. And from the time her children were young, Husch taught them to respect and take care of the planet, and the plants and animals on it.

THREE MAIN THEMES

Today, Husch teaches three private yoga classes each week. In her classes, Husch emphasizes three things: Preventive care (specifically, how to strengthen and protect your back), deep breathing and relaxation. “Doing the asanas is fine, but these are my main three themes,” Husch says.

She believes that students of yoga do best when they take part in a class. “I don’t believe in buying a yoga tape and doing the same thing over and over.” She also discourages students from trying to learn yoga from a book, though she praises one book in particular — Judith Hanson Lasater’s “Relax and Renew: Restful Yoga for Stressful Times” (Rodmell Press, 240 pages, $21.95).

Beginning in 1991, Husch experienced another period of extremely stressful times. Her husband of 50 years was diagnosed with lung cancer, and he died soon after. The following year, another of Husch’s sons died at the age of 48. Then her sister Peggy died, after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Husch stopped teaching yoga.

“Once again, I just pulled a shell around me,” Husch says. To help Husch recover, her daughter Joan, a medical doctor, planned a family reunion that included all the grandchildren. (Currently, Husch has 16.) “That time, love pulled me back,” Husch says. “And after a while, I also went back to yoga, and then began teaching again.”

Every morning and every evening, Husch stretches her body. She also frequently stops what she is doing in the course of the day, and practices yoga breathing, the deep breathing that begins in the belly, then expands the rib cage and next inflates the lungs fully.

“We need to use our entire breathing mechanism,” she says. “It’s a good idea to attach the practice to something you do several times a day, like walking through the door or picking up the phone or sitting down to eat. Proper breathing is good for you. Besides, it helps in sports, helps in singing and helps in playing a musical instrument.”

As Husch sees it, yoga increases flexibility, heightens awareness and improves general health. “I’m 87 and I’m in pretty good health,” she says, beaming. “Two years ago, a massage therapist found something on my calf that turned out to be a malignant melanoma, but the doctor got it all. I also have a slow-growing, benign lymphoma, but I’m not worried about that.”

When asked why not, Husch replies, “I have learned not to worry. My mother worried about everything, and I remember as a girl thinking that was a horrible way to go through life. But it also comes from practicing yoga with yoga mats.
Husch credits yoga for her energy, her peace of mind and even her longevity. Ann Husch, 87, has buried two of her five children, her husband and a beloved sister, and she has faced two different kinds of cancer — yet her warm smile and quick wit reveal no trace of suffering.

“To me, yoga is a tool for living, like gardening or playing music or taking up art,” says Husch, a native St. Louisan. “There are many ways we can go, but yoga is my life. It is that valuable to me.”

In 1963, Husch’s 15-year-old son David was killed in a biking accident. “I could not go on,” Husch says. “It was so devastating, and I did not know how to grieve. I had four other children, but I acted as though my life were over.”

Husch saw a psychologist and received much advice from friends, but nothing helped. Then one day, her sister Peggy brought Husch a magazine article that said practicing yoga helps you sleep.

“I didn’t know what yoga was. I thought it had something to do with walking on nails,” she recalls, laughing. “I went to a couple of yoga classes. Suddenly I realized this was helping.”

Arvilla Droll, the woman widely credited with bringing yoga to St. Louis, was the instructor for the class Husch took, which was held at the old Hanley Junior High School. Kitty Daly, now a co-owner of Big Bend Yoga, demonstrated some of the yoga asanas, or postures, for Droll.

“Arvilla was in an auto accident and was told she would never walk again,” Husch recalls. “She not only walked — she went on to teach yoga and fencing. Hearing that planted a little seed of doubt in my mind. I started thinking that maybe medical people don’t really know everything.”

What is Yoga?

The word Yoga comes from Indian philosophy, it literally means union, and in this context refers to the union of the individual’s soul with the universal.

