Take Back Yoga Argumentative Essay
Some people may not realize yoga is a total body work out. Yoga helps flexibility, strength and attitude.Yoga helps a person relax and stay calm. Whether one realizes it or not, yoga helps your mind and body on many different levels. The effects of yoga for helping children with intellectual and developmental disabilities has recently been documented. It is proven that children with intellectual and developmental disabilities who practice yoga have a more positive attitude, have more flexibility, and get better grades in school. After researching yoga, researching doctor’s results and observing a yoga class for mentally challenged children/adults, I believe that yoga does in fact have a positive influence on children/adults with intellectual
…show more content…
and developmental disabilities.
What is Yoga?
Yoga is a form of exercise that uses different body poses and different muscle groups in the body. Yoga also is a way to relax the body, control breathing, and to practice simple meditation. The word yoga means “union” or yoking. Its this idea of bringing the mind, body, and breath together to experience a state of bliss. Practitioners strive to do their best but do not strive to outdo other people. Yoga is not a competition. It is a way to tune in and connect with your inner self on a mental and spiritual level.
Yoga has many different elements all having different names. Some different yoga aspects are Asana, Pranayama, Kriyas, Balanced Yogic Diet, Shavasana and Mediation. Those who practice yoga focus on a combination of all these elements. The main focus in Western culture is “asana”. Asana means “posture”. Asana are the physical poses, like tree pose or boat pose, and this is what yoga teachers in the West usually teach: balancing the physical body with the mind.
Yoga disconnecting from roots
Eastern religions such as Hinduism believe that yoga is losing its true meaning, that only some aspects are being used and it is not connecting with its Hindu roots anymore.
Hindus use yoga to connect with their souls and their spiritual beliefs. It is a philosophy and a way of life for Hindus. However, it seems to be more and more open to interpretation as it gains widespread popularity around the world(A. Lohia). Some Hindus believe that yoga should stay true to its original meaning, that it should not be changed, and that all aspects should be used during every yoga session.
A group called the Hindu American Foundation has launched a campaign called “Take Back Yoga”. They see that yoga is disconnecting from its Hindu roots all together. Some reasons why Hinduism is not a part of Western yoga anymore is because Hinduism is considered to have a lot of “baggage” associated with it. People in the West see Hinduism as worshiping multiple gods with multiple arms and heads. Some Americans do not really understand why they would worship “creatures” like that, and more importantly how yoga is connected.
Hindus are trying to say and show the West that yoga can be more than a couple of asana(posture) poses on a mat. They want to prove it is a way of life, yoga happens on and off the mat. Even though yoga is being practiced as only an exercise, it cannot be completely unlinked from its Hindu roots. Yoga and asana are not interchangeable terms, asana is only one component of yoga.
Medical …show more content…
Research Is there a positive effect on children who have intellectual and developmental disabilities who practice yoga? Yes, there is a positive effect. Observers may not be able to notice it each time the children practice but an overall improvement is noticeable. One can see it shows in their attitude, grades, and behavior with other children. Yoga helps the entire body. It can lower blood pressure, relieve back pain and arthritis, boost the immune system, and decrease inflammation(Brink,2014).
Mental Health Problems
Let’s say a man is a patient and has multiple mental health problems, and he has admitted himself into a hospital. He is not going to get the same rights and choices about where, when, or how he receives treatment like a patient with a physical health problem. What kind of message does that send to those people who have mental health problems? This is shown all over the world in many hospitals. Just because they do not think or express themselves the same way individuals without intellectual disabilities do, does not give you the right to treat them differently. This is one of the reasons why mental health patients feel isolated from other people. Many people do not realize that 1 in 4 people will experience a mental health problem at some point in their lives(Clegg, 2013). Mental health problems can vary from panic attacks, eating disorders, depression, and suicidal feelings, to schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder. People without mental health problems often do not know how to help others with mental health problems because they do not understand what they are going though. Mental health problems are not seen as important to the U.S. We see it as something we should be ashamed of and somehow less deserving of our sympathy or attention than physical illness(Clegg, 2013). One out of ten children, between the ages of 5 and 16 will have a mental health problem. These children have said they feel left behind in school and feel left out because they do not know how to interact with other children and this is were yoga can be a benefit.
England has a plan that by 2018 every child who has a mental health problem will be able to have access to care. Even when the child becomes an adult, they are still planning on helping them. It is important that these changes work. If they do not meet their goal by having every child with a mental health problem have available health care, it could leave those people more rejected and isolated than they did before the help. With better education about mental health and how people truly feel about these problems, the medical field will not have a need to push it aside because they will know how to communicate with those individuals.
