Why You Don’t Need to Be an Expert In Yoga or Mindfulness to Create a Meaningful Practice with Young Children

Why You Don’t Need to Be an Expert In Yoga or Mindfulness to Create a Meaningful Practice with Young Children

By Lara Hocheiser

Setting the Scene:

My Rituals With Charlie

A yogi, entrepreneur, and early childhood expert’s daily practice with her toddler daughter

When we get home from work and daycare, Charlie proclaims, “It’s time to meditape.” She hasn’t mastered the word for meditation, but she surely gets the feeling and remembers the process.

She grabs the cushions and says, “Mommy, I have the piwwowws.” She refers to the round cushions as pillows. It warms my heart to hear her mirror her understanding to me. She grabs Bobby her teddybear and asks me about the sage and if we will sing “jaya ganesha.”

We open the sliding door to the porch, step outside, place the cushions down and I take a tall seat. She circles around her pillow. She looks at it and says, “circle!” Still not seated, she playfully approaches my cushion and places Bobby first in my lap and then on the astroturf among the many beautiful plants.

As I light the sage, she looks at me and warms me, “we don’t get hurt.” “That’s right baby, we are being very careful.” I sage her, she sages me and Bobby. Then together we extinguish the herb. She reminds us again, “we don’t get hurt.”

Then, as I sit and begin to chant, she sometimes chimes in or makes a request. We tend to repeat the same first verse of a chant rather than sing an entire one so that the pattern can be memorable for her. And so I can sink into the repetition myself. No need to focus on knowing all the words. We are here to tune into the vibration and be together.

We don’t care about being meditation experts. We don’t care what the neighbors think, hearing us belt out our voices from a Crown Heights balcony. We sit together and soak in the loving simplicity of being together in prayerful meditation. My daughter, her bear, and me. The sun kissing our cheeks. The birds chirping to let us know they are here. We are here, too.

Sometimes the sit we do is brief, less than 5 minutes because she has trouble sitting. Sometimes she gets intrigued and we remain in practice for 5–10 minutes or more. There have been nights we sing the songs for hours as we play, bathe, get on jammies, and snuggle.

Each day we take the time to create the ritual space. We sit together (or I sit and she does what toddlers do, sometimes sitting, sometimes jumping, sometimes calling out what she sees, hears, or smells.)

We both look forward to the time and it has helped us to connect.

From Screentime to Togetherness

For a few months, I was working when she came home because one of my key consultants was in a timezone that required it. She was watching programming on my laptop which I wasn’t crazy about as an early childhood educator myself. When enough became enough, she and I both tapped back into what we were doing when she was just a baby. We used to roll out yoga mats and ring the chime, breathing in unison. Now it looks a little different, and our current practice will change too. As does everything in nature.

I’m so grateful that she is interested in these practices and asks to share them with me. It gives me a sense of pride that she has willingly turned in the screentime for tune-in time with me. I know her love and need for me will be as fleeting as early childhood itself. I make the most of these moments with her while I am still the number one star in her sky. That too will change. And my meditation may at that time become again formal, unremarkable, and mine alone. Maybe so.

Thank you for sharing my story.

A few pointers for meditation and yoga with your toddler(s)

• Set realistic time expectations (under 5 minutes to start, and slowly move up)
• Model your practice
• Talk about your ritual
• Repeat the same ritual with just a few changes
• Thank your child for participating
• Don’t worry if it’s not relaxing at first
• Enjoy this fleeting moment in presence together

Learning the process for yourself

If you’ve read this far, it’s likely that yoga and mindfulness with young children interest you. I have created a 6 module course guiding you into yourself and your strengths, to develop a personal practice that is sustainable, and teaching you how to share with the children you love and work with using a proven methodology that is not too yoga and not too didactic, its a perfect blend of yoga, mindfulness, and what works in early childhood. Please stay tuned for the course registration opening and sign up for the special email newsletter for the launch here

Unlike other courses that are formulaic or too focused on special needs or trauma sensitivity, this course is the meat and potatoes of yoga and mindfulness with infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. You do not need any expertise to join. Only a conscientious desire to improve your life and those of the littlest loves you lead.