On Monday afternoons, the library at Temple Beth Am in Pinecrest becomes a yoga studio. Furniture and cabinets full of books are pushed aside to make room for yoga mats. Minutes before their practice begins, eight young girls run back and forth across the floor, shouting “Namaste! Namaste!”
In less than an hour these fresh out-of-school students will be lying down in relaxation, in silence.
The age-old practice of yoga, which originated in India, is gaining popularity with children and teenagers in after-school programs and in the classroom. Yoga instructor Cookie Billig is recruited by schools in Broward and Miami-Dade County to teach fourth- sixth-graders how to focus and motivate themselves.
“I know around FCAT time I get a lot of calls,” she said.
Billig recalls there weren’t many yoga workshops for kids when she started six years ago. Now, programs like 305 Spiritual Gangsters bring yoga to at-risk youth in schools and shelters in Miami, teaching respect and self-awareness. The outreach program, founded by Terri Cooper, also assists would-be yoga instructors through an Urban Guru Scholarship Program. As a part of After School U, a program designed by Courts 1 on 1 and Temple Beth Am, the after-school camp offers the Little Rina Yogis class, taught once a week by Rina Jakubowicz.
Jakubowicz, 32, has been teaching yoga throughout Miami since she was 23. She became certified through YogiHari and began teaching yoga to kids in 2006. She remembers when children did not know the term ‘yoga’ and now when she talks about her job, some kids volunteer a tree pose. “It’s natural for me to be around kids,” Jakubowicz said. “They want to learn. The kids gravitate toward that playfulness of the body.”
The practice can help little yogis build strong bodies and boost imagination. Employing the fun of animal imitations, games and chanting, Jakubowicz uses the hour to make sure the children enjoy themselves in a non-competitive, encouraging environment.
Bianca Premo, a South Miami mother of two who works as a professor at Florida International University, has enrolled her 5-year-old daughter Anna in dance, gymnastics and swimming. She was glad Anna, “a spirited, very energetic child” she says, decided to join yoga at Temple Beth Am. “Yoga helps her listen to herself. It’s discipline but not in the punishment sense. It’s a practice to keep yourself calm,” Premo said.
Why it took until now for yoga to be introduced to kids in the Western world is bewildering. During an era of frustrating homework assignments and active schedules, yoga can serve as a peaceful outlet and a place to re-energize.
“Kids nowadays have so much pressure. Parents are always complaining about how much homework they have,” said Karen Mejia, 35, who instructs a yoga class for kids at Forrest Pilates in Spring Gardens.
The yogi philosophy fosters mental, spiritual, and physical benefits. Classes for kids usually are kept to an hour, and students are not expected to hold the poses as long as adults. It’s all about getting a few moments of stillness and feeling movement.
“You’re their teacher but all of a sudden they become your teacher. They’re prompting me with their energy,” said Billig, who teaches a children’s yoga class at Red Pearl Yoga in Fort Lauderdale on Tuesdays.
Parents can take a course as well. At both Red Pearl Yoga and Forrest Pilates, a yoga or Pilates course is taught with the children’s yoga session. “It’s very bonding. I have a mom who does yoga on the weekend with her kids. It teaches them to talk in a loving way,” Mejia said.
Maria Forrest quit her corporate job after 17 years to open Forrest Pilates almost eight years ago.
“The extra hours I was putting in at the office, I wanted to put into my family,” Forrest said. Her two daughters, Madison, 7, and Emily, 4, started taking yoga when they were toddlers. When the weather cools they take their Saturday yoga class on the wooden patio behind the Forrest Pilates studio.
“Saturday’s class is a beautiful space — it feels like you’re in the forest,” Mejia said. Billig has worked with kids suffering from various ailments from rheumatoid arthritis to autism and believes that yoga can help.
“Really special things start happening when you teach kids yoga,” Billig adds. “Through the breathing and poses and meditation it helps them choose a path of self-awareness and self-esteem.”Billig says she would like to see more people get certified to instruct little yogis. Parents want to see yoga become more accessible to everyone. “It’s certainly something trendy, but not all trendy things are bad. Like eating right,” Premo said.