Learning remotely and having to spend a lot of time at home can be pretty stressful for kids, so one company is offering help with a twist.
Robyn Parets founded Pretzel Kids, which teaches children how to do yoga and mindfulness exercises to relax.
“I think an overload of stress isn’t good for any of us. You know, kids are getting panicky or fear is creeping in a big way,” she said. “The main way that yoga and mindfulness, breathing, and meditation, if you kinda lump it all into one category, is it helps children calm down, relax, regulate their nervous system.”
The company has a studio in West Roxbury but has recently been holding most of their classes online.
Parets says they find creative ways to keep kids active at home.
“We have the kids actually move away from their computers so they’re not staring into the screen, and we have them close their eyes and lift one arm up, and they can gaze at us and we can lead them through a series of yoga poses so they can get their body moving,” she explained.
Dr. Archana Bas, a psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, says these kinds of activities sprinkled into the school day are key to keeping your kids mentally healthy.
“In schools, you know, we’re not sitting just back-to-back in classes, there’s transition time, there’s time to socialize, there’s lots of other co-curricular activities that are built into our day, so having scheduled longer breaks with some physical activity is a must,” she said.
Parets hopes her classes can help kids and their parents too.
“The ability to calm down your own mind and relax your body and mind will do wonders for your children and then to be able to do this together for your kids I think is really important too,” she said.
People can learn more about Pretzel Kids here.
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