Yoga is an ancient philosophy of life as well as a system of exercises that encourages the union of mind, body, and spirit. In the words of Patanjali, author of the Yoga Sutras, “yoga is the ability to focus the mind on a single point without distraction.” Yoga is a physical discipline; it uses the body and breathing to develop self-awareness and mental clarity.

There is a vast amount of literature and philosophy regarding meditation; you could spend lifetimes analyzing and comparing the various paradigms and details. Thousands of schools of meditation exist all over the planet, including Zen, Hindu and Tibetan, each with countless lineages and teachers. For example, a thousand years ago, two religions in Tibet fought furiously for two hundred years over which of them was correct, until they finally realized they were both Buddhists!

 Normally we understand topics using the mind’s thoughts and concepts. We build ideas and then compare these to others’ to develop a view of the world. Self-knowledge usually refers to the collection of ideas we hold about ourselves. Any one set of ideas will inevitably be contrary to another set of ideas, and so go on endless discussions and even fights about which ideas are correct and best.

Your mind will try to label this with a concept as it always does with everything, but just continue to practice noticing whatever thoughts come along and then look past them again, into the space of no thought. Little by little, you will become more accustomed to this experience. It is not at all the same as sleep or dullness since you remain very alert and present, watching what and who exists. Your mind might resist this formlessness with endless chatter. Accept this as natural, and persevere!

Don’t get me wrong, I do recommend reading as much as possible of as many schools as you can find! These ideas can help to clarify your thinking, but they also often confuse you as well. Study is needed, but more important is the direct experience gained by actually meditating. Also invaluable is a clear-headed meditation teacher who can guide you through your mind’s conceptual mazes. Information is not the same as the awareness that dawns in you in meditation. Meditation cannot be understood by study alone, since it is not a collection of ideas to learn. Meditation is the intentional practice of seeing beyond your mind’s thought forms into the infinite and formless background space behind all your thoughts.

Start by stilling and strengthening your physical energy with exercises such as in Yoga mats and Tai Chi. Then, sit quietly and observe the natural activity in your mind as it is. Get to know your own thinking. Eventually, you can practice focusing your attention on one thought: A positive thought is usually preferable! With practice, over time, you will naturally begin to notice that behind this level of thinking in the mind there exists a dark and indescribable spaciousness.

Yoga is a method of systematically bringing all three of these mindsets back into direct contact with the Source of all existence. But in order to understand the purpose of Yoga, if you want to buy yoga mats,please come to www.yogawww.com ,we need a precise definition of self. The Sanskrit term for self is ‘atma’, which means: “an eternal, conscious, joyful and individual spark of Divine Being.” According to Yoga, which is part of the Vedas, (the library of spiritual knowledge revealed in India) we are all eternal beings who have come to a place called the material world. This world is made out of a substance called “prakriti” or “matter” which is also called the “unconscious energy”. According to Yoga Philosophy, we came here to collect experience about this material aspect of Divinity but then, in the process, got lost in the cycle of repeated birth and death, forgetting our true nature. The purpose of Yoga is to restore our original transcendental or spiritual nature.

According to Yoga, there are three different aspects to the mind: thinking, feeling and willing. This gives rise to three different approaches to life and three kinds of persons who start out more empowered in one of the modes of perception. Some people see their self and others in terms of power and action, some see in terms of meditation and thought, and some perceive through emotions and feelings. The mottos of these three types are: I do, I think and I feel.

In our body, the three kinds of perception and expression live in three different centers or locations. Thinking resides in the third eye area, feeling in the heart center and physical action in the navel center. You could say that we all see the world filtered through one or more of those centers. If you examine yourself carefully, you will easily observe which of these centers is most active and which is less developed or shut down. People generally have a primary center that they use the most, a secondary that they use less frequently, and one that they seldom use or tend to avoid. The center in which we are most comfortable acts as a selective filter through which all our experiences pass. What results is our ‘point of view’, which is necessarily limited to how many of the three pathways of experience are available to us.

