Burning Ideas

Usually i go to bed at roughly the same time but with the occasional late night. I have a bedtime routine or ritual that I repeat each night like washing my face and brushing my teeth, sometimes reading a book while I sip herbal tea. The quality of my sleep most of the time is I usually sleep well but sometimes have trouble. On a typical night it takes a while before I fall asleep and when I wake up early and want to fall asleep again, but I can’t. Sometimes, when I am under stress I wake up in the middle of the night. I prefer to sleep with the television on. and I rarely drink caffeinated drinks before I go to bed. Based on my sleeping habits it appears that I usually sleep well but might struggle with sleep issues from time to time that caused to occasional sleeplessness. But no matter unusual my sleeping habits are, I probably don’t have a serious sleep problem. Maybe I should take some self care method like looking on my personal habits carefully and changing one or more of them may make the difference. I should eliminate eating chocolates and reduce drinking coffee and soft drinks for few weeks. Maybe practicing relaxation exercises or gentle stretching before bed will help.

Ishy is 8 years old, she is my niece. She loves extra curricular activities. I wonder what kind of workshop she’s into this time. She said “Yoga”. Yoga for pre-school children? Well yes, it is adapted for pre-schoolers. My cousin (mother of Ishy) said it develops body awareness, language, good listening skills, cooperation and powers of observation. It also teaches pre-school children about nature, their environment and inspires their imaginations. It prepares them for breathing techniques used in yoga. For pre-schoolers this is an ideal time to begin yoga practice. Yoga for school aged children balances quiet and active poses with game playing, singing, storytelling, drawing, simple breath meditations and rest. They say that children can easily follow the teachers instructions by learning the names of different body parts, their locations and function. As they learn the names of the postures and movements they develop a yoga vocabulary. They can use their yoga poses to play games, take on the qualities of different animals or use their imaginations to make stories about animals on the farm etc. Yoga for children is challenging, exciting and rewarding. I am really encouraged by the positive results, both physical and emotional as I observed with my niece who take yoga regularly. No wonder why she never missed a single session every Saturdays even she had a whole week of school. I am also excited to enroll my son to yoga workshops or classes soon.