JOY
Mindfulness: Teaching Children to Love Their Bodies Through Yoga
By Laura Harper, CSW If you have ever watched a four-month old reach for her toes or stretch on her belly, or a three-year old running across the grass and falling in ecstatic giggling, or a seven-year old jumping on the trampoline for an hour trying to land a back flip, you know that it is the natural state of childhood to be in tune with our bodies and to enjoy free and joyful physical expression. As the years pass and we enter the self-conscious adolescent years, the developing child can become more inhibited, often self-critical, disconnecting from their physical self. Traumatic experiences as well as social conditioning can also contribute to the experiencing of a separation between mind and body. We start to live in our heads, ig
