Music therapy can reduce psychological stress among pregnant women, according to research published in a special complementary and alternative therapy medicine issue of the Journal of Clinical Nursing. Researchers from the College of Nursing at Kaohsiung Medical University, Taiwan, randomly assigned 116 pregnant women to a music group and 120 to a control group.

 

“The music group showed significant reductions in stress, anxiety and depression after just two weeks, using three established measurement scales,” according to Chung-Hey Chen, PhD, RN, who is now based at the National Cheng Kung University. “In comparison, the control group showed a much smaller reduction in stress, while their anxiety and depression scores showed little or no improvement.”

 

Chen continues, “Women in the music group also expressed preferences for the type of music they listened to, with lullabies, nature, and crystal sounds proving more popular than classical music.” The women who took part in the study

Yoga may not be the first thing you think of when considering activities for your child to participate in. Even kids themselves might think yoga is a little weird at first, but you’ll be surprised to find that children of all ages can get huge benefits from doing yoga on a regular basis. Most adults and parents are aware of the benefits of yoga, either from hearsay or from their own practice. Yoga enhances your strength and flexibility; it improves your ability to focus, enhances a sense of well-being, increases confidence and positive self-esteem, and encourages an inner center.   

Yoga can accomplish all this for children as well. However, yoga for kids is very different from yoga for adults, so choosing the right teacher for you and/or your child is essential.

 

Yoga meditations can bring peace and balance to your day.

One of the things to consider is whether or not your potential teacher is aware of Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences Theory. This theory states that there are

 

Should you have your kids doing Down Dog?

 

Consider this: Yoga is proven to improve self-esteem, physical health and grade point averages among children.

 

In a Gaiam-funded study of kindergarten through 8th-grade students in an inner-city school, researchers from California State University examined the correlation between yoga and academic performance, discipline, attendance and self-esteem.

 

The 2003 study showed a 20 percent increase in the number of students who felt good about themselves — and a 6 percent increase in classroom discipline scores, indicating that students who had high participation in yoga class also had fewer referrals or discipline problems. In addition, while the increase in average GPA was not provided, the study showed a "statistically significant" link between yoga participation and better grades.

 

"It works on many levels," says Marsha Wenig, creator of the Gaiam YogaKids® DVD programs and president of YogaKids International. After nearly 20 years of