I was first drawn to yoga in college. Had I known the vast benefits it would have in my life, I would have tried it much sooner. Unfortunately, when we were growing up, "mindfulness" was not really a thing. While yoga and mindfulness as a whole seem to be a current trend in the childbearing population, the benefits reaped from this area of focus are not at all a trend. They are factual. They are scientifically proven. Society is a little late catching on to this way of life. One thing is for sure- this is not a fad.
Most children brought into the world today know how to work technology before the age of one.
I remember watching my daughter toddle up to the television and attempt to swipe across to a different screen, then looking completely bewildered when nothing happened. My son doesn't know what a typewriter is. We literally had to look it up on YouTube so he could understand what we were talking about.
I know we hear this all the time, but it's frightening- what is happening to this generation?
Our world is fast paced, technologically driven, with stimuli in every single direction we look. Most kids are in at least one or more extracurricular activities. Most have cell phones by the tween years. Somehow in all of this, the art of communication has been lost. The idea of what is trending on social media has become accepted as the norm. We, as a society, are failing our youth by being either oblivious or ignorant to the fact that this is happening right in front of us. Evidence continues to show actual neuropathic changes that occur in the developing brain related to excessive use of technology, in whatever capacity.
If ever there was a time for mindfulness to become a trend, now is that time.
Forget science for a minute, however compelling that evidence is. I see the response to the regular practice of mindfulness in my own children. I see them organically stretching, breathing, and self soothing on a regular basis. I see the confidence, the awareness, and the sensitivity they have in social settings. I see the ability they have to focus on tasks.
Even in my children's yoga classes, when I think a two year old can't possibly be absorbing anything I am trying to portray, somehow they do. They hear it, they see it. They go home, they emulate what they have seen. To instill this kind of mindfulness at such a young age can and WILL make a difference.
My studio has been in existence long enough to have followed our very first prenatal client through her pregnancy journey, and now full circle to Parent/Toddler yoga classes. To see this happening, to know that I am a part of it, brings me more happiness and fulfillment than I can express in words.
I hope this "fad" of the practice of mindfulness is in actuality the new norm.
I am honored and blessed to be a part of that change.
Namaste.
With much love and light,
Kat