Thanks to A Charmed Yogi for bringing this brilliant campaign to my attention. If you are a teacher, principal or parent of a school-aged child, I hope you will consider championing this program at your school. Free materials and assistance are available.

Yoga-Recess in Schools is a national campaign to bring yoga-based health education into classrooms. Providing free online resources like instructional videos and lesson plans will make it easy and fun for school teachers to integrate yoga into their teaching schedule. This allows children to benefit from balancing their body and mind through breathing and stretching exercises. The national campaign will peak with Yoga-Recess Day, Friday January 25, 2013 with hundreds of participating school teachers and organizations.

“Since we started Yoga-Recess 2 years ago over 10,000 school teachers expressed interest in bringing yoga into their classroom. With the new Yoga-Recess in School campaign we encourage school teachers to integrate breathing, stretching and other short yoga exercises into their daily class schedule.” says Johannes R. Fisslinger, president of the Yoga Health Foundation.

Considering budget cuts in schools across the country and the elimination or reduction of physical education, school officials are looking to find cost-effective ways to bring PE back into their schools. Physical exercise alone does not seem to be enough anymore. Children of all grades are more stressed then ever and yoga seems to be the perfect form of exercise to balance the body and mind.

According to the University of Indiana’s Sound Medicine, children who practice yoga, often experience healthier sleep patterns which allow them to relax more than children who don’t practice yoga. A study conducted by the Journal of Attention Disorders found that ADHD children who practice yoga are much more likely to remain focused and are less hyperactive, which in turned reduced the amount of emotional outbursts and their oppositional behavior. A Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center study showed that people who regularly practice yoga have fewer chances of gaining weight and are more likely to lose weight. Additionally, yoga allows asthmatic children to maintain a healthy lifestyle without fear of a high-intensity exercise induced asthma attack.

Participating in Yoga-Recess is easy:

• SCHOOL TEACHERS: Access free educational yoga-recess videos to bring yoga into your classroom.
• PARENTS, TEACHERS, YOGIS & BUSINESSES: Raise funds for your school, engage your community by building a fundraising team.
• SPONSORS & MEDIA PARTNERS: Help us promote Yoga-Recess and receive extensive benefits.

Yoga-Recess educational materials are FREE for school teachers. The national campaign is funded by passionate school teachers, principals, parents, yogis and people wanting to improve the quality of life for children and youth.

The Yoga Health Foundation, a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit, grassroots organization, coordinates Yoga-Recess in Schools and National Yoga Month September (a national observance). Their mission to inspire a healthy lifestyle through national awareness campaigns is supported by thousands of yoga studios and teachers nationwide.

Contact:
Yoga-Recess | Yoga Health Foundation
Email hera@yoga-recess.org

Get involved at www.yoga-recess.org

This release was originally posted on the Yoga Health Foundation’s blog.

I shared this post on Sunday School, Your Green Resource, Pennywise Platter, Thank Your Body and Fight Back Friday.

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