So picture if you will, the countless eternal Divine sparks, entering into matter and then, over time, experiencing all the different bodies possible in the material universes. According to the Yoga texts, there are 8 million forms of life that we experience through reincarnation before becoming human. Once we become human, we continue to gather and collect experience in various situations using free will. To a yogi, our body is viewed as a vehicle made of matter, like a car or chariot, in which we are driving. At the beginning of each new life, we use our previous karma points (things we have done) to buy a new body. This brings us back to the three temperaments: the active, the mental and the emotional.

Naturally, everyone will start Yoga practice in terms of their acquired temperament. Those with an active nature will do something with their body to achieve the goal. That approach in all its forms is called Karma Yoga, the Yoga of action. Those with a mental nature will be inclined to think, discern and contemplate through an intellectual process of asking: “what is my true self?” This path of Yoga is called Jnana Yoga (pronounced gya-na). It is also sometimes called buddhi Yoga. “Buddhi” means: “discerning between matter and atma (soul).” It is from the word buddhi that we get Buddhism, which is a form of Jnana Yoga. Lastly, those with an emotional nature, situated in the heart center, will practice Yoga by establishing a personal, intimate and loving relationship with the Supreme Persons, both male and female. They will love male and female God within their hearts. This path of Yoga is called Bhakti Yoga or the path of devotion.

In the second pada (chapter), verse one, Patanjali gives a definition of Yoga: “tapaha svadhaya ishvara pranidhanani kriya yogaha.” There is seldom a direct synonym in English for a Sanskrit word but the basic translation of this sutra is: “Focused action, self-examination and establishing a relationship with the Supreme Person are the three activities of Yoga.” These are the same three activities of doing, thinking and feeling, taken to their highest forms as Yoga practices. The goal or purpose of Yoga, according to Patanjali, is to develop fully in all three of these centers of being, integrating the skills of power, discernment and love of the Supreme Being into a single integrated practice.

The word ‘tapas’ is often translated as ‘austerity.’ Austerity is something we do with our body to redirect the flow of its energies. When a football team practices, that is tapas or tapasya. From that tapas they change their relationship to that physical plane and develop power. In Sanskrit, that power is described as a kind of fire called ‘tejas.’ The physical practices of Yoga are a tapas or austerity that aligns our bodies with Nature’s Laws and redirects the fire of our digestion to the fire of the soul (atma). The result is a healthy, strong, balanced body and a renewed hunger to live as the eternal self. The motto of tapas is: “You must do something to create change”. Since we have a body, it should be involved in the Yoga as Karma Yoga.

It is entirely possible that a person will spend a lifetime or several lifetimes approaching Yoga from just one of these three perspectives. Or, if they are not a yogi, they will live their life from one of these perspectives: as a nerd, a jock or a sentimentalist. Or to put it in a positive light: an intellectual, a physical hero or as an artist or romantic. Naturally though, the question arises: Why not develop oneself fully in all three of these centers of being, both personally and as a Yoga practitioner?

One of the great classic texts on Yoga is “The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali”. It was written around 800 B.C.E. and is one of the basic textbooks of Yoga practice. The other great manual of yogic understanding is the Bhagavad-gita, spoken by Lord Krishna 5000 years ago. These two books contain all the fundamental knowledge of the philosophy and practice of Yoga. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali is a summary of the “Ashta-anga” or “eight-limbed” system of Yoga.

The second term is ’svadhaya’ or “inquiry into the true nature of the self (atma) or soul.” Since we are all eternal, conscious, joyful individuals who have forgotten our true nature, the aim of svadhaya is to discern between our true self and our material body and mind (our vehicle). To do this, we empty our self (mind) of all things that are ‘not self’ (matter). In Sanskrit that process is called ‘neti neti’ or ‘not this, not that.’ This process causes us to empty our mind of all conceptions pertaining to what we are not and to eventually become situated in what we really are (the atma). At that point we say “aham (I am) Brahmasmi (eternal Divine Being).” This is called Jnana Yoga.

