Benefits of Healthy Breathing Habits

At the beginning of every Story and Stretch class my monkey puppet, Wanamisi, teaches the children a variety of beneficial breathing techniques for both on and off the mat, as well as how our breath affects our lives. 

The following are some of the fun, interesting, and surprising facts about breath that your child may learn from Miss Wanamisi:

* The nose has a 4-stage filtration system. By breathing into the mouth we go straight to stage 4. This easily results in sore throats, tonsillitis, and even ear infections!

* Over time, breathing through the mouth can shrink the jaw.  This results in crooked teeth, which translates into a relapse after having braces removed!

* Breathing through the mouth is one cause for children developing a lisp when they talk.

* The urge to urinate during the night is likely due to breathing with the mouth open.  When we breathe through our mouths our bladders shrink, resulting in more trips to the bathroom!

* The more breaths you take the hungrier you will be & the more acidic your body will become.

* You should exercise to the intensity that you can keep your mouth closed.

* Asthma is mostly misdiagnosed. It is often hereditary, and if you’re born with it, you will have it for life – however, through a breathing program and a change in external factors you can potentially be inhaler and steroid free for the remainder of your life!

* We naturally change sides in our sleep approximately every 30 minutes, and this is mostly due to the balancing of the breath through each of the nostrils.

* If the lungs were open flat they would cover the size of a tennis court!

* Breathing properly eases physical tension by relaxing your muscles.  When this happens your blood vessels dilate allowing your blood pressure to return to a normal level.  

* Long, slow, deep breaths allow fresh oxygen to pour into every cell in your body.  This improves the functionality of every system in your body...digestive system, immune system, nervous system, respiratory system, lymphatic system, etc.

* Long, slow, deep breaths improve your mental concentration and physical stamina.  It also triggers the release of endorphins, which improve your feelings of we-being and relieves pain!  

* Healthy breathing habits encourage the release of harmful toxins stuck in your body.  By cleansing the body in this manner you are able to direct more energy to other bodily functions.  

Massage Series Part 1 of 6: Benefits of Massage for Infants

This post is the beginning of a series on the benefits of massage for different age groups.  Naturally, I am beginning with infants…

“As a parent, loving relative, or caregiver of an infant, you want to see your child flourish.  Touch is one of the most important requirements for healthy development – a fact supported by both ancient tradition and contemporary research.  Massage is attentive, pleasurable touch that can promote your baby’s well-being while increasing your ability to respond to his or her needs.

The special touch of massage is remarkable in its ability to enhance a child’s comfort.  Babies who are massaged sleep better, and are calmer and more alert when awake.  Massage stimulates digestion and elimination.  It can also reduce the discomfort of teething and colds, and help calm fussy babies. 

In addition, bonding is enhanced with massage.  Responding to your baby’s smiles, frowns and squirms with sensitive touch, eye contact, soothing sounds and loving communication can reinforce trust for years to come.

Studies Confirm…

The positive effects of infant massage have been well-researched by organizations such as UNICEF and the University of Miami School of Medicine.  They have found:

* Children and infants who were massaged showed significantly reduced stress indicators such as heart rate and stress hormone levels.

* Infants who received extra touch developed visual attentiveness earlier than babies who didn’t.  Visually impaired babies whose parents touched them early and often were able to reach toward sounds sooner than other babies.

* Premature babies who were regularly massaged gained weight faster, acquired mental and motor skills earlier, and were more relaxed than non-massaged babies.

* For drug-exposed infants, massaged helped increase weight gain, and relieved both tension and pain.  

Benefits for YOU…

Giving massage can build your confidence in caring for your baby.  You may feel more satisfied with the quality of time you spend with your infant and with your increased ability to help your child relax in times of stress. You may even find your own tension eased as you perform the gentle movements."

- Natural Touch Marketing 

NEW SATURDAY Storytime Yoga Class @ Bliss Yoga Shala, Jacksonville, FL

Beginning Saturday, September 22^nd a Storytime Yoga class will be offered at Bliss Yoga Shala (1615 Thacker Avenue, Jacksonville, FL).  This class will take place from 3pm-4pm and is open to children ages 3-12!  Sign your child(ren) up and watch the transformation of awareness, breathe, posture, flexibility, strength, concentration, creativity, character development and more!  See you soon!!  

Let the Children Play, It's Good for Them!

A leading researcher in the field of cognitive development says when children pretend, they’re not just being silly—they’re doing science

• By Alison Gopnik
• Smithsonian magazine, July-August 2012

Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/Let-the-Children-Play-Its-Good-for-Them.html#ixzz25Uye65oC

Walk into any preschool and you’ll find toddling superheroes battling imaginary monsters. We take it for granted that young children play and, especially, pretend. Why do they spend so much time in fantasy worlds?

People have suspected that play helps children learn, but until recently there was little research that showed this or explained why it might be true. In my lab at the University of California at Berkeley, we’ve been trying to explain how very young children can learn so much so quickly, and we’ve developed a new scientific approach to children’s learning.

Where does pretending come in? It relates to what philosophers call “counterfactual” thinking, like Einstein wondering what would happen if a train went at the speed of light.

In one study, my student Daphna Buchsbaum introduced 3- and 4-year-olds to a stuffed monkey and a musical toy and told them, “It’s Monkey’s birthday, and this is a birthday machine we can use to sing to Monkey. It plays “Happy Birthday” when you put a zando” (a funny-looking object) “on it like this.” Then she held up a different object and explained that it wasn’t a zando and therefore wouldn’t make the music play. Then she asked some tricky counterfactual questions: “If this zando wasn’t a zando, would the machine play music or not?” What if the non-zando was a zando? About half the 3-year-olds answered correctly.

Then a confederate took away the toys and Daphna said, “We could just pretend that this box is the machine and that this block is a zando and this other one isn’t. Let’s put the blocks on the machine. What will happen next?” About half said the pretend zando made pretend music, while the pretend non-zando did nothing (well, pretend nothing, which is quite a concept even if you’re older than 3).

We found children who were better at pretending could reason better about counterfactuals—they were better at thinking about different possibilities. And thinking about possibilities plays a crucial role in the latest understanding about how children learn. The idea is that children at play are like pint-sized scientists testing theories. They imagine ways the world could work and predict the pattern of data that would follow if their theories were true, and then compare that pattern with the pattern they actually see. Even toddlers turn out to be smarter than we would have thought if we ask them the right questions in the right way.

Play is under pressure right now, as parents and policymakers try to make preschools more like schools. But pretend play is not only important for kids; it’s a crucial part of what makes all humans so smart.