Children today are tired. Their days are packed with extra-curricular activities, social obligations, homework, and screen time. Many students report that they are going to bed late sometimes doing homework way into the hours of the night. According to the National Sleep Foundation, school-aged children (6-13) should get 9-11 hours of sleep per night. While nothing beats a good night sleep, a practice of restorative yoga can help rejuvenate the bodies and minds of children.
Restorative yoga is a gentle form of movement usually practiced with props like bolsters, blankets, blocks, and sometimes the wall. When in these restful poses (generally for 3 to 5 minutes), the Sympathetic Nervous System, responsible for the fight, flight, freeze, & faint response is soothed, triggering the Parasympathetic Nervous System, responsible for relaxation and digestion.
In all my youth classes we practice at least one restorative posture before moving into our final relaxation position. My students’ favorite is legs up the wall. The wall serves as a prop supporting the legs and feet. Some benefits of this gentle inversion include:
Calms the nervous system
Headache relief
Soothes tired or sore legs and feet
Improves circulation
Children respond saying they are calm, relaxed, and sometimes tired. They discover they can practice legs up the wall before bedtime, or anytime they want to relax or quiet the mind. I like using a chair in the classroom. It works great!
Denise Nobile is an educator and presenter in the field of youth mindfulness and yoga. Denise is the founder of Youth Nation Yoga, a certified Mindful Schools instructor, and an educator at Somers Middle School in Westchester, N.Y. As a classroom teacher at both the elementary and middle school, she's come to discover how stressed our children are. With the demands of school, extracurricular activities, obligations to friends and family, and technology use, now more than ever, it's important for children to slow down, pause, and take a breath. In her work, Denise brings a movement and mindfulness practice to as many children as possible, providing them with the tools to navigate life's challenges with greater ease.
Denise holds a master's in elementary education, specializing in special education, and is a registered yoga teacher (E - RYT). She is registered to teach yoga to children (RCYT) and studied extensively with Mindful Schools, receiving a 300-hour certification to teach mindfulness to youth. Denise teaches mindfulness and yoga to children in private sessions, classrooms, libraries, yoga studios, and after-school programs. She teaches school-based educators, parents, and clinicians how to cultivate a mindfulness practice and teach the youth in their lives how to be their best selves.
Denise trained with Liberation Prison Yoga, where she teaches trauma-conscious yoga and mindfulness classes to the women at the Taconic Correctional Facility.
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Children today are tired. Their days are packed with extra-curricular activities, social obligations, homework, and screen time. Many students report that they are going to bed late sometimes doing homework way into the hours of the night. According to the National Sleep Foundation, school-aged children (6-13) should get 9-11 hours of sleep per night. While nothing beats a good night sleep, a practice of restorative yoga can help rejuvenate the bodies and minds of children.
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