The latest rage among the mommies in my community is yoga for preschoolers. Many of the moms are enrolling children as young as 3. The advertising promises all sort of benefits. What are your thoughts?

A: Intrigued by this question, I did some investigating and discovered that many of these programs are based on the writing of Helen Garabedian, the author of "Itsy Bitsy Yoga for Toddlers and Preschoolers" (De Capo Press, 2008). Newsweek once called Garabedian the "Baby Yoga Expert." The hype for her book promises fewer tantrums, better sleep, better motor coordination, improved listening ability, improved ability to follow directions, better self-expression, and higher self-esteem. Oh, pul-eeze!

Many of these same benefits, and more, are going to result from taking a child to the park for a couple of hours several times a week and letting him run and play on the equipment. Besides, the park is free. As for fewer tantrums and enhanced obedience, sorry, but yoga is no substitute for calm, firm discipline.

Garabedian's publicity also claims that according to research, toddlers need 30 minutes of "structured activity" per day. I pride myself on staying on top of stuff like this and I know of no such research. In fact, the only research I'm aware of says that toddlers benefit more from unstructured than structured play. The one thing today's youngsters do not need is more micromanagement, more structure, and less discretionary time.

Two thumbs down.

Q: We recently found racy pictures on my 13-year-old son's smart phone. The women were not nude, much less participating in sex acts, but were wearing very revealing bikinis, short skirts, and halter tops. Their poses were very provocative as well. My husband says this is normal stuff and wants to completely ignore it. I say we should deal with it. What say you?

A: It is surely normal for a 13-year-old boy to be attracted to females and to have sexual thoughts and feelings, but your husband is missing a great opportunity here. The fact that the pictures don't constitute hard-core pornography and that this might be "normal" from a statistical perspective is beside the point. The door is open for your husband to sit down with his son and give him some fundamental instruction concerning the opposite sex: call it Women 101.

He could begin this mentoring by helping your son begin to understand that thinking of women as mere sexual objects is a form of disrespect; that anatomical attributes are not the measure of a woman; that while good looks are not a bad thing, the real prize is a woman who is a wonderful wife and mother, a woman, in other words, whose beauty goes deeper than her skin. There's an opening here for your husband to help his son begin the journey to valid manhood. He should seize it!

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Yoga For Preschoolers: Oh, Puleeze!

MIAMI One week into his second tour of duty, U.S. Marines Sgt. Hugo Patrocinio was wounded by a suicide bomber who drove a dump truck stocked with 1,000 pounds of explosives into a house in Anbar, on the outskirts of Fallujah. He had been attacked before, hurt before, but this time Patrocinio was just 20 feet from the explosion.

He would eventually recover from the wounds - the shrapnel in his foot and leg, the severe concussion - but the psychological injuries lingered. His nights were soon crowded with re-runs of the bombing that injured 10 other platoon members. Often, he didn't sleep at all, tormented by searing memories of friends killed in the war. He was angry, prone to headaches and mood swings, one of thousands of soldiers returning from Iraq or Afghanistan suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, one of the masked casualties of war.

In the 18 months of Patrocinio's spiral, he eventually turned to yoga after learning about it during group therapy as a way to quiet the inner noise. He found the discipline, the poses, the breathing - and especially, the stillness - worked to restore what had been taken that July in 2006.

"I didn't understand yoga but I knew it was helping somehow. I was in a horrible place, a fog," says Patrocinio, 29, who was awarded a Purple Heart for his military service. "There is no magic pill that can erase your past or what you have seen but the practice helps me to cope. Now I am not afraid to go to sleep."

Patrocinio is part of a wave of returning veterans - with thousands more expected as the United States continues its military pullouts from two decade-long wars - who are embracing yoga as a calming therapy. For many, it is a companion medical treatment, to ease the symptoms of post-traumatic stress on the mind and body. For others, it is simply a way to relieve the stress of reintegrating. Some are turning to the poses and deep breathing of yoga. Others to the quiet of meditation.

"Through yoga or tai chi or some other discipline, the vet can create a space of calm. And that is a place that the brain can return to when faced with a trigger," said David Frankel, executive director of Connected Warriors, a nonprofit offering free weekly yoga sessions to veterans and their families in South Florida. "More than anything, the vet returning from a trauma needs a sense of peace."

