A huge pan-India yoga and nutrition workshop was organised by a renowned Indian educational publisher on the occasion of International Yoga Day with celebrity health and fitness expert Dr Richa Sood. Over 3000 educators joined the session live on social media channels along with their students and their parents, as a bright start to Monday morning and for the theme “Yoga for Life”, which was the positive side of online education. It was heartening to see so many children, parents and teachers joining in with the expert and asking questions about the impact of yoga in their drastically changed lifestyle during the pandemic, as well as its impact on people’s mental and physical health. Dr Sood also gave nutrition and anti-ageing tips, apart from simple exercises for the eyes, neck, head and back, all of which are affected due to this work from home and online education scenario. She also spoke about the right nutrition in both adults and children which has become extremely important today due to various health issue diagnosed in children like obesity, eyesight, headaches, back pain and so on.
One of the main highlights of the event was about yoga being imbibed into our lifestyle for a healthier and happier life across all age groups, be it children, adults, or the elderly. It has often been a myth that yoga is only for middle-aged and older people who have health issues. On the contrary, yoga needs to become integrated with learning right from our childhood to make it part of one’s daily routine so that it can help prevent a lot of lifestyle-related diseases in the long run. The truth is that yoga is an art form with so much grace and creativity and science because precision is the key.
The NEP 2020 states that students of all levels of schools will be allowed to participate in physical activity and exercise, including sports, games, yoga, martial arts, dance, gardening, and more, following local availability of teachers and facilities. The pluralistic choices of Indians in the integrative healthcare education system makes it imperative to give a basic understanding of yoga with allopathic, ayurveda, sidhha, unani, homoeopathy, community medicine, and paramedical system of medical education (section 17.4).
Geetika Sahu, aged 11, from DAV Public School said, “This happened for the first time and it is indeed very exciting for all my classmates and friends. Our teachers are doing yoga with us and Richa ma’am has answered our questions too on better concentration and headaches that some of us get due to screen time.”
This is an era of instant gratification. There’s no patience or excitement for anything any longer since those aren’t needed: at the touch of a button and some payment, everything is available at the doorstep or on our screens. With the online education and work from home space making up most of our daily routines, our lifestyles have changed radically with sleepless nights, fatigued days and cravings that most of us have of all kinds. The solution is also the problem: while these apps have tried to make life easier, they’ve ended up making us more lethargic with loads of health issues, stress, and obesity.
Nutrition and yoga go hand in hand. Unless the nutrition is right and local, seasonal produce isn’t part of one’s diet, bad health will reign and cause major health issues later. Eating a balanced diet with simple, home-cooked food with lots of fruits and vegetables, is the key to feeling better and living smarter. This pandemic, we have seen numerous young and dashing CEOs who have been extremely fit, but lost their lives: some to Covid but many others to stress and anxiety due to job losses, pay cuts, and others. The ability to deal with silent killers like stress through meditation and yoga is the new mantra for times to come. It should well become part of our lives, even after this pandemic is over, not only for our body but for our mind and spirit as well.
Sports and yoga not only make students keep up their physical stamina, but also helps to develop the habit of obedience, discipline, the determination to win, willpower — all of which are essentials of life. Academic learning and sports education complement each other; they resemble the two sides of the same coin. If sports education is accompanied by the academic curriculum, the overall personality of the student is increased to quite an extent: qualities of leadership, sharing, team spirit, and tolerance are learnt from sports.
Yoga and team sports can teach inner strength, calmness, concentration, teambuilding, equality, discipline, inclusion, perseverance, and respect. It has the power to provide a universal framework for learning values, thus contributing to the development of soft skills needed for responsible citizenship. Therefore, it is imperative to integrate fitness, sports, classical music, classical dance, and yoga into formal education.