Yoga at school for boys and girls

More and more schools are interested in implementing yoga programs and contemplative practices in order to explore how these techniques can help children acquire tools to help them manage emotions and promote wellbeing.

That is why yoga in the school environment has become a movement in both public and private schools in some countries such as: USA, France, Germany, UK, Argentina, Australia, Canada and Spain. The purposes of the programs are varied:

• Students learn to relax while improving their physical and mental health and concentration-attention level.
• To address violent behavior in schools that suffer from this problem.
• Improve student behavior and academic performance.

In general, the programs coincide in offering children tools that they can use to seek their physical and mental balance. And help them develop self-awareness, self-management, responsible decision-making and social skills. Dr. Sat Bir Sigh Khalsa grouped the benefits of yoga and meditation practice in the school environment into three areas as follows: 1) attention, 2) awareness – emotional regulation and 3) state of physical and mental health.

_{^{(Khalsa & Gould ,2012; “Why Yoga is Changing Schools”, 2017).}}

Khalsa explains that none of these three components are independent, they all interact with each other. For example, when you focus attention and activate the brain’s attention networks, you are actually also inhibiting the emotional brain in the limbic system, which facilitates emotional self-regulation.

_{Source: Portes Barroso, C. C. (2018). The experience of a yoga and meditation program for elementary school students with ADHD.}