Faced with a growing national health crisis, military officials and the medical community are exploring other methods to help treat psychologically wounded soldiers. Between 11 and 20 percent of veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have PTSD, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

In 2005, the U.S. Department of Defense conducted a narrow feasibility study at the former Walter Reed Army Medical Center on the effectiveness of Yoga Nidra, an ancient meditative practice, on soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with PTSD symptoms. After eight weeks, all the participants' symptoms were reduced. Buoyed by the results, research was expanded to several VA hospitals and centers, including the Miami VA where a study of meditation was conducted on veterans. The local study has been completed but not yet published. The program used in the study, eventually renamed Integrative Restoration or iRest, was added to the weekly treatment for soldiers at dozens of centers across the nation.

"The program provides them body relaxation and breathing exercises that are tools for managing the emotions, the memories, the cognitive thoughts that come with war," said Richard Miller, a clinical psychologist who served as a consultant and advisor to the DOD study. "It helps to build a deep inner resource that they can call back on for stability."

At the Red Pearl Yoga studio in Fort Lauderdale, veterans - including Patrocinio - who served in wars from Vietnam to Afghanistan spend an hour on Thursdays lying on green yoga mats staring towards the ceiling. The walls are deep red, and the air is warm and still, the afternoon sun shielded by bamboo blinds.

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For veterans suffering from PTSD, yoga and meditation bring peace of mind

By ALLISON BORGELT

Staff writer

The first time Janet Kolesar-Lis took a yoga class, it bored her.

"I didn't appreciate it. I didn't understand. I wasn't ready for it," said the former Jazzercise and aerobics instructor.

But now, after continuing her education in yoga, then teaching yoga and pilates for between 16 and 18 years, she not only gets it -- she enjoys it.

"I love my yoga. It's such an important part of my life," she said. "I don't want to teach anything else."

A yoga and pilates instructor at Owens Community College, Marathon Petroleum, Anytime Fitness and The Gym by Jamie, Kolesar-Lis has received the highest designation given to yoga teachers by the Yoga Alliance.

She is one of 49 yoga instructors and one of 23 hatha yoga instructors in Ohio to receive the Yoga Alliance's Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher 500 (E-RYT 500) designation, she said.

Hatha yoga is "a system of physical exercises for the control and perfection of the body that constitutes one of the four chief Hindu disciplines," according to merriam-webster.com.

It is the most-practiced type of yoga, Kolesar-Lis said.

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Yoga instructor stretches herself among several jobs

Photo by Justin Zamudio

B. Ramadoss rests upside down while holding a pose during an afternoon yoga class at Concho Yoga, 227 N. Main St., last week. Ramadoss was supported by a chair as his shoulders held up most of his weight on a pillow.

Photo by Justin Zamudio

Photos by Justin Zamudio/San Angelo Standard-Times Women participate in an afternoon yoga class instructed by Stacie Jones of Concho Yoga, 227 N. Main St., last week. Jones primarily holds her classes at the North Main Street location, but also holds sessions at other locations for beginner and advanced participants.

What: Yoga classes and private lessons.

When: Class times vary.

Where: 227 N. Main St., Suite C.

More information: 325-370-2942 or http://www.concho-yoga.com.

SAN ANGELO, Texas Each week, yoga instructor Stacie Jones visits various studios to teach multiple classes at affordable prices just so San Angelo can experience mind-body health.

Fourteen years before Jones became owner of Concho Yoga, she was a single mom searching for inexpensive ways to stay in shape. Jones had always been athletic but couldn't afford a gym membership, she said, so when a church friend and yoga instructor invited her to try a class, Jones jumped at the opportunity.

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BUSINESS Q&A: Woman aims at balancing mind, body and soul with yoga instruction

by Jerzy Shedlock / Peninsula Clarion Fairbanks Daily News Miner

"I had read about and personally experienced the therapeutic benefits of yoga and decided to explore yoga as an option for our residents," said Bower in an email.

Serenity House is part of Central Peninsula Hospital's behavioral health services. The center offers recovery goals and ongoing support to clients through its 12-step program. It has a wide range of services to help people recover from alcoholism and drug abuse.

A local yoga-studio owner leads a group of the program's clients twice weekly in a restorative yoga class, which focuses on relaxation and stress management rather than the physical aspects regularly associated with the practice.

