What do we do in yoga?
Yoga is a regular part of the week at both the football and tennis colleges. Students practise sequences of yoga poses (asana) and are encouraged to ‘stop thinking and start feeling’ what is happening within their bodies.
Many people think you have to be flexible to do yoga. While moving in and out of pretzel-like poses might be fun, it is just one of the effects of practising yoga regularly, as is strength, stamina, improved concentration, balance, mobility, self awareness and focus.
Yoga is not competitive. Students can use this time to look within. Through observation we notice if it is our character to always try 110 percent or if we tend to be a bit lazy and need to put more effort into things. There is no judgement, just time to reflect on how we are that day or how we approach a challenge.
Understanding that through consciously focusing on breathing we can quieten and calm the nervous system is a skill young people need more than ever in this day and age. However diligent we are as parents our children are spending time with eyes fixed on a screen. This visual focus stimulates the nervous system and is being linked to increasing levels of anxiety. Through yoga, children focus on breathing and use guided relaxation to create a calm, quiet state.
Each week we practise meditating in a comfortable, upright sitting position. During this time we recognise that there are distractions, both internal and external, but we choose to focus on the breath. We are training the mind as if it were a muscle, to be strong, sharp and fine. Students can take that experience into everyday life, being calm, focused and so better equipped to make good decisions in difficult situations.
Every practise finishes with a long relaxation during which students are encouraged to actively relax each part of the body as they lie flat on the floor, creating a quiet space and some peaceful time away from it all. We focus on positive affirmations which students are asked to think of themselves, to draw the mind into a positive state.
Yoga Australia, the major governing body for yoga in Australia, is advocating for yoga to become part of the curriculum in all colleges. Preliminary studies show that 87 percent of college aged children who practise yoga enjoy the relaxation the most. Our children need to relax!
We encourage students to practise daily at home in order to reap the full benefit of regular yoga practise.
Through yoga, students are learning life skills that will enable them to stay happy, healthy and relaxed despite the pressures of modern life.
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