Because Yoga is never taught by force or dogma, it is not mandatory to develop in any of these spiritual directions at a speed faster than one’s personal desire. So, in the Yoga culture we show love and respect to everyone by allowing them to evolve at their own rate, especially those engaged in Yoga and other forms of spiritual perfection. Whether one is practicing Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga or some variation of them, they are eternal souls following the Yogic path back to Union (Yuj) with their true nature. But if you want to develop in all three areas simultaneously, the heart, the mind and the body, then according to Patanjali, your Yoga will become the most perfect. To do that, the Vedas recommend you find a teacher for each center you wish to develop and remember the words of Patanjali: “The complete practice of Yoga is to embody eternal love with discernment of the true self in all our actions.”

Finally, Ishvara Pranidana means reestablishing our lost relationship with ‘Isha’ or ‘the Supreme Lord’. That Supreme Lord is also described by Patanjali as “Parama Purusha” or the “Supreme Person”. In fact, Yoga teaches that the Supreme Being, or God, is actually simultaneously both male and female - Mother and Father God. They are variously known in the Vedas as Shiva/Parvati, Brahma/Saraswati, Vishnu/Lakshmi, Rama/Sita and Krishna/Radha. The goal of Ishvara Pranidana is to reconnect the atma with those Divine Persons within our heart. This leads to the perfection of love in an eternal loving relationship that continues even after the death of the body and is considered in Yoga to be the eternal activity of our true self (atma). At that point of awareness we have perfected Bhakti Yoga and we say: “jivera swarupa haya nitera krishna das.” The eternal nature of our true self is to be in loving service to the Parama Purusha, the Divine Persons and all living entities.

Before listing all of the glorious benefits of Yoga, I would like to briefly clarify what Yoga is and what it is not. Yoga means “union” in the Sanskrit language. It is a method that seeks to unite mind, body, and spirit. As with other forms of exercise, Tpe Yoga mats is not about competition. It is not about how far one can move into a pose, or how long one can remain in the pose once there. Yoga is about self exploration. It creates internal balance and promotes overall health. Also, Yoga is not a religion. It is practiced by people of all faiths. It will enhance your spirituality, regardless of what that might be.

Yoga has influenced my life on a physical, mental and spiritual level, and it can produce the same results for anyone. A typical Yoga practice involves postures to increase flexibility, strength and balance. The practice may also include breathing techniques and meditation. During a Yoga practice, one moves from pose to pose while coordinating the breath with the body’s movement. Focusing on the breath in this way can build great focus and quiet the mind.

To receive the maximum benefits of Yoga, one should practice at least three times per week. A frequent, short practice is most beneficial. A daily practice is ideal. If you are new to Yoga, you may consider attending a weekly class to receive feedback from a qualified Yoga Teacher. Regardless if you want an energizing practice or a gentle one, there is a style for everyone. If you are patient and continue to practice, Yoga will initiate some wonderful changes within you. .

The benefits of Yoga are numerous. Besides increasing flexibility, strength and balance, and calming the mind, Yoga can relieve a number of ailments, such as, back pain, arthritis, headaches, digestive problems, symptoms of menopause & PMS, fatigue, anxiety, depression, high blood pressure, insomnia, and many others. However, it may take longer for some people to notice these benefits. Yoga is based on individualized practice. Once you start a Yoga mats practice, your body will respond to the postures in incredible ways.

Exercise

Hatha yoga is the physical practice of yoga postures. There are many different types of hatha yoga: some are slow and more focused on stretching, others are fast and more of a workout. If you are looking to relieve stress, no one yoga style is superior, so pick one that meets your level of physical fitness and personality. Any exercise will help relieve stress by keeping the body healthy and releasing endorphins, natural hormones that make you feel better. Yoga also relieves stress through stretching. When you are stressed, tension is stored in the body making you feel tight and often causing pain. The intense stretching of yoga releases tension from problem areas, including the hips and shoulders.