Long-held postures aided by props, such as blankets, blocks and straps, allow the participants to turn inward, focusing on breathing and calming the mind, said Kelsey Cusack, owner of Yoga Sol.

She said she's heard restorative yoga referred to as an organized nap.

"It's soothing, not nearly as physically demanding as some more traditional styles of yoga," she said. "People spend most of the class either sitting or lying down."

Restorative yoga triggers the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS); responsible for balancing the body and bringing its response system back to equilibrium. Stimulating the PNS helps lower heart rate and blood pressure, and it stimulates the immune system, she said.

Researchers are studying restorative yoga. Dr. Suzanne C. Danhauer of Wake Forest University's School of Medicine conducted a pilot study about the health benefits of restorative yoga on women diagnosed with ova rian or breast cancer. The majority of women were undergoing cancer treatment at the time of enrollment for the study. Danhauer concluded significant improvements were seen for depression, anxiety, mental health and overall quality of life.

Bower said she sent a request to various yoga instructors in the Kenai Peninsula, and Cusack was the sole responder. Cusack offered her studio for less than half her normal rate and volunteered to provide an additional lesson at Serenity House. She has taught about two months of classes.

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Yoga part of 12-step program at Kenai facility

BARNSTABLE, Mass.She may show up while you're having coffee and ask you to do a downward-facing dog.

Meet Diane Kovanda, the yoga whisperer of Barnstable County. When she's not teaching yoga, she's out in the community, working on her ambitious project, Yoga Everywhere. Her goal is to record 365 videos of regular folks doing different yoga poses over the course of a year and post them on her YouTube site.

"I started on Jan. 1," said Kovanda. "So far I've had a person every day."

According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, the mind-body therapy of yoga "involves physical postures, breathing exercises and meditation to improve overall well-being."

Kovanda, who provides yoga teacher training at her Centerville-based Kind Yoga school, has been practicing yoga for more than 25 years. "Yoga moves your spine in every direction, opens your lungs up, gets you curled up and squeezes out the intestinal tract and gets you detoxed," she said. "And gets you focused at the same time."

Sometimes a random stranger is drawn into Kovanda's flexible plot. Sometimes Kovanda knows the poser and after a bit of sweet talk, a headstand blooms.

On a recent pose prowl, Kovanda popped into the Yarmouth Police Department and convinced Sgt. Walter Warren to do a warrior pose, in full uniform.

Warren nailed it, and you could tell he knew a little something about yoga. Turns out, he has incorporated the practice into his fitness regimen.

"I like everything about it," said Warren. "Mostly what I like about it is what I call the core strength that you get from it -- from the shoulders down to about the waist."

Kovanda left the police station and headed over to a Hyannis gym, home to the Cape Cod Boxing Club and UK Sports Development. Trainer Lee Docherty was hitting the heavy bag when Kovanda talked him into doing a plank pose.

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Cape Cod teacher seeks 365 yoga poses on video

"Couples Retreat" is a hilarious movie that features a comical yoga scene. While this part of the movie is funny, we can still learn the correct posture for four yoga poses (asanas) featured in "Couples Retreat." Read on to find out the benefits of the following four asanas featured in this funny film.

Child's Pose (Balasana)

Child's pose is a basic yoga posture. Still, it has many benefits associated with it. If you have back or neck pain, child's pose is a great asana for you to perform while supporting the head and trunk of the body. This pose will calm the body and mind as it relieves stress. It also provides an excellent stretch to the ankles, hips and thighs, which is great for gaining flexibility.

Bridge Pose (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana)

The bridge pose is one that has numerous benefits. It is an excellent asana for relieving stress, as well as minor depression. In addition, it can alleviate tiredness, insomnia and aches in the back and the head. It also provides a superior stretch to the spine, neck and chest. If you want to improve your digestion, bridge is the pose for you.

Happy Baby Pose (Ananda Balasana)

The happy baby pose will create a feeling of bliss as it alleviates stress. It also has the ability to ward off fatigue as it provides energy. In addition, it will stretch the back of the spine and the inner thighs. If you are a beginner or are not very flexible, a yoga strap can be used if you have difficulty holding your feet.

