Mallika Chopra: Just Breathe
MALLIKA CHOPRA: As a Mom, I have seen how so many of our kids are feeling a sense of loss and not feeling anchored. What I can share with my kids and their friends and other parents are techniques to find that safe, happy place inside of us and not always be object-referral to what we’re seeing on the outside, particularly in times right now where we’re over stimulated and distracted. I think it always has been really important throughout history that people find that place inside of them where they find strength and peace and a sense of knowingness of themselves, and also that they’re part of something bigger to feel relevant and to contribute. So, I think that is the core, and we talk about as being in touch with your soul and knowing who you are. In my book Just Breathe for Kids, I identify that as my safe, happy place because that’s an easier way to conceive it.
VICTOR FUHRMAN: How does it help young children to be raised with the awareness and experience of meditation, mindfulness, movement and more?
MALLIKA CHOPRA: I think I come from a tradition where, again, this is about the family and the community as well exploring this, so I do believe that we can give tools to our children to help them breathe, to calm down, to be aware of their bodies and this really will enhance our lives. I do believe the first step is often for the parents in their lives to also experience and explore and connect as well.
VICTOR FUHRMAN: How does meditation help to reduce stress and keep us calm?
MALLIKA CHOPRA: Meditation is about calming your mind and mindfulness is about being more aware of your thinking, your body, and what’s going on around you. Yoga is a way to use breath and movement to also connect with your body. So, these are very simple definitions of the difference between them. It’s very basic as we slow down, we breathe deeper, our breath slows down in meditation. We start to get more rest, and that creates more healing benefits just like we sleep when we’re sick. The benefits then manifest into releasing good hormones in your body, dealing with cortisol and other stress hormones in reducing those, and then those have the effects of helping adults and kids with better biomarkers in your health, from reducing cholesterol to improving your sleep, to helping children and adults focus and learn better.
VICTOR FUHRMAN: Children are natural physical posers. They seem to love swing, bend and twist their bodies into different positions in play. How do you introduce children to yoga?
MALLIKA CHOPRA: What I have loved so much as I’ve been releasing this book, is for the first time actually I’ve gone into lots of classrooms and have been with younger kids, because I’m used to talking to adults and parents, but this book has given me the opportunity actually to interact directly with kids. It is amazing to see a kindergartener to a second grade it’s really hard for them to sit still, and I don’t think we should expect them to sit still. In the book I do have some fun silly-looking, laugh-inducing, giggle-inducing exercises and it’s amazing looking towards these kids who are moving around, they can’t sit still, and you can’t even expect them to sit still, but they will find that moment of just pause, or quiet. So many of us assume that kids will never do this, I find sometimes it’s much easier to work with kids than with adults.
VICTOR FUHRMAN: It’s important for adults to build habits and rituals and have a practice that they can rely upon. Can this also be established with children?
MALLIKA CHOPRA: I have strong opinions on this. I strongly believe that we should not force our children to meditate. We should not try to force any behavior for them. Rather, as a parent or a teacher, as a caregiver, we should be by example not words. So, I feel if you are a parent who wants to incorporate this into your family’s life, or maybe a parent who has seen that your children or your child need some tools and exercises, I would recommend that you find your practice first. You find a practice that helps you connect. You lead by example through your regular habit and by showing your children that this is important to you. Then you give your kids the tools but let them figure out how to use them.
VICTOR FUHRMAN: How may the techniques in your book help children who might not have the blessing of a spiritual and resourceful Mommy?
MALLIKA CHOPRA: I just finished, literally yesterday, my next book which is called Just Feel. It was on social and emotional intelligence and was written as a complement to Just Breathe. For this one, it was a little more challenging for me because I wanted to be sensitive, and I always want to be sensitive, but some unfortunate children have faced much trauma, much abuse, much depression, and social ailments as well. I think what we need to do as the adults in children’s lives is ideally to create this peaceful atmosphere, but that’s not the reality for many, many, many children, if not most children. I think it needs to be slowly done and that’s why I think techniques like just breathing, just learning to take deep breaths, to pause, to be aware of how stress manifests itself physically in our body, and then how to deal with those physical ailments. Going through a process, but going through it slowly, really can create transformation, but it needs to be done in a way that’s not stimulating more anxiety and stress.
VICTOR FUHRMAN: Unfortunately, the effects of early childhood trauma manifest in adults with many different problems, including drug abuse, the lack of socialization skills, the lack of being able to function in our world and society. What would you stress people about taking care of these kids?
MALLIKA CHOPRA: I think we need to be an empathetic society and I think empathy comes when we also can be more connected to ourselves because then we can listen and feel what other people are going through as well. I do think that why I believe in these techniques is that I think that they make us fundamentally kinder, more moral and empathetic people, but again not on an intellectual level but a spiritual level. I think that’s where we’re going to see the transformation ultimately is if, as a society, we feel the pain and the suffering that we are going through as well as what others are going through. Yes, right now, it feels just so jarring and overwhelming, whether it’s the rhetoric or what’s happening regarding inequality or socially what seems so unfair for so many people. So, hopefully, as people learn to be more empathetic at a spiritual level, they will reach out to others in a more genuine way.
VICTOR FUHRMAN: Your book is filled with wonderful exercises and techniques to help children through some of the elements and stresses that are part of daily life. Let’s share a few of these with our readers. Talk about getting rid of butterflies in the tummy.
MALLIKA CHOPRA: Yes, you know that’s what fun about this book was is because I wrote it for eight to 12-year-olds. We tried to add fun and color and silliness to the whole thing. So many of these techniques are basic yoga, meditation, and mindfulness techniques, but I wrote them in a way that could be fun. The butterflies in your tummy are really just taking a deep breath and envisioning and then visualizing all the colors and patterns and craziness of those butterflies and then taking that effortful breath out and breathing them out and envisioning all those butterflies flying out. So that’s something I found they really have fun with that regarding visioning the butterflies and then really blowing them out and seeing them go far away.
VICTOR FUHRMAN: Kids are so much better at visualization than adults, aren’t they?
MALLIKA CHOPRA: It’s because they’re innocent. I think as adults we’re constantly trying to intellectualize, whereas kids often they dive in and feel and experience, so for me, that’s why it’s been so refreshing to work with kids.
VICTOR FUHRMAN: How do you address headaches with children?
MALLIKA CHOPRA: Many kids now, are having headaches, but I think we have over-stimulation as well as just rising anxiety. The headache exercise that I share in the book comes from a traditional yoga technique, but it’s focusing on first, our breath, taking a deep breath, but then feeling your heartbeat first in your body, but then really focusing on your heartbeat in your hands. As you do that what happens is it helps divert blood flow, so that is a traditional yoga technique that I share in there as well.
VICTOR FUHRMAN: You have a technique that I think not only children, but adults need to use today. You are cooling down when you get angry or embarrassed.
Continue to Page 3 of the Interview with Mallika Chopra
