Misstropolis

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Teaching Yoga to Muffin and Sweet Honeydew

by Mary Kaye Chryssicas

Email to a friendPrint this article

I grew up in Virginia with a Southern mother who spent most of her life on top of floats and a New Yorker father who had the whole neighborhood at our house waiting for him to entertain them. Kids raced around our house trying to find the pink polka dotted elephant. I kept wondering how these kids could really believe we had a pink polka dotted elephant in my closet! But my father invented outlandish stories, and the kids were completely mesmerized. 

My mother was a school teacher and has an incredible work ethic, so my approach in teaching kids’ yoga and in my whole ”buddhaful kids” philosophy was influenced by both my parents. I show a lot of enthusiasm in my classes because it attracts positive learners, and I put a lot of thought and energy into every class I teach. Naturally, there’s loads of laughter. Yet I’m also completely serious about it.

Teaching yoga to kids requires completely different skills than teaching to adults. I don’t just teach yoga but how to approach life. In fact, I’d like to see more adults hang on to the child-like qualities of their younger years and be more spontaneous, tolerant and less anxious. I think that’s why I respond to children: they appreciate spontaneity and unabashed craziness!  That doesn’t mean I stand on my head and stick my toe in my ear – oops, I do that – but it gives me a freedom that most adults fear.

Children respond because I make them laugh, release their fears and help them understand why people do the things they do. Through yoga, I help them feel less self conscious about their bodies and who they are. I don’t judge and believe children have an incredible ability to break negative habits and thought patterns. 

Posture and alignment in the poses are very important to me, so I adjust the children and explain exactly how the poses are supposed to feel. Teaching correct alignment early forms good habits. Despite all the newspaper warnings from schools and parents not to hug and touch children, I hug them all the time. I adjust them all the time. The kids crave that physical connection. I believe the power of touch goes very far in a child’s psyche, which is also why I end class releasing tension in their little necks. It’s important to reduce tension and anxiety however we can. Yoga, laughter, hugs and head massages go a long way toward reducing anxiety.

I once had a teen in my class who struggled with friendships and feeling connected socially. After practicing yoga for a while, she came up to me after class and announced, “You know, I have more friends now.” I asked her what she thought helped attract more friends, and she replied, “well, I know everyone in yoga class likes me so I just took that feeling into school and at parties and assumed they all liked me, and eventually I started making more friends.”

That’s what I try to promote: The power of attraction is real. If you gossip, you’ll find yourself surrounded by gossips. There are no cliques in yoga class, and I have this fantasy that we can even create kinder environments in schools if we help children release their insecurities.

I’m an entertainer, a story teller and a yoga teacher, and I love making kids laugh. This past week, I taught one class in a heavy southern accent and gave everyone nicknames like Cupcake, Petunia, Muffin and Sweet Honeydew. Coming from Virginia, I thought I’d teach them some southern culture. They were laughing so hard that at the end of class one girl said, “Mary Kaye, I laughed so hard this whole class that I couldn’t hold all the poses.” And I said, “Great, because laughter is just as healing as yoga.” At the end of class, I walked on my hands to turn out the lights for Savasana.