Downward-Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana)

Downward-facing dog is a well known yoga pose that is used in many sequences, including sun salutations. This simple pose carries numerous benefits. It is beneficial for digestion and can thwart osteoporosis. It provides relief for those that suffer from headaches, tiredness, pain in the back and insomnia. Stress and depression don't stand a chance when this pose is put into action because it relaxes the brain to alleviate those symptoms. Women who suffer from menopause will find this pose very beneficial since it alleviates the symptoms. Furthermore, downward-facing dog provides natural energy and makes the arms and legs stronger by building muscle.

So, watch a great movie or the clip, and learn the correct posture for four beneficial yoga poses at the same time. Laughter is good for the body as well, and the clip is sure to make one chuckle.

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Four Yoga Poses Featured in “Couples Retreat”

Five women from the Acres of Love Park City Chapter "Mountains of Love" are scheduled to leave for Johannesburg, South Africa, this week to visit one of 22 homes supporting HIV positive foster children. Mountains of Love member Missy Kelly and Randi Jo Taurel, who offers "Yoga with Randi Jo" in Park City schools, partnered together to establish the community service project.

Students participating in Yoga with Randi Jo from Jeremy Ranch, Parley's Park and Trailside Elementary along with the Weilenmann School of Discovery and Another Way Montessori worked on scrapbook pages over the course of eight weeks. The pages were compiled into a book that Kelly plans on giving to the seven children living at the Bridges to Forever home sponsored by Mountains of Love.

"Each week the students work on a project and they have a page that they can tell these children what we're about. The students write or draw about who they admire, or something good they want to do in the world," Taurel said, adding that more than 40 yoga students participated. "It gives them a chance to become not only a part of the community but the world and we're representing the schools."

Students at Jeremy Ranch Elementary School are practicing "Seva," which is an act of selfless service with no expectations of getting anything in return, Taurel said, adding that they are also learning that yoga relieves stress. JRES fifth-grader Emily Sageser said this is her first year practicing yoga. She hopes the Mountains of Love kids will be able to feel the same benefits when they do yoga with Kelly.

"I've learned that if you sit down and meditate it calms you down and I feel that it (the book) will help them understand us and it will make them happy," Sageser said.

The Mountains of Love nonprofit was founded in 2009 by Parkite Melissa Fischer and now consists of 17 Park City women including Kelly. The group traveling to Johannesburg will meet the foster children ranging in age from four to 14. The group then plans to travel to Mossel Bay, South Africa, where the children can fish, do yoga on the beach and experience the ocean for the first time.

For more information about Mountains of Love or Yoga with Randi Jo, visit http://www.yogawithrandijo.com . To learn more about the national nonprofit Acres of Love, visit their website at http://www.acresoflove.org .

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Yoga students send service project overseas

By Johanna Kaiser, Town Correspondent

Copley Square will be glowing with neon yogis Friday as a yoga store new to Newbury Street hosts a mass hip hop yoga class and dance party in the park.

Lululemon Athletica, a clothing and gear shop for yoga and running, recently opened its second Boston location on Newbury Street. To celebrate, the store is hosting a yoga and dance party for 500 people from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday.

Goldie Kaufenberg, a yoga instructor and Lululemon community ambassador, will lead the first 500 students in a hip hop yoga class while a live DJ plays.

The store asks that anyone who would like to participate in the class bring their yoga mat, a photo I.D. to use a pair of headphones during the class, and bright clothing.

Please wear your brightest neons and whites as we are glowin' up Copley Square! reads the events Facebook page.

The night wont end when the class does. After stretching through hip hop yoga, participants will have a chance to dance.

Once we are savasana'd out headphones will come off and the DJ will turn up the volume for an epic dance party you wont want to miss, the event description reads.

Lululemon Athletica also has a store in the Prudential Center. The new store is located at 337 Newbury Street. -- Twitter: @YourBackBay, @JohannaKaiser E-mail: johanna.yourtown@gmail.com

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Lululemon hosting 500-person yoga, dance party in Copley Square

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJbjGkQwwnI

20-03-2012 16:18 Strength, bravery, and belief in yourself are the keys to mastering the pickup-jumpack into Chaturanga Dandasana. Join Alexandria Crow as she takes you through a sequence leading up to the jumpback. For more free yoga videos visit http://www.yogajournal.com

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Chaturanga Dandasana: Home Practice from Yoga Journal - Video