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Dr.
Amitabha Deb, Ph.D, is a Biomedical Scientist. He is a
200 Hours Yoga Alliance teacher trainee and a certified
Children’s Yoga Trainer. His email is amitabhadeb@yahoo.com
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My
interest in yoga came from my personal experience in
yoga. As a kid growing up in a small town in the
foothills of the Himalayas, trying different yoga
postures was more a fun activity than getting to know
the rich heritage and health benefits it could offer.
After a long discontinuity, that fire of yoga was
rekindled here in US when my physical therapist
suggested yoga when I was recovering from a back injury.
My yoga journey started again with a different
perspective. I started to train myself as a yoga trainer
and quickly became interested in children’s yoga.
It
is so visible that our kids are growing up in the midst
of unprecedented stress. Endless homework and
activities, pressure to compete and hectic family
schedules are giving them more anxiety and tension than
they can deal with. Kids’ yoga came a long way; in
spite of its delayed start in US. It is exciting to see
that yoga teachers are now combining yoga with other
non-yoga based mental and physical exercises (e.g.
braingym, www.braingym.com
and other concepts based on anatomy and brain function),
which have added a new dimension to it.
We
know now that children’s yoga is a natural and healthy
way to exercise, relax and focus and thus strengthen the
mind/body/spirit connection. Yoga games, breathing
mediations, and deep relaxations are wonderful self-help
therapies for hyperactivities, and have helped with
ADD/ADHD, autism and other disorders. There is a lot of
misconception about yoga and its relation to religion,
which is irrelevant to discuss at this point. To make it
beneficial for everyone, we can teach yoga to all kids
to boost physical and mental power so that they can find
balance in their lives even as it helps them gain an
edge.
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