Yoga has long been known to be a great antidote to stress. Yoga combines many popular stress-reducing techniques, including exercise and learning to control the breath, clear the mind, and relax the body. As yoga becomes increasingly popular, more and more people are discovering the benefits this ancient practice brings to their stressful lives.

Clearing the Mind

Our minds are constantly active, racing from one thought to another, spinning possible scenarios for the future, dwelling on incidents from the past. All this mind work is tiring and stressful. Yoga offers several techniques for taming the monkey mind. One is breath work, as outlined above. Each breath is tied inextricably to the present moment; you are not breathing in the past or the future, but only right now. Focusing on each inhale and exhale to the exclusion of other thoughts is one way to clear the mind, It is also a basic meditation technique. In addition, the performance of yoga poses, or asanas, also acts as a form of meditation. The poses are so physical, and have to be done with such concentration, that all other thoughts and worries are put to the side, giving your brain a much-needed break.

Breath Control

Pranayama, or breath work, is an important part of any yoga practice and one that translates well to life off the mat. At the very least, yoga increases your awareness of the breath as a tool for relaxing the body. Although breathing is an involuntary act (you have to keep doing it to stay alive), you can choose to regulate the breath. Just learning to take deep breaths and realizing that this can be a quick way to combat stressful situations is amazingly effective.

Muscle tone: As a by-product of getting stronger, you can expect to see increased muscle tone. Yoga helps shape long, lean muscles.

Flexibility: Stretching your tight body in new ways will help it to become more flexible, bringing greater range of motion to muscles and joints. Over time, you can expect to gain flexibility in your hamstrings, back, shoulders, and hips.

Strength: Many yoga poses require you to support the weight of your own body in new ways, including balancing on one leg (such as in Tree Pose) or supporting yourself with your arms (such as in Downward Facing Dog). Some exercises require you to move slowly in and out of poses, which also increases strength.

Better Breathing: Most of us breathe very shallowly into the lungs and don’t give much thought to how we breathe. Yoga breathing exercises, called Pranayama, focus the attention on the breath and teach us how to better use our lungs, which benefits the entire body. Certain types of breath can also help clear the nasal passages and even calm the central nervous system, which has both physical and mental benefits.

Mental Benefits

Body Awareness: Doing yoga will give you an increased awareness of your own body. You are often called upon to make small, subtle movements to improve your alignment. Over time, this will increase your level of comfort in your own body. This can lead to improved posture and greater self-confidence.

Stress Reduction: Physical activity is good for relieving stress, and this is particularly true of yoga. Because of the concentration required, your daily troubles, both large and small, seem to melt away during the time you are doing yoga. This provides a much-needed break from your stressors, as well as helping put things into perspective. The emphasis yoga places on being in the moment can also help relieve stress, as you learn not to dwell on past events or anticipate the future. You will leave a yoga class feeling less stressed than when you started. Read more about yoga for stress management here

Mental Calmness: Yoga asana practice is intensely physical. Concentrating so intently on what your body is doing has the effect of bringing a calmness to the mind. Yoga also introduces you to meditation techniques, such as watching how you breathe and disengagement from your thoughts, which help calm the mind.

Does their teaching philosophy reflect your view on health and wellness? do they offer modifications and encourage beginners to stay at appropriate levels? do they have a sufficient exercise science background that makes them effective, safe and competent in their teaching? When you are in the practice and after the practice, do you feel you have moved into a more positive state physically and mentally? Tap into Satya (truthfulness) when asking this question.

Hot Yoga has taken the world by storm offering a non-traditional form of practicing Yoga poses. In the Hot Yoga practice, elevated room temperature is meant to be beneficial in breaking down tissue blockages more readily and stimulating the release of toxins. But is this elevation in room and body temperature healthy and suitable for everyone?

