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Breathing, Stretching, Posing
March 17, 2005 | The Sentinel | Chis Reagle

MARION - The hazy hue of dimmed light spreads across the shiny wood floor in the Sippican School auditorium, creating a feeling of tranquility and reverence. Only the hum of the school’s ventilation system disturbs the quiet. The momentary silence is savored by a visitor to the school who believes that within minutes 18 third-graders will burst through the doors, abuzz with conversation, disturbing the auditorium’s transformation into peaceful inner sanctum.
 
Instead, Diane Cook’s third-grade class enters in silently. Pupils take blue mats and assume their places in two rows. With little talk, the students and their teacher sit, back straight, legs crossed, trying to clear their minds, meditate and prepare to do yoga. 
 
In a clear, calm voice, yoga instructor Tim Donohue centers the children on their breathing, reminding them to breathe down from the bellies and challenging them to use their own bodies. “See if you can breathe so that your chest doesn’t even move,” Donohue coaxes. Most follow his cue with varying degrees of success.
 
The young yoga students then stretch using a series of poses that sound more like B-grade action movie than exercises. There on the floor of the school auditorium, Peaceful Warrior can stand face-to-face with The Crow and live to tell the tale. Children can strike the mountain pose, or take it a step further and be The Volcano. They can show deference with the Downward Facing Dog pose, or demonstrate exuberance with the Sun Dance pose.
 
At the conclusion of the 45-minute session, when humility is silently re-enforced, Donohue encourages self affirmation. “Bow your head down to honor yourself and to honor your strength,” Donohue instructs the children.  The children leave as quietly as they entered.
 
Back in the classroom, the students’ teacher says she sees demonstrable differences in her pupils since introducing them to yoga last fall. She says her students seem more focused, yet relaxed after their weekly yoga regimen. She points to a group of children that sit in a corner of the classroom.  “It’s amazing for all children, but particularly for a child that has an attention problem or other stresses,”  Cook says.  “It’s amazing what an effect it has on the kids.  I mean, look at them. They’re calm and reading quietly.” Cook’s pupils agree with their teachers’ observations.
 
“I think it’s kind of relaxing because we have it right after recess, and at recess we get kind of hyper, and it calms me down,” Haley Dickerson, 8, says.  Classmates Will Saltonstall Jr., 8 and Ben Tirrell, 8, say they think they do better on tests because yoga has taught them to relax and not be afraid. “When I’m on a test, I feel better because I get farther,” Ben says.
 
Donohue believes in the benefits of yoga for academic development. “Kids are so stressed out. What they get from yoga is an idea of how to be calm and how they can calm themselves down,” Donohue, father of two Sippican School students, says.  The earlier a child practices yoga, the better, he says. “You either learn how to handle stress in healthy ways or you learn how to handle it in unhealthy ways,” Donohue says. “That’s why I like to start them young.”
 
Donohue, a Marion resident, believes that a whole person requires three elements. “Yoga is about body, mind and spirit working together,” he says.  Donohue has been teaching yoga to children at Sippican School for the past fiver years. Funded by grants from the Marion Institute and the Upstream Foundation, he teaches them the basics of yoga through his nonprofit organization, Yoga Kids, Inc.  For the past two years, he’s also been teaching yoga in New Bedford public schools. In addition to showing kids various yoga poses, Donohue spends time talking to the kids.
 
“A lot of it is talking about what children do in their spare time, and how well they are able to express themselves when they need to talk, as opposed to keeping it in,” Donohue says.
 
For these 8-and 9-year olds, the Tuesday weekly yoga sessions are a reprieve from some of their mundane routine and a welcome physical outlet.  “This rounds out a child’s education,” Donohue says. “There’s a big part of education that is missing, and that’s to connect to yourself, to know who you are, to connect to your health. It empowers children.”