Results of Yoga on Mental Health
Yoga helps the body in more than one way.
Not only does it help one relax and improve flexibility, but it helps chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and arthritis. Children and adults with chronic diseases who practice yoga reported that they feel less fatigue and have higher levels of vitality three months after treatment had ended(S.Brink 2014). It also reduces Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder(ADHD). Children who have ADHD usually have problems paying attention, are easily distracted, and get frustrated with tasks very easily. Although many children have these problems, children with ADHD show these symptoms more often. These behaviors distract students from behaving in school and at home. Yoga teaches children with ADHD to stay calm and quiet so they can take what they learned to classrooms and their homes. Yoga also shows improvement in children’s overall behavior and grades in
schools(WebMD).
Children with attention issues should not be told to sit down and pay attention because most likely the child will not listen to the teacher. Children do not need to be sitting at a desk all day. It will exhaust them and make them sleepy. a more successful approach is to have them get up and move around, get their blood flowing. There was a study where 160 third graders in low-income areas practiced yoga with their teacher. The children said they pay more attention in class after doing yoga. Clinical studies have shown that yoga not only improves physical fitness in children but also contributes to better academic performance and emotional behavior(Yoga Hindu Origins).
True Yoga Stories
Clinical studies have shown that yoga not only improves physical fitness in children but also contributes to better academic performance and emotional balance. One study follows Hayley, a very quiet girl who was emotionally shut down and did not want to give up her eating disorder(Pelt, 2011). After a couple of classes of yoga, Hayley was able to talk about her feelings with the teacher and other students who had eating disorders. Yoga helped her feel more empowered. She was able to speak up and receive support and was able to concentrate on her recovery from her eating disorder.
Carla was another smart girl with good grades who expressed her anger with violence toward other students. She showed great leadership skills but her parents thought she was headed towards gang leadership. Carla started to take Ashtanga yoga and she was able to channel her energy and anger into yoga poses. After yoga, Carla joined the basketball team and focused on her breathing, relaxation and meditation. Yoga changed how she responded to others and resolved her aggression issues. After yoga sessions in her school she became a leader in school in math and a team leader on the basketball court.
Candace Morano is a yoga teacher who teaches children with ADHD, autism, learning disabilities, Down’s syndrome, and cerebral palsy. Morano worked with a nonverbal teen who could not do physical tasks on her own. Morano combined both yoga and Kinesiology movements to help the teens body and brain function. After a year of yoga, the teen was more engaged in outside of school activities and enjoyed time with friends. The teens mother noticed a major improvement in her child's body condition.(Pelt,2011)
Yoga extension
Yoga is now welcomed in many schools as part of their curriculum. Social workers see the value of yoga and how it can help children focus more in class and improve their overall behavior and attitude. My mentor, Emily, works with The Arc of Buncombe County. She teaches a yoga class with the Progressive Education Program(PEP). I was able to contact her and go to some of these classes to observe how the children responded to yoga.
The PEP program works with students who have moderate to significant intellectual disabilities. Their main goal is to show students what their full potential is in life. Preparing all students to realize their potential in a rapidly changing, diverse, global society is PEP’s vision statement.
After spending 10 hours in 5 different yoga classes with children who have different types of special needs, I can see that yoga brings out their active side. Yoga gives the students a time to relax during the day, whether it is in the morning, at lunch time, or right before they are about to go home. Even though some students do not join in on the yoga, the class room still provides the students with a safe and calm environment to relax. I’ve noticed that the quiet children have a chance to be who they are without anyone judging them. They do this by making animal noises with Emily and the other teachers while stretching.
Emily mixes stretches with animal noises so the yoga is interactive and the children can make real world connections while stretching their body. An example is, while moving their necks up, down, left, and right they can hoot like an owl. Another one is when they are on all fours, they reach out with one arm and pretend like they are honking a horn. This gives them a chance to stretch more muscles at a time while getting to be silly for a moment. Yoga is meant to be a relaxing class for the students and if they act up during class, they will be escorted out while everyone else resumes the yoga exercises.
Yoga is not the only exercise the students get during the week; they also have weekly swimming classes where they go into a therapy pool to get muscles stretching in water. It is sometimes more effective to move muscles in water than outside of water because the of flexibility range. All creatures are lighter in water than they are out of water. Water therapy and yoga are nontraditional therapies for these children, but it works. Perhaps society should be exploring more unconventional therapies instead of making new medicine to broaden the scope of help for intellectually and developmentally disabled people.
