www.telegraph.co.uk

UNITED KINGDOM, September 12, 2005: When Gwyneth Paltrow was recently given a yoga picture book by a friend for her 16-month-old daughter, Apple, she was entranced. The 32-year-old actress, who has practised ashtanga yoga for many years, was so inspired by Little Yoga that she agreed to provide the voiceover for a DVD adaptation–without charging a fee. The book, written by Rebecca Whitford, a yoga practitioner and mother of three from Surrey, is undoubtedly charming. Beautifully simple, with bold illustrations, it’s a captivating introduction to some of the animal poses of yoga; the butterfly, the bird, the dog and the monkey. At the back are photographs of two little girls, demonstrating the postures. One of them is Scarlett, Whitford’s own daughter. Behind the success of the book lies the story of Scarlett’s battle against cancer. She was just 14 months old when her mother discovered a hard lump in her right side; a biopsy revealed a large mass of cancerous tissue in her liver. After many months of treatment, Scarlett, now four, was physically weakened by her ordeal. Yet, when she saw her mother doing her yoga practice, she was eager to copy her. Whitford showed her gentle movements and stretches, which exercised her body and strengthened her muscles. “I looked for a book about yoga that was accessible to young children, but there wasn’t one,” she says. “So I put together a booklet for Scarlett, and it eventually evolved into Little Yoga.” Yoga is wonderful for children,” says Whitford. “It helps them retain their natural flexibility, which they can lose, slumped over a PlayStation or at a desk in school.” The instinctive ability to breathe deeply into the abdomen is another skill that youngsters lose as they grow older. Adults tend towards shallow breathing, especially at moments of stress. Whitford is working on a second book, Sleepy Little Yoga, a sequence of movements for winding down at bedtime.

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