Family Yoga workshop Newport, Thursday 20 February 10-11.30 am

This workshop is for parents and children or just the children by themselves.  The age range will be from 8-14  years but this is just a guideline.

£5 per person

£9 parent and child

£13 1 parent and 2 children

£15 2 parents 2 children

The session will include simple calming breathing techniquies, yoga postures to promote both relaxation and stimulation, plus a blissful guided mediation.  Please bring a blanket for the mediation.

As a yoga teacher, secondary school teacher of over 19 years and a mother of a 11 and 14 year old,  children’s yoga is something that I’m becoming more drawn to and want to champion in and outside of schools. Mindfulness is already infiltrating primary schools around the country and yoga is simply this but you use the body to help you focus on the present.
Whether practising as adults or children, yoga has the same benefit, only the child’s mind is still developing and this is the time to give it those tools which we adults have been desperately striving for. Have a look at the following link to give you an insight into the adolescent brain: The life Centre .
Whether teaching adults or children my approach to yoga is one where the breath leads and everything falls into place. When we focus on the breath the mind becomes still. The overwhelming physical and mental changes teenagers endure can be frightening and stressful. A regular yoga practice will help to reduce these emotions and give them the skills to adjust their physiology, their posture and their breathing and help them to develop strategies on how to access a state of relaxation and composure before test-taking and other stressful situations they will inevitably encounter inside and outside of school.
My aim is to try to make yoga for children a practice as acceptable as hockey or football, however some of the myths surrounding it need to be busted and the stereotype image of the perfect body in the perfect posture needs to be broken.
Here are some of the benefits and misconceptions about yoga to share with your child:
Yoga is for everyone
You do not have to be flexible, in fact is creates flexibility
Yoga is not a religion
Yoga is helps you to learn about your body and develop a positive body image
Yoga can be practised throughout your whole life
Yoga helps to calm your mind and reduce stress and anxiety
Yoga helps you to focus
Yoga helps you to have a more positive outlook
Yoga improves self-esteem
Below are some links to websites about teenage yoga if you want to learn more:
Psychology today
Yoga4teenagers
Yoga Minded

I have taught many teenage yoga sessions in and outside of school as well as the teachers themselves. I have over 19 years experience as a Modern Languages teacher in a Secondary school in Brighton. I am a qualified German and French teacher and have an up to date DBS. I still do supply teaching in Secondary schools around Newport to keep me up to date with new school initiatives, health and well-being, being one of them.  This will hopefully allow me to introduce yoga and mindfulness into schools in the near future.