There is much argument and criticism from the scientific community stating many logical reasons as to why Hot Yoga presents contraindications and health risks:
*inflated body temperature can create a false sense of laxity (joint flexibility) resulting in over stretching and tissue damage
*high body temperatures can generate hyperthermia states resulting in nausea, light headedness, and fainting
*excessive sweating can lead to dehydration that, without proper rehydration, can adversely affect cellular metabolism
*highly elevated body temperature and dehydration can lead to increased heart rate (compensation in delivering adequate blood flow) which can further lead to increased blood pressure - for those already dealing with high blood pressure, one could move into contraindicated states of blood pressure and circulatory issuesAll of this is not written to scare off one from doing Hot Yoga. The purpose in presenting this information is for empowerment. As a business, many Hot Yoga studios market their practices as suitable for everyone. This is purely not the case. Any one with a history of musculoskeletal conditions or injuries should seek advice and clearance from a health professional before attempting Hot Yoga. The same is true for anyone who is obese, has high blood pressure, smokes, or has respiratory conditions.

If you are new to Hot Yoga, don’t go and buy a package of classes without trying a class first. Ask for a free pass or discount on the first class. Avoid getting stuck in a package that makes you feel obligated to attend multiple classes. With one class, you can do a TEST!

You should ENJOY the class physically and mentally. You should not experience any negative sensations like shortness of breath, nausea, rapid heart rate, or fatigue. The teaching and social environment should offer supportive, nurturing energy - no sense of competitiveness or “workout” should be emphasized.

If you are completely new to Yoga. I personally recommend trying a basic Hatha Yoga class to develop your foundation of poses, breathing, and awareness. Learn first what is your limitations in range of motion at regular room temperature and learn modifications to address those limitations. With this knowledge and development of your Inner Teacher, you can then be more receptive and understanding of how your first Hot Yoga experiences should be.

The expanded lung capacity physiologically enhances our moods. Also by powering metabolism, backbends hike the body’s nutrient absorption capacity. This in turn helps the body access key nutrients that are essential for our happiness: magnesium, calcium, vitamin B, etc.

The tension at the shoulder, again a psychosomatic response to stress, is released and relieved. The back of the neck and the upper back, regarded as the gateway to diseases in Chinese medicine and through which all the major energy meridians are said to pass, is strengthened Chinese yoga mats.

Backbends are yogic shortcuts to joy. In depression therapy, backbends are advised since they open the chest. This repairs the shallow breathing that normally accompanies negative mind states, like anxiety, fear, sadness and anger.

In movement therapies, this region is also seen as most adversely hit by negative mind states. It is called the primary fear centre: its response to fear, anxiety, anger and stress in various forms is what causes muscular tension and stiffness in this region.

Points to note: This is essential to work the musculo-skeletal system evenly and ease any tension that may have developed while bending back.

Please remember to always follow a backbend with a forward bending pose. Backbends wring such tension out of the body, thus clearing out the effects of our mental tension.

Relief for mothers and babies

Shizen yoga studio opened in Kichijoji more than four years ago, and their Baby Yoga class is open to mothers with babies aged up to 9 months old. It focuses on gentle massage and also offers mothers the chance to ease their stress with some yoga postures.

The 12 mothers who kindly allowed me to sit in on their class started by introducing themselves, with one commenting on the problems she faces when traveling on public transport with her twins, while another observed that the very hot spell of weather in the Tokyo area has caused her little boy to lose his appetite. Instructor Hideko Momose takes the class through various methods of gently massaging their babies, using songs to add rhythm as they rub.

The tots were very well behaved, though I think the boy closest to me was more fascinated by the big foreigner sitting next to him than by the official events of the class. For one little girl though, the massaging certainly worked, as she was soon sound asleep.

The second half of the class focused on some simple poses most of the women easily achieved. Perhaps the chance for the group members to communicate with other mothers is one of the key advantages of the class, as it allows moms to get out of the house and provides a break from the routine of looking after a baby.

