It all started when Alex Newell was at Muscle Beach in Santa Monica five years ago. As she watched her then-boyfriend lift himself up on the hanging rings, she had a moment of realization: "It must be nice to know that your body can do that." That's when she decided she wanted that, too.

Newell had never been particularly athletic, so she decided to try yoga because it seemed to be something her body was made for. She began taking hot yoga classes in Los Angeles, and she immediately connected with the practice. Despite sweating for one and a half hours in a room over a hundred degrees, Newell liked how clean and detoxed her body felt after the class was over. Until she started yoga, she had never connected with her body before, and she never knew what it was capable of.

Six months later Newell was in Dallas, TX, enrolled in an intensive 500-hour training program to become a certified yoga instructor. She had always been a teacher, working with kids doing children's theatre classes at a camp every summer since she was 15. "I like teaching, I like yoga. Why don't I teach yoga?" she thought. Newell graduated four years ago and now teaches seven to ten hot yoga classes a week at Hot 8 Yoga in Santa Monica. She also teaches an Anusara yoga class at Body Wellness, which gives her practice a more spiritual context. As if that doesn't keep Newell busy enough, she is a senior instructor doing children's classes at Yoga Stars.

Newell's "Me and My Parent" classes at Yoga Stars introduce yoga to babies as young as six weeks old. This gives parents an opportunity to have a yoga practice and connect with their child at the same time. Some activities in the class involve placing the baby at the front of the mat and having the parents tickle them when they do sun salutations. In between poses, parents might give their children little foot rubs or connect left hand to right toes to work on connecting the right and left brain.

Newell also leads classes focused on older children up to ten years old. "It's about learning to recognize and figure out their little bodies," Newell says. She uses music, toys, and pictures to help younger kids focus. Older children get to practice concentration by walking across a room while holding a bell without letting it ring or blowing a feather off an elbow or nose.

During the savasana, the final pose of relaxation, Newell says she is amazed to watch the kids lie very still. "It's nice because a lot of kids don't get that quiet time." Newell also has her classes do exercises where the children pretend they can see themselves in a crystal ball and close their eyes to make a wish come true. Maybe they see someone they love right in front of their faces so they can send them love. Newell explains, "That's why yoga is great because they get to have fun and play games, but they also get to be quiet and grateful for everything they have in life."

Newell wishes she could have been exposed to yoga as a child, and she hopes that being exposed to yoga practices at an early age will make it more likely that kids will practice it over the course of their lives. For some children it helps to calm them, and for others yoga brings them out of their shells. For everyone, yoga is about learning to love and celebrate yourself and accept what your body is capable of doing. Newell encourages those who are interested in yoga to try as many styles as they can until they find one that speaks to them. For her, "This is really fun and rewarding work. I can't believe I get paid for this."

Alex Newell is a certified yoga and pilates instructor. She is also trained in muscle activation techniques, which address loss of range of motion, joint wear and pain. For more information, visit www.alexnewellyoga.com or check out Alex Newell Yoga on Facebook.