Two Of The Toughest Things To Be Patient With; Yoga And Kids. Ex-Teacher Has The Incredible Ability To Teach Them Both.
This caused her to look into a new type of activity that could still keep her active while at the same time, be a lot easier on her body. This search, for a lower impact activity, lead her right to yoga. However, she never expected to have yoga impact her life the way that it did. She fell in love with everything about it.
The discipline. The patience. The spirituality and mindfulness of it. Everything.
It also began to heal her body and actually start to reverse some of the damage caused to her from years of dancing. She was also incredibly surprised by the effects it had on others that have had physical problems and injuries. She saw first hand how it was able to reverse joint pain and ailments on other people that started to implement yoga into their lives. Needless to say, she has become a big believer in yoga which lead her to become an instructor. She started teaching it and really enjoyed doing it.
As much as she loved yoga, she couldn’t help but miss what used to be a big part of her life. She used to be a 2nd-grade teacher and missed interacting with kids.
So, she thought to herself… “Why not teach yoga to kids?”
She looked into and was surprised that there actually certifications available to teach kids yoga! So she jumped on board and started up a yoga instruction for kids and called it Yaya Yoga. She opened up a studio out in San Francisco and had great success teaching kids the basics of yoga while conducting family yoga classes. She also went to schools and taught kids of all ages.
I, myself interviewing her, was extremely surprised that she could teach kids as young as 1 and 3 years old! That was pretty amazing to hear.
Recently…
She’s made the move from a huge town like San Francisco to our awesome little town of Paso Robles and wants to bring in some of that same awareness of yoga and the impact it can have on people and kids to our town.
I, the writer here, have done quite a few yoga routines myself. I am completely aware of what it takes to do yoga and the patience needed to pull off some of the poses and moves and they can be extremely challenging. I asked her how she manages to be able to teach that to kids as young as 1 years old…
Her response really surprised me…
She says… “It’s all about getting the kids to hold a pose for as little as 2 to 3 seconds. That’s all they need. It takes the kids 3 to 6 classes to “get it” and start to get what we want them to do. We do things to combine things with songs and games. For example, we combine the song “I’m A Little Tea Pot” with the triangle pose so we can get them in the pose and have them hold it for just a few seconds. That’s all the kids need.”
That was really cool to hear and it actually made me laugh!
She’s new to Paso Robles and has slowly started to spread the word about her family yoga instruction classes. She has started things out by providing them at Centennial Park and Recreation Services She started things out right away with some Summer Series classes and will start offering the Fall Series classes. She says that the recreation services there has really helped her spread the word about her classes.
She has recently started to rent a section over at the Refine Barre Studio, which is a fitness studio right next to the Amtrak train station right in downtown Paso Robles.
Vanessa offers 4 family yoga classes for 1 to 5-year-olds and 5 to 10-year-olds for around $60 to $75. For a full list of here classes and a full description of what is included, you can simply check out her website for her schedule here or you can also reach her 415-310-2767 (Don’t mind the different area code! She’s from San Francisco!)
In speaking with Vanessa, I could really feel her passion for what she does. For her, it isn’t even about the money for teaching yoga to families and their children. She really wants to share and show people how yoga has the ability to impact people’s lives in so many different ways.
She shared with me how yoga can really help kids with becoming more mindful, or basically become more aware of their little bodies and their surroundings. It helps them strengthen their muscles. It teaches them how to stretch and also a ton of balance. The kids learn to remain calm with proper breathing techniques and also teaches them to be patient.
I’m sure there a whole lot of parents out here in Paso Robles that wouldn’t mind their little ones learning all of that.
And you know what?
I’m willing to bet, that there are a whole lot of parents that wouldn’t mind learning how to become more mindful themselves. And who couldn’t use some more strengthening and stretching of their muscles? What could be a perfect way to get all of that, all while spending some great quality time alongside their kids?
Hey, it can happen. And you can get all of that with some great family yoga sessions.
It’s a good thing that this patient yoga instructor from San Francisco moved to our little town to show us how it’s done.
