Family Yoga @ Studio Soma

There is a little wooden frog that lives at Studio Soma.

Well, technically he's an instrument. A carved wooden frog that makes a croaking sound when you run a stick across his back.

But that's not really how he functions around here.

His name is LFPT (Little Froggy, Potential Toad) a title lovingly bestowed upon him by Eric after much consideration of his future amphibious potential.

Most adults walk straight past him. Children never do.

Children find him immediately. They pick him up. They investigate. They ask questions. They make sounds. They discover what the rest of us stopped noticing years ago. And every time it happens, I'm reminded that yoga isn't really about becoming something new.

It's about remembering how to pay attention. How to play. How to be curious. Children are exceptionally good at all three.

For a long time, wellness spaces have had a complicated relationship with children. Not because anyone dislikes them. More because children are unpredictable. They touch things with sticky hands. They ask questions at inconvenient moments. They don't understand the social agreement that a yoga studio should be quiet, orderly and aesthetically pleasing. They arrive exactly as they are. And in a culture increasingly obsessed with optimisation, productivity and carefully curated experiences, that can feel disruptive. But I often wonder if we've got it backwards.

What if disruption is part of the practice?

In yoga philosophy, there is the concept of maya. Maya refers to the cosmic power of illusion that makes the temporary, material world appear as the ultimate reality. It acts as a mental filter, obscuring our perception of underlying oneness and causing us to mistakenly identify with our ego, body, and external circumstances rather than our true, infinite Self. If you boil it down, it's mistaking the temporary for the important. The things we become attached to. The things we believe matter more than they actually do. The perfectly folded blanket. The pristine bolster. The spotless floor. The studio looking exactly as it did before everyone arrived. These things have their place.

But they're still just things. They are maya. The experience of wonder, connection, community, learning and belonging is the real practice. A fingerprint on a gong doesn't concern me nearly as much as a child feeling welcome in a space designed for wellbeing.

And children have already shaped Studio Soma in ways they probably don't realise. During one of our events, the role of Gong Master was reserved for a child. Not because it's cute. Okay maybe because it's really cute too, but mainly, because it matters. It reminds us that community isn't something adults create and children eventually inherit. Community is something we build together. We partnered with Autumn Rose yoga to create a Pregnancy Wellness Festival. A day created to celebrate women, yes. But also the beautiful children they are carrying into this world. A lovely member of our studio, Libby, was there photographing the bumps. Family photography is her craft, and we often find ourselves having the same conversation: that children, in settings like a yoga class or family photoshoot, where adults are often trying to control, organise or perfect an experience, end up becoming the accidental curators of the most magical moments. She told me that the photographs people treasure most are rarely the perfectly posed ones. They're the moments in between. The child running off script.The unexpected laugh.The muddy hands.The distraction.The curiosity. The moments where a child is simply being themselves. And somehow, in those moments, everyone else seems to become a little more themselves too. For me, that's proof that wellness doesn't begin when someone turns eighteen and books their first yoga class or perfect's their head shot. It begins much earlier. It begins in families. In communities. In environments where care and play is modelled rather than instructed.

There is a growing body of research showing that children learn through observation long before they learn through instruction. Psychologists call it observational learning. Most parents simply call it life.

Children watch. They watch how we respond when we're stressed. They watch how we move. They watch how we speak to ourselves. They watch whether we prioritise rest or constantly sacrifice ourselves for productivity. And then, quietly, they learn. Monkey see, monkey do. Which makes me wonder: What happens when a child grows up occasionally seeing their parent sit still? Take a conscious breath? Move their body with care? Rest without earning it first? I don't know if there's a measurable outcome. Not everything meaningful can be measured. But I suspect it matters. This is one of the reasons we're introducing Family Flow during the summer holidays. Because school holidays shouldn't automatically mean your practice disappears because childcare does. Family Flow is an open class where children are welcome. They can participate. They can colour. They can rest. They can ask questions. They can spend twenty minutes trying to crawl under your downward dog. All of it is welcome. Shameless plug below:

Family Flow

Starting July 20 @ Studio Soma, Romsey

🌿 Mondays @ 2:00pm 🌿 Tuesdays @ 11:00am 🌿 Sundays @ 9:30am

Kids attend free. Simply book yourself in and bring them along.

I don't expect every class to be perfectly quiet. I don't particularly want it to be. Yoga has never been about controlling life until it behaves itself. It's about learning to meet life as it is. Sometimes that life looks like silence. Sometimes it looks like a child discovering LFPT for the first time. Both belong. Both are practice. And if we're lucky, both might remind us of something we forgot along the way. Something playful. Something curious. Something free. Something that was never lost in the first place. Family Flow begins July 20 at Studio Soma. We'd love to welcome you and yours, sticky hands, wandering minds, curious questions and all. 💛Book your spot via the Studio Soma schedule.

Thanks for reading! If you ever have any questions, feel free to reach out via email or dm <3 - Alla :) Founder, Studio Soma Romsey, Hampshire, SO519AQ hello@studiosomayoga.com Instagram: @studiosoma_romsey