While spending time in these classes, I have seen that yoga does have a positive influence on children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The changes may not be recorded on medical documents, but the physical and behavioral changes are obvious to an observer. Students should be active in school and that is what yoga provides them, chance to let go and be energetic while still in a safe calm environment.
and developmental disabilities.
What is Yoga?
Yoga is a form of exercise that uses different body poses and different muscle groups in the body. Yoga also is a way to relax the body, control breathing, and to practice simple meditation. The word yoga means “union” or yoking. Its this idea of bringing the mind, body, and breath together to experience a state of bliss. Practitioners strive to do their best but do not strive to outdo other people. Yoga is not a competition. It is a way to tune in and connect with your inner self on a mental and spiritual level.
Yoga has many different elements all having different names. Some different yoga aspects are Asana, Pranayama, Kriyas, Balanced Yogic Diet, Shavasana and Mediation. Those who practice yoga focus on a combination of all these elements. The main focus in Western culture is “asana”. Asana means “posture”. Asana are the physical poses, like tree pose or boat pose, and this is what yoga teachers in the West usually teach: balancing the physical body with the mind.
Yoga disconnecting from roots
Eastern religions such as Hinduism believe that yoga is losing its true meaning, that only some aspects are being used and it is not connecting with its Hindu roots anymore.
Hindus use yoga to connect with their souls and their spiritual beliefs. It is a philosophy and a way of life for Hindus. However, it seems to be more and more open to interpretation as it gains widespread popularity around the world(A. Lohia). Some Hindus believe that yoga should stay true to its original meaning, that it should not be changed, and that all aspects should be used during every yoga session.
A group called the Hindu American Foundation has launched a campaign called “Take Back Yoga”. They see that yoga is disconnecting from its Hindu roots all together. Some reasons why Hinduism is not a part of Western yoga anymore is because Hinduism is considered to have a lot of “baggage” associated with it. People in the West see Hinduism as worshiping multiple gods with multiple arms and heads. Some Americans do not really understand why they would worship “creatures” like that, and more importantly how yoga is connected.
Hindus are trying to say and show the West that yoga can be more than a couple of asana(posture) poses on a mat. They want to prove it is a way of life, yoga happens on and off the mat. Even though yoga is being practiced as only an exercise, it cannot be completely unlinked from its Hindu roots. Yoga and asana are not interchangeable terms, asana is only one component of yoga.
Medical …show more content…
Research Is there a positive effect on children who have intellectual and developmental disabilities who practice yoga? Yes, there is a positive effect. Observers may not be able to notice it each time the children practice but an overall improvement is noticeable. One can see it shows in their attitude, grades, and behavior with other children. Yoga helps the entire body. It can lower blood pressure, relieve back pain and arthritis, boost the immune system, and decrease inflammation(Brink,2014).
Mental Health Problems
Let’s say a man is a patient and has multiple mental health problems, and he has admitted himself into a hospital. He is not going to get the same rights and choices about where, when, or how he receives treatment like a patient with a physical health problem. What kind of message does that send to those people who have mental health problems? This is shown all over the world in many hospitals. Just because they do not think or express themselves the same way individuals without intellectual disabilities do, does not give you the right to treat them differently. This is one of the reasons why mental health patients feel isolated from other people. Many people do not realize that 1 in 4 people will experience a mental health problem at some point in their lives(Clegg, 2013). Mental health problems can vary from panic attacks, eating disorders, depression, and suicidal feelings, to schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder. People without mental health problems often do not know how to help others with mental health problems because they do not understand what they are going though. Mental health problems are not seen as important to the U.S. We see it as something we should be ashamed of and somehow less deserving of our sympathy or attention than physical illness(Clegg, 2013). One out of ten children, between the ages of 5 and 16 will have a mental health problem. These children have said they feel left behind in school and feel left out because they do not know how to interact with other children and this is were yoga can be a benefit.
England has a plan that by 2018 every child who has a mental health problem will be able to have access to care. Even when the child becomes an adult, they are still planning on helping them. It is important that these changes work. If they do not meet their goal by having every child with a mental health problem have available health care, it could leave those people more rejected and isolated than they did before the help. With better education about mental health and how people truly feel about these problems, the medical field will not have a need to push it aside because they will know how to communicate with those individuals.
Results of Yoga on Mental Health
Yoga helps the body in more than one way.
