Authors : Mehta B .
Page Nos : 67-68
Description :
Sanskrit word yoga which is "yoke", "to join", "to unite", or "to attach" from the root yuj
. Yoga
helps children see the beauty and light within themselves, thereby boosting their self
-
confidence, allowing
them to feel more comfortable with their bodies, and helping them get in touch with who they are inside.
A child who learns yoga, mindfulnes
s and relaxation will be developing essential skills for a lifetime of
health and wellness in mind, body and spirit. Stress is a major obstacle to academic achievement, and
yoga's stress relief powers have been shown to boost student performance. A 2009 I
nternational Journal
of Yoga study of 300 students looked at yoga's effect on the stress levels of adolescent students. After
seven weeks of practicing asanas, breathing exercises and meditation, the students registered lower
stress levels and higher acade
mic performance. A 2015 study in the journal Evidence
-
Based and
Complementary Medicine of 95 high school students found that yoga was superior to regular physical
education classes in protecting against a slide in GPA as the school year wore on. Yoga has b
een shown
to improve memory in both adults and children, a benefit that would seem certain to improve academic
performance. In a 2003 study in the Indian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology, 30 children were
divided into three groups: yoga camp, fine ar
ts camp or control group. The yoga group trained in asanas,
breathing exercises, meditation and cleansing rituals for 10 days. The result was a 43 percent
improvement in spatial memory test scores in the yoga group. (By comparison, the fine arts and contro
l
groups showed no changes.) In another study by the journal Pediatric Physical Therapy, 108 school
children were divided into 4 groups, each of whom practiced a different style of pranayama (breathing
exercises). Each of the four groups saw spatial memory
scores improve by an average of 84 percent.
