Parenting and Children
This section widens the lens from how yoga affects individuals’ body image to how it can also support parents, parenting, and children. From this perspective, we start to see the effect that yoga can have on families and communities—which speaks to its power of transformation.
Kate McIntyre Clere gets us started with a provocative question: How does a mother support her daughter in navigating her way through a world of, at best, mixed messages about what it means to be a woman? Her fascinating answer—to reclaim the media through her own contribution—asks us to consider how yoga can be part of that conversation as well.
Next, Claire Mysko reflects on the many negative and conflicting messages that women receive about their bodies when they’re pregnant, and how yoga helped her make her way through that with more balance. She wraps up with the potential of prenatal yoga to support women through their pregnancy in a positive way and how it can be part of a larger body image conversation.
From there, Dr. Dawn M. Dalili shares how yoga brought her back to her body, particularly during her pregnancy and as she became a parent. Using her background as a naturopathic physician, she also discusses how yoga can be part of a holistic approach to body image.
Finally, Shana Meyerson shares her experience and expertise as a yoga teacher for children. She offers stories from her teaching of how very early body image concerns come up for children of all genders, and how yoga can be part of what helps them both stay connected with and feel better about their bodies.