Good afternoon my friends hope you are having a beautiful day.  I am trying to get back into all things spiritual as it ebbs and flows in my life like everything else including this blog.  It has been a little over a year since my last post, and there are many reasons for that.  Due to my work schedule, attending school and the joys of fatherhood time has been scarce, but I am starting to get used to these new demands.  I was reminded again this week by my friend and brother in law Ted (http://www.quixoticjedi.com) of the joys of Yoga.  While the spiritual practice of yoga is never far from my heart the physical part of yoga or Hatha Yoga is something I need include back into my life.

Ted and I used to regularly frequent The Integral Yoga Institute in Fair Lawn NJ (http://www.iyinj.org) and attend classes.  They were even gracious enough to allow me to do some volunteer work or Karma Yoga which was a great experience.  The people who frequent IYINJ are some of the greatest I have met and sincere spiritual seekers.  I highly recommend checking them out.  While like most Saturdays I am with my young son I was determined to get in some Hatha Yoga, so I started the regular poses I learned at Integral.  While I had to make three rounds of french-fries for my toddler while doing it, great practice in acceptance, I felt much better by the completing.  It is like my friend Yogi Pat used to say “A little bit of yoga is better than no yoga.”

This small amount of practice changed the rest of my day.  I was able to do some pranayama,   Premajyothi at IYINJ is masterful at teaching this practice, with my son sitting on my lap.  Afterward, my son and I took a nice stroll and then I was able to do some homework while he slept.  Most days I would have been grumpy doing homework on a Saturday when it is so nice out, but I breezed through it with a smile on my face.

Thinking about doing more yoga around my son, when he was real small he used to climb on me while I went through the poses which was nice.  Maybe I will start looking more at yoga with kids; it is such a great practice that I see no issue starting him young.  Do you do yoga with your children?  How young did you start with them?  Any tips would be helpful.