It’s amazing how natural yoga comes to babies and toddlers. It’s like we’re born as yogis and gradually lose that aspect of ourselves as our culture pushes us to spend more time sitting on the couch. It almost even seems like those sun salutations were designed to follow our evolution of growth.
We start in child’s pose…
Eventually we learn to lift up our heads and move into rising cobra…
Then we move into downward facing dog…
And eventually find our way into mountain.
If we’re feeling adventurous, we even try exploring new things with our body like Wheel…
It never ceases to amaze me how strong and flexible Mini Terrorist can be.
If you live in the Seattle Eastside area and you have a baby or toddler, I definitely recommend looking up Anna Starikov and her Blossoming Yogi classes! Mini and I went to Anna’s classes for over a year every week, once a week (until Mini got to the point where he was doing less yoga and more terrorizing of the other babes…) Experiencing yoga with him was an amazing bonding experience for both of us and also helped give me some peace during those crazy-making colicky infant days. If you don’t live nearby, you can also order an Itsy Bitsy Yoga DVD or book to do at home with your babe!
Doing yoga helps stimulate baby’s brain activity by helping him learn coordination. It also helps you recenter and relax a bit because well, let’s face it. There’s a lot of frazzle going on those first few months. Eff, the first year. Actually, I’m not so sure the frazzle stops? Well, let’s put it this way – you get longer naps out of your babe after doing some yoga with him and it’s something fun and healthy to do together!
