The worrisome statistics that show an increasing number of children throughout the world becoming sedentary, and consequently less fit and more overweight, is an example of what happens when the mind-body connection is out of balance. In order to restore equilibrium, we need to encourage children to develop a healthy lifestyle from an early age so that they can adopt a balanced way of life in adulthood.
Children like doing yoga! It makes them feel relaxed and self-confident, while increasing their strength and flexibility. Yoga is a marvelous example of the mind-body connection in action. When children do the cat pose they become cats in their minds, while experiencing the feeling of being cat in their bodies and fully integrating the meaning of the word “cat” in their memories.
Ready Steady Move! Yoga incorporates unique stories inspired by the movements and sounds of the natural and manmade worlds, enabling children to act out, feel and understand what it’s like to be an animal, plant, planet or pyramid. This engages their imagination, together with a physical interpretation of their environment, in order to enhance the connection between their mental and physical capabilities.
Pilates, with its emphasis on strengthening the body’s core muscles, is an excellent way of improving overall fitness, posture and spinal alignment in order to promote toned bodies and improve athletic performance.
Ready Steady Move! lessons integrate a form of Pilates especially designed for children in order to improve overall balance, a physical awareness that then leads to cognitive enhancements, such as better concentration and attentiveness in class
Children love to dance, and watching them, we can easily deduce that dancing is an innate behavior that we have inherited from past generations of mankind. The four Ready Steady Move! programs include a total of over 150 different songs and dances – from improvised movements in Pathways to the complex choreography in Green and Orange that stimulate the children’s senses and improve overall body fitness.
Dance is also a means of improving language. By dancing to the words of the songs, the children integrate their meaning and understanding and in this way connect their physical experience to their cognitive awareness. This creates a synergistic relationship where the language is acquired at the same time as the body learns new movement skills. Over and above all this … dancing is fun!
What we now refer to as the “mind-body balance” was well known to the ancient martial artists in India and China thousands of years ago. They referred to it as linga-yoni or yin-yang, which is the universal balance between all things in nature. Ready Steady Move! lessons start with a series of focusing activities adopted from martial arts to center and ground the children and prepare them for the day’s lesson. These activities include chi-gong, tai-chi, karate and aikido movements designed to improve the flow of chi or Ki, the intrinsic energy used by martial arts practitioners.
Another major asset of these movements is that they teach the correct way of breathing which can also be found in yoga and Pilates. Simply put, children who breathe better think better by supplying more oxygen to their brains.
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