This was a point that Hideko elaborated on after class. “When babies meet in one place, they grow faster and get their first experience of touching. It refreshes both mother and child.”

In a high-stress society such as Japan, yoga is a natural hit with hard-working adults. But the fun and relaxation of yoga, as well as its exercise benefits, are also available to kids, as The Daily Yomiuri learned on recent visits to two yoga studios in Tokyo.

At Little Namaste kids yoga studio in Kichijoji, children from 4 to 12 years old can learn yoga in a fun environment while also picking up a little English. Namaste even offers a course titled Baby Yoga.

The Shizen yoga studio, also in Kichijoji, offers classes to the same young age range. In Shizen’s Baby Yoga class, mothers can practice massaging their babies before loosening up with some yoga postures of their own.

“Hello, my name is Ayako. I’m 4. I like blue. I like the tree pose and triangle pose. Thank you.” It could be the standard student introduction at an English conversation school, but this is just one of Angie Bow’s warm-up exercises for her Kids Yoga classes at Little Namaste.

At the two classes I sat in on, the children were very attentive, hanging on Angie’s every word with the kind of enthusiasm that would turn more than a few English teachers in Japan green with envy.

I had tried ashtanga, one of the more aerobic forms of yoga, involving vigorous workouts that kept me from mastering the yoga breathing techniques. At Little Namaste, however, Angie takes a soft yet effective approach to breathing exercises.

“When you turn them into a pose and a game-type thing, then they do it without realizing. And after they do that, their faces all look completely different. They’re relaxed, because they took some deep breaths, they opened up their diaphragms–something they don’t usually do–and they’re much more relaxed,” she says.

One of the more active games is based on the traditional Japanese game of Daruma-san ga koronda. In the yoga version, one person, “It,” faces the wall while the others cross the room. On the count of five, everyone freezes and assumes a pose that “It” has to identify.

After singing the Namaste Song together, the students form a circle. It is possible to see real communication between them and Angie, and a sense that for the kids this was a very worthwhile way to spend a Sunday lunchtime, and the spiritual theme of the song does seem to get through to them. “They’re learning to acknowledge the spirit inside each other and treat each other equally, ’cause we’re all one,” she explains.

Angie, who arrived in Japan more than 10 years ago from Illinois, has combined her experience as a children’s English teacher with her yoga training to provide a class that her students clearly enjoy. And, as she tells The Daily Yomiuri, it has merits other than just fun. “There’s the physical benefits, there’s also the social benefits and there’s also the relaxation thing and learning how to deal with stress, stuff like that. These days, kids have a lot of stress that parents, and maybe the kids themselves, actually don’t realize [is there], and they do need some way to cope with that,” she says.

The notion of children who have yet to hit their teens suffering from stress might seem unusual, but the pressures of “exam hell” and cram school can add up. Angie feels sure that the techniques she teaches can be applied in the examination room.

“They can do it at their desk, they can do it anywhere, they can take a deep breath, close their eyes, focus on themselves, focus inwardly,” she explains.

Children all over the world face ever more tempting ways to lead sedentary lifestyles, but Angie finds the trend particularly pronounced in Japan. “It’s not like in the States or other countries where they all go out and play outside; they’re all inside playing games and stuff, so in this modern society they’re lacking exercise,” she says.

With introductions concluded, the students get to practice their poses. As many of the Sanskrit words for postures use animal terminology, Angie devised a novel way to make it fun for kids.

“I base the class on imaginative adventures where we visit different places. So they all go on a journey and when they arrive in their location, they see certain animals or creatures that live there and we act out those adventures. It’s a very imaginative and healing lesson for children who start enjoying yoga from a very young age,” she explains.

The enthusiasm with which the children alternate between the classic tree posture (putting your hands together above your head and placing one foot on the opposite knee) and the dog pose (touching the floor with the palms of your hands while keeping your legs straight) was infectious enough to make me think about resuming my short-lived foray into yoga.