AsiaLIFE

In hot, noisy, stress-inducing Phnom Penh the opportunities and spaces for our children to run wild remain scarce. Georgie Treasure-Evans has found the perfect escape.

Kids love yoga. Any parent who practices at home knows this. Just roll out your mat and they’ll gravitate towards it, along with all household pets, the occasional frog, a gecko or two. It is not only children’s innate, irresistible, primal urge to stretch, wiggle and contort their body into every conceivable shape and form that draws them to yoga. Often they simply want to curl up in your lap and absorb your peace. Either way, it can only be beneficial, as my four-year-old daughter Jemima taught me not so long ago.

We were quietly picking our way through the rubbish and dead rats that adorn our walk to school – all efforts at conversation having been drowned out by the noise of cutting metal from the building sites along the way – when she unexpectedly transported us to a beautiful island.

“The pavement is the beach, Mummy, and when it ends, we’re not falling into the road,” she explains. “We are jumping and splashing about in the sea! The motorbikes are sharks – friendly sharks though. And the cars are whales,” she adds as a Hummer roars past.

The tuk-tuks were fishing boats, from which we ordered our dinner – fresh fish for that evening. Every so often one of us tripped on a friendly crab, or an empty coconut shell fallen from a palm that fringed the warm, white sands. All we could hear was the lapping of the gentle waves on the shore, the call of the birds in the trees, and a soft breeze rustling the leaves.

I bet you feel calmer just reading about it.

This same island paradise got her through 30 minutes of teeth-extracting hell at the dentist a few days later. Grown men would have been howling – all coping mechanisms buried beneath years of accumulated baggage. My daughter breathed.

Without having to think about it – let alone lie down on the therapist’s couch – Jemima had found a way of creating the conditions she needed to maintain her relaxed, centered, happy state of being. The practice of yoga, which incorporates breath, movement and meditation, is essentially about achieving a happy union of mind, body and soul.

If there is one thing Phnom Penh is full of, it is yoga classes for kids. Teachers take the children on magical adventures through forests, oceans and jungles. They fly like butterflies, growl like lions, dance like monkeys! They grow from tiny seeds to big beautiful trees. They do just about anything the imagination allows – every yoga posture can be turned into something that fits in the story.

At the physical stretch and workout they could not be more natural. Even more important is the sense of peace, grounding and self-love that each child gains. As Anya Weil, founder of The Giving Tree Preschool, explains, yoga gives children tools for growing into self-confident individuals able to fulfil their unique potential in life, while always being in harmony with their spiritual selves.

Nor is yoga just for expat kids. Several NGOs are now incorporating yoga into their programmes. It can be especially healing for children who have suffered trauma. Roza, 14, was recently evicted from her home in the Dey Krahorm area of Phnom Penh. “Yoga makes me feel good,” she says. “When I am sad I can do yoga and forget about things. It feels lovely”.

At the end of their adventures the children lie down and have the opportunity to drift into a deep relaxation. Guided visualisations help them relax and be still, even for a few minutes at a time. Over time, those who come with behavioural issues, stress or unmanageable temper tantrums seem like different children, so much calmer, so much happier..

Yoga for kids in Phnom Penh

Giving Tree PreSchool
Anya Weil teaches yoga to two-to five-year-olds as part of the curriculum and after school.
www.thegivingtreeschool.com/Yoga.html

ISPP
Holds yoga classes for 5-8 year olds.
www.ispp.edu.kh

Gecko and Garden Pre-school
Georgie teaches yoga for 3-6 year-olds on Tuesdays at 3.30pm
Tel: 092 575 431

The Kundalini Yoga House
Holds classes for children and adolescents from the Aziza School in the Tonle Bassac resettlement area.
www.kundaliniyogacambodia.org

Georgie Treasure-Evans writes at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and teaches yoga at the Kundalini Yoga House, Phnom Penh.