Not only does it help one relax and improve flexibility, but it helps chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and arthritis. Children and adults with chronic diseases who practice yoga reported that they feel less fatigue and have higher levels of vitality three months after treatment had ended(S.Brink 2014). It also reduces Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder(ADHD). Children who have ADHD usually have problems paying attention, are easily distracted, and get frustrated with tasks very easily. Although many children have these problems, children with ADHD show these symptoms more often. These behaviors distract students from behaving in school and at home. Yoga teaches children with ADHD to stay calm and quiet so they can take what they learned to classrooms and their homes. Yoga also shows improvement in children’s overall behavior and grades in
schools(WebMD).
Children with attention issues should not be told to sit down and pay attention because most likely the child will not listen to the teacher. Children do not need to be sitting at a desk all day. It will exhaust them and make them sleepy. a more successful approach is to have them get up and move around, get their blood flowing. There was a study where 160 third graders in low-income areas practiced yoga with their teacher. The children said they pay more attention in class after doing yoga. Clinical studies have shown that yoga not only improves physical fitness in children but also contributes to better academic performance and emotional behavior(Yoga Hindu Origins).
True Yoga Stories
Clinical studies have shown that yoga not only improves physical fitness in children but also contributes to better academic performance and emotional balance. One study follows Hayley, a very quiet girl who was emotionally shut down and did not want to give up her eating disorder(Pelt, 2011). After a couple of classes of yoga, Hayley was able to talk about her feelings with the teacher and other students who had eating disorders. Yoga helped her feel more empowered. She was able to speak up and receive support and was able to concentrate on her recovery from her eating disorder.
Carla was another smart girl with good grades who expressed her anger with violence toward other students. She showed great leadership skills but her parents thought she was headed towards gang leadership. Carla started to take Ashtanga yoga and she was able to channel her energy and anger into yoga poses. After yoga, Carla joined the basketball team and focused on her breathing, relaxation and meditation. Yoga changed how she responded to others and resolved her aggression issues. After yoga sessions in her school she became a leader in school in math and a team leader on the basketball court.
Candace Morano is a yoga teacher who teaches children with ADHD, autism, learning disabilities, Down’s syndrome, and cerebral palsy. Morano worked with a nonverbal teen who could not do physical tasks on her own. Morano combined both yoga and Kinesiology movements to help the teens body and brain function. After a year of yoga, the teen was more engaged in outside of school activities and enjoyed time with friends. The teens mother noticed a major improvement in her child's body condition.(Pelt,2011)
Yoga extension
Yoga is now welcomed in many schools as part of their curriculum. Social workers see the value of yoga and how it can help children focus more in class and improve their overall behavior and attitude. My mentor, Emily, works with The Arc of Buncombe County. She teaches a yoga class with the Progressive Education Program(PEP). I was able to contact her and go to some of these classes to observe how the children responded to yoga.
The PEP program works with students who have moderate to significant intellectual disabilities. Their main goal is to show students what their full potential is in life. Preparing all students to realize their potential in a rapidly changing, diverse, global society is PEP’s vision statement.
After spending 10 hours in 5 different yoga classes with children who have different types of special needs, I can see that yoga brings out their active side. Yoga gives the students a time to relax during the day, whether it is in the morning, at lunch time, or right before they are about to go home. Even though some students do not join in on the yoga, the class room still provides the students with a safe and calm environment to relax. I’ve noticed that the quiet children have a chance to be who they are without anyone judging them. They do this by making animal noises with Emily and the other teachers while stretching.
Emily mixes stretches with animal noises so the yoga is interactive and the children can make real world connections while stretching their body. An example is, while moving their necks up, down, left, and right they can hoot like an owl. Another one is when they are on all fours, they reach out with one arm and pretend like they are honking a horn. This gives them a chance to stretch more muscles at a time while getting to be silly for a moment. Yoga is meant to be a relaxing class for the students and if they act up during class, they will be escorted out while everyone else resumes the yoga exercises.
Yoga is not the only exercise the students get during the week; they also have weekly swimming classes where they go into a therapy pool to get muscles stretching in water. It is sometimes more effective to move muscles in water than outside of water because the of flexibility range. All creatures are lighter in water than they are out of water. Water therapy and yoga are nontraditional therapies for these children, but it works. Perhaps society should be exploring more unconventional therapies instead of making new medicine to broaden the scope of help for intellectually and developmentally disabled people.
While spending time in these classes, I have seen that yoga does have a positive influence on children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The changes may not be recorded on medical documents, but the physical and behavioral changes are obvious to an observer. Students should be active in school and that is what yoga provides them, chance to let go and be energetic while still in a safe calm environment.