Rediff On The NeT: Across America Parents Get Their Kids To Chant Aum


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June 25, 1999

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Across America Parents Get Their Kids To Chant Aum

Sonia Chopra

One recent afternoon, Vikram got upset. The five-year-old had lost his favorite baseball glove. He retreated to the corner, took a long deep breath and resumed his search. He didn't find it. He chanted, " aum, aum.'' And went back to look for it. Still, no luck. He stayed calm.

Children working on Yoga at Jivamukti's "In the past, he would throw himself on the ground, moving his legs up and down like an inverted cockroach," said his mother Sushma Verma, 37, laughing.

"But ever since he took a yoga class this spring, he has mellowed. It has taught him patience and self-control and he is a much happier child," said Verma of her only child, who eventually found his glove, under some newspapers on the end table in the living room.

"I was at my wit's end with his tantrums and impatience. A friend suggested it. It was a week-long thing at a Hindu temple and I am amazed," said Verma, adding that she has now become an advocate of yoga and encourages her friends to enroll their children.

Verma, who lives in Chicago, is not alone. One of the best-kept secrets, the benefits of yoga for children is suddenly no secret at all. It is in fact a growing trend, which has fueled an industry of training classes, books and video and audiotapes.

Mushrooming all over America, there are mommy-and-me classes, children's classes and even weeklong summer camps. One of the factors of its popularity is that teachers say that the increased awareness, flexibility, strength and discipline it provides can go a long way in helping them cope with other sports.

For Adrienne Burke, 31, a teacher and program director at Jivamukti -- a 15-year-old yoga studio in Manhattan -- who has been teaching it for six years and practising for twelve, yoga is "discipline" and "the simple answer for dealing with stress and resolving conflict."

"It's a guideline to my life. It keeps me focused and puts things in perspective, all this with health benefits," she explained passionately and yet serenely.

"Yoga helps you keep a positive attitude. It's a very, very good thing for everyone. It's the only way to keep the mind and body connected. The good feeling inside is actually a blessed feeling and is what yoga is about," Burke said.

"Children these days have a lot of stress, peer pressure; sometimes with both parents working, there are very high expectations placed on them. They need to be shown that there is a way they can control stress and be at peace," said Burke. The classes at Jivamukti are $15 for adults and $10 for children apiece.

Colleen Saidman has enrolled her three year old daughter Rachael in Jivamukti's yoga A yoga teacher herself, Colleen Saidman, 39, who has been practising yoga for 15 years, has enrolled her three-year-old daughter Rachael in Jivamukti's yoga program.

"She's been brought up with it, she been exposed to it ever since she was in my uterus," Saidman said with a laugh.

"Now she leads the chants in my classes," said Saidman, who has been teaching yoga since January, after what she describes as a "grueling, very intense training period."

Saidman, who lives on the West Side in Manhattan in New York, said yoga was her ''lifeline" and that she "cannot imagine living without it. It shows me how happiness has to come from inside."

"I love watching her practice. Her control of breath is simply amazing and I find it beautiful when she is sitting in a corner upset with something and she chants aum, aum," said Saidman, who added that her daughter "passes the word on yoga" to her classmates.

For Sandra Storwick, 42, a teacher at Yogacenters, in Bellevue, Washington, a suburb of Seattle, yoga is a lifestyle, an identity and a way of recognizing your place in the universe.

"My yoga makes me hold on to myself psychologically. It makes me go inwards to feel my heart, to touch my feelings. I love myself and it's because I am at peace spiritually, mentally, physically and emotionally," said Storwick, who lived in Tamil Nadu 17 years ago, where she first discovered yoga.

Storwick, who teaches children yoga said it is essential for them, especially when they reach the age of seven. "It keeps them strong, teaches them to focus, concentrate and gain confidence," she said.

As opposed to other sports, where the "muscles, especially the hamstrings become very tight, yoga helps them become flexible and therefore allows the child to excel at other sports," Storwick said.

As an example of yoga "being an anchor" for youngsters, Storwick talks of her daughter Jennifer, 19, who is a model, currently on assignment in Europe.

"Yoga gives her the confidence, she meditates when she's upset. It helps her tremendously," Storwick revealed.

If children are busy and have their schedules planned out, they are less likely to get into trouble said Neha Kumar, 38, who has two children Akshay, 11, and Natasha, 9, both students of yoga.

"I feel that yoga has given them this feeling of being useful in this world. It gives them a sense of being and of being important,'' said Kumar, a New Hampshire housewife, who used to practise yoga in New Delhi where she was born and bought up. But when she moved to the US a dozen years ago, she gave it up.

Still, she was determined that her children would have the choice and the opportunity to pursue it, along with Indian classical dance and music.

Experts say the best thing about yoga is that, unlike other sports, it is not competitive and this can build bonds between siblings and with other children.

Children working on Yoga at Jivamukti's "I have one daughter who is not that well-coordinated and one who is very athletic and doing yoga makes them both very comfortable and happy because they can both accomplish some levels. They appreciate the spiritual connection and it brings them closer," said Karin Gustafson, 42, whose daughter Meredith, 12, is athletic and Christine, 9, is not.

Gustafson has been coming to Jivamukti for six years and been practising yoga for 24, stopping briefly when her children were very young.

"I need to do yoga. It's very important to me. I feel blessed to have this and my children know that it brings me peace and they understand,'' said Gustafson, who explained that because of her yoga practice everyone has to leave the house early and the children "never complain."

Burke offers an explanation for the success of yoga and its ability to transcend race, age, ethnic background and income levels.

"People are searching for spirituality and they are disillusioned with religion. Yoga gives them a sense of peace and spiritual being without the complexities of religion," she elaborates.

She, however, adds a warning: "It's a gradual process. In the beginning it's hard but if you are consistent, the rewards pour in."

So, s-t-r-e-t-c-h.

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