Across the U.S., millions of children and teens practice yoga and meditation for beginners.
Across the U.S., millions of children and teens practice yoga and meditation for beginners. In fact, so many youths get into the ancient mind-body practice in school that a researcher from Temple University recently conducted a nationwide survey of kids' yoga curricula.
The results indicated that even though the teaching of yoga in schools isn't particularly standardized, the self-healing regimen seems to improve relaxation, self-awareness, cognition and physical health in kids of all ages.
The study author, PhD candidate Robin Lowry, reviewed the curricula of dozens of school-based yoga programs and surveyed hundreds of students and physical education (PE) teachers. She found that most yoga and meditation exercises were non-competitive, often resembling other PE games.
Lowry noted that most yoga programs were modified to fit local PE requirements, but that otherwise the yoga curricula had few standards in common.
Still, the author concluded that youth yoga classes usually entailed physical, mental and spiritual benefits for all involved, despite the variations between different standards.
In its own nationwide survey, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine found that approximately 4.5 million children and young adults practice yoga each year.
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Tags: yoga and meditation, Yoga and meditation exercises, yoga and meditation for beginners
