Upon arrival at your next fitness class, you may notice some rather tiny (and giggly) participants eagerly awaiting their workout. These days both parents and their babies are getting in on one of the hottest fitness crazes -- forming a unique and spiritual bond of trust and love with the mind and body benefits of yoga. "It's a wonderful way for mothers to calm and connect with their baby's spirit," says DeAnsin Parker, Ph.D., author of Yoga Baby and founder of the Goodson Parker Wellness Center, where she teaches yoga to mothers and their babies.
The program, based on the hatha method of yoga, focuses on posture and helps to promote flexibility and strength for increased mental focus. It also encourages early child development and teaches parents to get in sync with their young ones. According to Parker, understanding your babies rhythms and moods and being able to feel comfortable manipulating them, something Parker calls, "baby whispering," is vital for creating that spiritual bond that exists between parent and child.
Yoga Baby focuses on the body's energetic centers or "chakras," including the Heart Center, Solar Plexus Center, and Permanent Center. Through a series of breathing, stretching and lengthening techniques, and gentle massage, these centers are stimulated along with the heart, lungs, digestive and endocrine systems. "Babies have been confined to the womb for nine months and their body's energy is uneven because of this," says Parker. "The stretching and lengthening techniques used in yoga help to distribute this energy evenly."
These nurturing exercises help to boost immunity and encourage better sleep, digestion, and circulation. Yoga even helps to relieve colic. If you're a parent you know this is the cause of much crankiness in infants.
Along with its mind, body and spiritual benefits, stresses Parker, "Yoga Baby is fun for both mother and child (and dads too!). To be nurtured and touched is so very important." And how do the little ones fare in her class? "By the end, it's so quiet," she says, "You can hear a pin drop!"
Here is a simple exercise from Yoga Baby that you can do with your child at home.
Excerpt from Yoga Baby by DeAnsin Goodson Parker, Ph.D. Copyright 2000 Broadway Books, New York
