OHMazing A-Z Kids' Yoga Coloring Book press release and book signing!

MARK YOUR CALENDARS NOW for the formal release and book signing of OHMazing A-Z Kids' Yoga Coloring Book:

Saturday, May 12, 10am-3pm, 
Art Center of Corpus Christi
100 N. Shoreline Blvd.
Corpus Christi, Texas 78401

Families and yogis of all ages: come pose and play to bilingual music and check out the *NEW* bilingual wellness book, OHMazing A-Z Kids' Yoga Coloring Book! Enter a drawing to win a Yogiños: Yoga for Youth® educational package featuring our bilingual products including award-winning yoga for kids DVDs, music CD, posters, and new book.

Yogiños: Yoga for Youth® is a locally-founded, internationally-expanding OHMazing™ interdisciplinary kids yoga curriculum in English, Spanish, and Sanskrit. Our yoga for kids program weaves together wellness with original art, music, games, stories, and other mindful, sensory-integrated activities to promote flexibility, strength, balance, collaboration, civic and social responsibility, mindfulness, and nutrition on and off the yoga mat. We offer bilingual yoga DVDs, kids yoga music CDs, and other bilngual educational products for schools, studios and homes.

Our award-winning DVD, The Story of Ganesha, was filmed locally at the Art Museum of South Texas, the Yoga Studio of Corpus Christi, near Cole Park, and other locations.

Yogiños: Yoga for Youth® is endorsed by Andrew Weil, M.D., Christina Sell, Yoga in My School, and others. We are in partnership with the Crow Collection of Asian Art in Dallas, Read to Lead, and YogaVibes, as well as in cooperation with prAna. Our DVDs are available here and also distributed by Lotus Shop at the Crow Collection of Asian Art, White Swan Music, AVCafe, and numerous private yoga studios.

Don't miss out on this OHMazing event!

Yoga in Schools Aligns Body, Mind & Heart.

by Elizabeth Reese, Ph.D., E-RYT, RCYT

             

 

 

Photo credit: Elizabeth Reese

It brought tears to my eyes. And when I say tears, I mean the streaming ones with trembling, smiling lips.

In a PE class at a Corpus Christi elementary school last spring, about 40 kids took their new journey to begin PE class. Singing and practicing the Yogiños: Yoga for Youth® sun salutation, Toco el Sol, it looked and sounded like they had been doing this all year. When the music player stopped suddenly, it didn’t stop them; with only four days of this vinyasa shining in their lives, they kept the light flowing.

This team of PE teachers, faculty, administration and students were part of a three-school Pilot Program implementing a sample, five-week Yogiños: Yoga for Youth® curriculum based on the story of Ganesha into their existing program.

The teachers first attended a workshop. Here they received a curriculum including five weeks of daily lessons featuring our version of The Story of Ganesha, a poster of a work of art of the “hero” Ganesha from the Crow Collection of Asian Art, our bilingual music, custom latex-free mats, and our award-winning DVD. These materials empowered teachers to weave original art, music, games, stories, and other sensory-integrated activities into their existing curricula. This Pilot Program reached over 600 elementary students and about 275 middle schoolers.

The pilot program of integrating yoga into schools was needed.

In the 2010-2011 academic year, test results indicate that Corpus Christi Independent School District (CCISD) 3rd-5th graders averaged between overweight and obese, and that 48% fall below the National Fitness Zone. To investigate physical benefits, we used existing State of Texas Fitnessgrams as pre- and post-tests to measure physical changes encouraged by the addition of yoga. We also taught pranayama, like Flower Power.
Across the board there was an increase in physical flexibility. And some youth reported additional ranges of flexibility as well.

“What I like best about Yogiños is that I feel more flexible….and not just here in PE, but everywhere,” shared one 5th grader in an exit-interview.

Many yoga for kids programs—International Association of School Yoga and Mindfulness, ChildLight Yoga, Yoga in My Schools, Little Flower Yoga and Shanti Generation, to name but only a few—provide support, training and techniques for teachers, faculty, staff and administrators of schools and organizations to integrate aerobic, strength, flexibility and rejuvenation activities into the daily lives of students and families in safe, healthy, engaged, supported and OHMazing™ ways.

Bringing yoga into schools is important for the integration of body, mind and heart.

Scott Eliff, Superintendent of Corpus Christi Independent School District says that many schools have focused only on academics and the mind for too long. “We are now learning we need alignment of the whole body, heart and mind for optimal learning,” Eliff said when we met to discuss bringing Yogiños: Yoga for Youth into the district.
Indeed, current brain, academic and cardiovascular research provide scientific evidence that practices related specifically to yoga and breathing techniques offer:
~ 27% increase in GABA levels (calmness, anti-anxiety);
~ Improved academic achievement through learning how to improve focus and handle stress;
~ Increased academic interest through providing integrated movement in traditionally sedentary, academic settings;
~ Interactive experiences with team-building, cooperation and tolerance.

