How do American teachers discipline children for their disruptive behavior at school? Going by a new and growing trend across the country, many teachers are sending them to Yoga Room within the school where children can practice yoga, pranayama (breathing techniques) and meditation to calm down.
If children practicing yoga at school is news to you, and wonder how this came about considering the misgivings certain groups have about yoga, some of the credit can go to Sewa International volunteers in San Antonio, TX when they started a movement to run free yoga classes in various neighborhoods across the city.
When Sewa International and Hindu Svayamsevak Sangh (HSS) teams in San Antonio joined hands with two local yoga organizations, Ekam Life and Yoga Day, to form a group named “IDoYoga” to celebrate the International Day of Yoga (IDY) in 2015, they were giving a formal shape to their ambition of taking yoga to the masses by offering free yoga classes in low income neighborhoods and schools.
Dr. Hetal Nayak, Coordinator of Sewa International, San Antonio, Trinabh Shukla from HSS, Maggie Grueskin from Ekam Life, and Carlos Gomez from Yoga Day wanted to bring yoga to underserved communities. They realized that many San Antonians were facing health issues due to poor diet and high stress with little or no exercise, and decided that the time was right to step in and offer the age-old and time-tested ques of yoga and meditation to people who needed them the most.
Through IDoYoga (www.idoyogasa.org), Sewa International and HSS San Antonio chapters have given financial grants to Yoga Day Foundation, Yoga Seva Institute, and Veteran Yoga Project to conduct yoga classes. Yoga Day utilizes the grant to offer free yoga programs in several schools and hospitals in the San Antonio metropolitan area. Yoga Day conducts 45-minute classes for children and 3-hour workshops for teachers. It also conducts several community yoga classes in multiple locations and counts Sewa International as one of its major donors.
“Lifestyle as Medicine” is Ekam Life’s mantra, and it conducts yoga and Ayurveda classes and workshops throughout the year. All four organizations are gearing up to celebrate 2020’s International Day of Yoga (IDY) on June 21st in a big way. They are planning to reach over 2,500 students in the week leading to the IDY.
Starting from 2017, IDoYoga is celebrating IDY with different themes. In 2017 the theme was Yoga as Lifestyle Medicine, and in 2018 it changed to Yoga for Warriors, which focused on teaching yoga to the sizable military families and veterans in the city. For the years 2019 and 2020 Yoga in Education has been identified as the IDY theme.
In addition to providing grants to yoga organizations, Sewa volunteers so far have conducted free yoga classes in 6-7 schools and taught yoga to more than 1,000 students. More than 300 teachers have participated in the yoga workshop conducted by Sewa volunteers. Trinabh says efforts by Sewa and HSS to take yoga to the masses is very well-received and greatly supported by the Mayor, the City Council, local businesses, and the Indian Consulate in Houston.
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