Gloss How-To: Yoga for Families

Practicing yoga stretches the body and calms the mind. So why would anyone want to do yoga with their kids? Yoga instructor Sari Stricke of Sari Yoga offers some insights to how yoga can be a bonding experience for the whole family to help parents and kids find peace this holiday season and all year long.

Gloss: What makes yoga a good family activity?

Sari: Family yoga is a great way to get the whole gang together in what seems to be to be a hurricane of busy schedules, homework, after-school sports and
lessons, etc.  All you need is a little space to roll out your mats, and
you get to actually BE together, having a group experience that is not
shopping, eating, driving or scurrying.  It’s a time to slow down
together, as well as to establish some healthy life skills for both kids
and parents.  I notice that it also calms the whole house down.

Gloss: What are some of the different options for getting started?

Sari: There are classes at studios if you look around, but I have mostly seen
Mommy & Me classes advertised during the mid-day, or classes just for
kids.  I teach private classes in Los Angeles to families and their
extended families in the evenings or on weekends when everyone is home.  I
also teach for only one hour rather than the studio’s usual hour and a
half.  There is a lot of flexibility in a class like this; a private teacher can
tailor poses and exercises to each person.

Gloss: How can you tell if you have found a good class?

Sari: If you feel good afterwards, if you want to come back, or if the teacher
has brought something new and different to your life that wasn’t there
before.

Gloss: Which yoga videos that you would recommend?

Sari: I would stick with Yoga Journal’s DVD series.  Yoga Journal a top yoga
resource in general.

Gloss: How is yoga beneficial for both kids and adults?

Sari: Some type of yoga, even the most basic (stretching and
breathing) is beneficial to all people.  To me it’s about teaching people
to quiet down mental chatter, stretch out the physical, mental, and emotional tension that gets stored in the body, and then to finally get to experience actually living in one’s body.

Gloss: What are some of the things you have experienced teaching families?

Sari: I have really enjoyed teaching certain life skills to kids such as body
awareness, learning to be calm and to breathe and to clear your mind,
while providing a space for parents to take a well-deserved break, and in
most cases, to learn or re-learn those same life skills.  Kids enjoy
getting to hang out with their parents when they are not stressed or
telling them to do something.  One class I teach is comprised of three
moms who are sisters, one of whom is pregnant, and all of their daughters
who range from age 4-8, a total of three adults and four kids.  The girls
just love being together, and they learn so much from just watching their
moms take care of themselves.  I teach one family that with two high
school-aged kids, and they really get so much out of just laying on the
mat, hugging their knees to their chest and breathing.  Kids are stressed!
Yoga becomes a resource for them.

Gloss: Have you tried any of the yoga video games?

Sari: No, but anything that gets people moving and into their bodies is great in my book.  Safety is always my main concern, so I would just hope that
people respect their physical limits if they are practicing on their own.

Gloss: What’s your advice to procrastinators?

Sari: It’s always hard to get yourself on the mat or into an exercise class or
routine, but if you just write it into your schedule, put on your yoga exercise clothes and start off slow. You will thank yourself once you are rolling.  Important to remember is that you don’t have to push yourself everyday, but rather commit to doing just do a little and in time your body will naturally want to do more since it will be feeling so revitalized.

Gloss: How has yoga changed your life?

Sari: I have been practicing yoga since I was in high school, so I would say
that it has more been part of my overall development.  But my practice
became more focused while I was living in New York City, and I used yoga
as a way to manage the external and internal stresses of life.  I was able
to firmly establish a “center,” a place that I can always come back to
within myself when I feel thrown off balance.  Mostly, that center has
been about breathing.  Establishing a conscious, mental connection with my
breath makes me feel lighter physically, mentally and emotionally, and it
drops me right into the present moment.  And that’s where life is
happening!