Since the completion of the Pilot Program last spring, Yogiños: Yoga for Youth® facilitated our basic two and half days training with 80 PE teachers from CCISD last summer. We also provided this training to all faculty and staff at Corpus Christi Montessori School where we currently are in a full-school integration. Here we are conducting scientific-based research investigating the various impacts and benefits of weaving the program into the school’s curriculum. This study includes research with both students and teachers.

Elizabeth “Beth” Reese, Ph.D., E-RYT, RCYT, is the founder and executive director of Yogiños: Yoga for Youth®. A yoga practitioner for over 13 years, Beth is the mother of three OHMazing yogis under the age of 13. Her oldest daughter, Jordan, is part of the inspiration for Yogiños: Yoga for Youth® as she learned to navigate challenges associated with Sensory-Integration “Disorder” through practicing all 8 Limbs of yoga.Yogiños: Yoga for Youth offers classes for children and families as well as trainings for classroom teachers, yoga instructors, parents, and others interested in bringing yoga and healthy choices to all ages. elizabeth@yoginos.com and here.

Via elephantjournal.com

on Apr 13, 2012

Eating Close to the Earth

By Elizabeth Reese, PhD, E-RYT, RYT

 

During our kids yoga classes at Yogiños, we talk about making good, or "OHMazing" choices for ourselves, others and the earth. Often this includes discussing food because making healthy choices for our whole bodies on and off the mat is definitely part of yoga. For simplification, I invite kids to choose and eat foods that are “close to the earth.”

One day a group of 3-6 year olds were snacking on popcorn and I asked, what’s healthier: popcorn or potato chips? A 4 year old excitedly raised his hand and with great passion and the inability to wait another second he exclaimed, “POTATOES! Because they grow IN the Earth and popcorn comes from corn stalks which grow ABOVE the Earth.”

(Ahhhhh the things kids say..... and they call this work!?!?)

Clearly he had taken my suggestion of “eating close to the Earth” to a literal extreme, yet the offering is a positive guideline to help form how and why we choose certain foods.

Integrative health expert, Andrew Weil, MD, advises that people of all ages seek and crave sugar for several reasons. As children, we are often rewarded with sweets like candy and cookies. This sets us up for a lifetime of connecting good behavior with sugary processed foods. Sugar also increases serotonin—a natural chemical our bodies produce—which helps us feel good and relax. This is why we often turn to sweets when we feel stressed or anxious.

While we all want to feel good, more relaxed, and less stressed, we can make the more OHMazing choice and select sweets that comes from the earth: fruit.

When I talk to youth about choosing fruit, I call it “candy from the Earth,” beautiful, colorful, natural sweets. While we should practice moderation of our intake of these sweets, too, fruit is a better choice than processed sweets and snacks for many reasons. Weil recommends berries, cherries, apples, and pears as the best fruit choices as they have a low glycemic index.

Low glycemic index is a carbohydrate ranking that means a food will not spike our blood sugar levels as much as other foods. High glycemic index foods, like candy and processed sweets, are associated with obesity, high blood pressure, elevated blood fats, and an increased risk of type 2 diabetes.

Why and how is fruit OHMazing?

Ourselves: Whole fruit is good for our bodies because the sugar is natural and paired with fiber. The fiber slows down how our bodies absorb sugar and helps us digest all of our foods more efficiently.

Others: Choosing candy from the earth is good for others because it supports our farmers, especially when we choose locally grown fruits.

Earth: Selecting fruit over processed foods is good for the environment because there is no extra processing or energy spent to make it. Fruit also has no waste! Even if we do not eat all of it, the core, peels, and rinds can be composted. Composting allows natural leftovers to return to feed the earth. It's also a lot of fun and community-building to start and maintain a garden.

A fun way to teach this idea is to discuss which is the more OHMazing choice and why:

• orange soda, orange juice or whole oranges
• apple juice, apple sauce, whole apples
• potato chips (fried and baked), french fries, baked potatoes

Talk about other groupings and ask children to come up with their own groups of three to compare and contrast. I find that kids are never too young to start talking about nutrition. As my yoga teacher, Christina Sell, once asked, don’t we deserve to only consume the very best?

 

Originally Published on MindBodyGreen April 4, 2012 at 10:00 AM

 

About Elizabeth Reese

Elizabeth "Beth" Reese, Ph.D., E-RYT, RCYT is the founder and CEO of  Yogiños: Yoga for Youth, an OHMazing interdisciplinary yoga for kids program in English, Spanish, and Sanskrit. Yogiños: Yoga for Youth weaves together the 8 Limbs of yoga and wellness with original art, music, games, stories, and other sensory-integrated activities to promote flexibility, strength, balance, collaboration, civic and social responsibility, mindfulness, and nutrition on and off the yoga mat. Yogiños: Yoga for Youth offers classes for children and families as well as trainings for classroom teachers, yoga instructors, parents, and others interested in bringing yoga and healthy choices to all ages. 

Website: yoginos.com

Facebook: facebook.com/yoginos

Twitter: @Yoginos