The best Yoga gift to give to a 6 year old - Be brave. That’s all.

Someone who signed up for my advanced TT asked me a question the other day that kind of stopped me in my tracks. For a moment. She said Zaccy and yoga are the two great loves of my life (she missed Laura 🫣), and so she asked, what one lesson have I learnt from yoga that I would share with Zaccy. Just one 🧐

And I thought for a second, and then said: “Be brave.” And subconsciously I’ve been saying that to Zaccy ever since I can remember. Every morning Zaccy would head to nursery, and now school, and he would give me a hug, and I always ask, what does Daddy always say? And he replies, be brave. Is he brave? Er, not really. Which is crazy to me. He is so gentle, hence the butterfly email you read before. But I want to believe that that mantra will serve him well in life, because that is the only yogic principle I want him to hold onto. Even if he never does another “crab pose” again.

Some people get yoga completely wrong on this. There’s this idea floating about that the spiritual path is all “turn the other cheek, rise above it, don’t engage, trust karma” and so on. And to some degree that’s true and fair, in the right context. But generally that isn’t yogic. If you go back to the Bhagavad Gita, which has influenced so much of modern day yoga thought, one of the two central characters is on the battlefield ready to go to war, and his friend and charioteer Krishna doesn’t ask him to turn the other way and not fight. The entire story takes place on a battlefield, with Arjuna frozen, not wanting to fight, wanting to lay down his weapons and walk away. And in his head, he calls that walking away the higher path. But it isn’t. We justify our cowardice with philosophy.

“Do not give in to cowardice, O son of Pritha. It does not become you. Shake off this weakness of heart and stand up, O scorcher of enemies.”

And his friend, his charioteer, his conscience, Krishna, does not tell him to retreat and walk away. He tells him to stand up and fight. To honour his duty. To find his courage and act, because walking away from what life is asking of you is not wisdom. It’s fear, and we convince ourselves, using anything that sounds good, that it’s in fact peace.

That’s the yoga I believe in. Not the sadhu on the mountain who has rejected the world. The person who stays in the world, in the mess of it, and faces it and confronts it with some heart. Yoga philosophy is not about escaping life. It’s about being brave enough to be fully in it.

So that’s my one thing. The thing I’d want Zaccy to always remember. When the moment comes and you’re scared and you want to back away and convince yourself you’re taking the higher road, just think for a second. Show some heart ❤️.

Be brave, Zaccy. That’s all (bru).

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Namaskar - Eternal Seeker

Zahir Akram

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References 1. Goutham S, Bhargav H, Holla B, Mahadevan J, Nagendra RP, Jasti N, Narasimha VL, Mehta UM, Varambally S, Venkatasubramanian G, Chand P, Gangadhar BN, Hill KP, Keshavan M, Murthy P. Yoga for Opioid Withdrawal and Autonomic Regulation: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Psychiatry. Published online 7 January 2026. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/2843424 Free full text (PubMed Central): https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12780978/ (Study design, 59 participants, 30 yoga and 29 control, ten 45-minute sessions over 14 days, median recovery of 5 vs 9 days, improvements in heart rate variability, anxiety, sleep and pain.) 2. Powell A. Yoga can help cut severe, initial opioid-withdrawal period in half, study finds. Harvard Gazette, 24 February 2026. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2026/02/yoga-can-help-cut-severe-initial-opioid-withdrawal-period-in-half-study-finds/ (Group sessions, the specific practices used, and comments from the Harvard researchers.) 3. Yoga accelerates opioid withdrawal recovery. Healio, 23 January 2026. https://www.healio.com/news/psychiatry/20260123/yoga-accelerates-opioid-withdrawal-recovery (Parasympathetic activity accounting for 23% of the effect.) 4. Jha S. Drug withdrawal takes 9 days, yoga brings it down to 5: NIMHANS study. The South First, 16 February 2026. https://thesouthfirst.com/health/drug-withdrawal-takes-9-days-yoga-brings-it-down-to-5-nimhans-study/ (Stress markers rising briefly during breathing practice, then improving at rest by day 15.) 5. Gratzer D. Reading of the Week: Yoga for Opioid Withdrawal? The New JAMA Psych Paper. 29 January 2026. https://davidgratzer.com/reading-of-the-week/reading-of-the-week-yoga-for-opioid-withdrawal-the-new-jama-psych-paper-also-maois-history-and-ai-associated-psychosis/ (Average age of 25.6, and the study's limitations: small sample and no active control group.)