I started putting all of my sweet experiences with my daughter into my classes. Moms tell me that their babies take longer naps after class because they’ve been so alert and playful during it.
I rarely felt like doing yoga by myself all alone at home. Being a yoga instructor, though, I thought maybe at least I got in a good stretch while teaching classes. But when I was on maternity leave for three months, I couldn’t wait to start a yoga practice at home, and I returned to my mat soon after the birth of my second child, a cute baby girl.
In the beginning, I found it somewhat manageable as my daughter was napping more than four hours in a row. But soon this schedule changed to more feeding times, diaper changes, and doctor’s visits. I had many must-do tasks every day. Whenever she was awake, she needed me to be with her. It became so hard to catch up with yoga on my mat. Seeing no escape from that schedule, I started playing with my daughter while doing a few of yoga postures like Vajrasana, wide angle pose, or Bhadhakona asna. I could still interact with my baby without any discomfort to her, and I thought that a few stretches were better than no stretches at all!
Slowly, I started doing many more yoga poses while playing with my daughter. I could rub my mouth on my daughter’s tiny limbs while holding the chaturangasana. I could swing my daughter on my knees while doing pawan mukta asana. She would laugh as if she was participating in a game. Simply lifting her way up with an arm stretch was so good for my biceps and triceps and fun for my daughter. I added kisses to my arm stretch to make this more enjoyable to her. Sometimes my daughter didn’t like a few of the poses, so I did modifications in those poses according to her needs. There were a few poses that she wanted me to repeat over again and again, like giving her little bounces while in squatting position. I quickly learned that she wouldn’t allow me to be with my mat when she was hungry or tired, so I started doing yoga every day at the same time, after her morning nap followed by her feeding time. Soon, this mom and baby yoga time turned into the best time of the day for both of us. Yoga provided me with a beautiful opportunity for bonding with my daughter.
The benefits of doing yoga with my daughter were not restricted to just that one hour. It benefited both of us enormously in the long run. My daughter started chanting ohm when she was almost six months old. She could do many difficult yoga posses better than me when she was just a year old. She learned yoga before she learned to walk! She is now four and her stuffed toys also do yoga, especially headstands, wide angle pose, and wheel pose. I can’t stop laughing when she praises her stuffed animals for working hard in their poses to hold them for longer. I don’t think she would be so flexible if she hadn’t started yoga so early. Yoga has become a part of her life, like her jumping and running all day long.
I was so excited when I started to teach at Isis Parenting. When I observed some Mom & Baby Yoga classes, I was amazed to see that the same concepts I was trying with my daughter were being used in these classes. I started putting all of my sweet experiences with my daughter into my classes. Moms tell me that their babies take longer naps after class because they’ve been so alert and playful during it. Moms also feel stretched and happy to have involved their baby in their yoga practice. Depending on the babies’ mood, they can sleep, play with their toys, or participate with mom; and moms can attend to their babies for comforting, feeding, or diaper changes whenever needed. After class, I see so much satisfaction on the faces of the moms because they’ve done so well holding and enjoying the yoga poses while also being able to spend time with their babies.
Gauri Agrawal
Isis Yoga Instructor
