PHOTO: Agnieszka Migew, children’s author and yoga teacher, sharing the art of mindfulness and compassion through storytelling.
Inspiring Children Through Yoga, Stories, And Compassion
Agnieszka Migew blends her expertise as a yoga teacher with her talent for storytelling, creating award-winning children’s books that teach mindfulness, self-acceptance, gratitude, and emotional resilience.
Agnieszka Migew’s creative journey is one rooted in compassion, mindfulness, and the transformative power of storytelling. A yoga teacher since 2008, Agnieszka began teaching children not only the poses and postures of yoga but also the emotional and philosophical lessons it embodies. It was in these sessions, built around imagination and playfulness, that her stories were born—tales that enliven the principles of self-acceptance, gratitude, and kindness for her young audience. For Agnieszka, the blending of yoga and narrative was seamless, as both seek to nurture a deeper connection to oneself and to the world around us.
Her debut work, the award-winning Tutti Yoga: Story of Self-Acceptance, is a testament to her belief that storytelling can soften the sometimes thorny lessons of life for children. Through engaging characters and heartfelt themes, her books navigate sensitive topics such as confidence, compassion, and emotional awareness. Grounded in her love for nature, her narratives often use animals and natural elements as mirrors for human experiences, creating a space where young readers can explore challenging emotions with openness and curiosity.
Agnieszka’s stories are much more than entertainment—they are tools for growth, written with the intention to help children recognise their inner strength, build resilience, and embrace kindness. In each book, there is a simple but profound message: self-awareness and self-love are gifts, and when we give them to ourselves, we are better equipped to pass them on to others. Through her words and her work, Agnieszka reminds us all that these lessons, although taught to children, hold timeless value for everyone.
Agnieszka Migew is an inspiring author whose stories beautifully intertwine yoga, mindfulness, and compassion, enriching children’s emotional and spiritual growth.
What inspired you to combine your passion for yoga and writing to create children’s books?
I became a yoga teacher in 2008 and started writing short stories for children to make yoga lessons fun and engaging.
This led to one of the stories becoming so popular with children and other yoga teachers that I decided to turn it into a book.
I was lucky to find award-winning illustrator Jo Perry whose work is showcased in WH Smith stores (she creates designs for a variety of cards including Christmas and seasonal cards) and she created a bespoke illustration for my book called Tutti Yoga: Story of Self-Acceptance.
Later on, she also created a deck of yoga partner poses cards which I’m also proud of and use in my classes to show that yoga is for Everybody regardless of the genre, age, shape and size of your body.
“Self-acceptance, recognising our own strength and building confidence will help us to become more resilient when dealing with difficulties in life.” – Agnieszka Migew
Can you tell us about your experience as a yoga teacher for children and how it influenced your writing?
I became a yoga teacher in 2008.
Making yoga and engaging young children requires lots of creativity and coming up with new stories all the time.
This is how Tutti Yoga’s Story of Self-Acceptance was born and more stories after that.
I try to focus on themes which are close to my heart such as gratitude, kindness, self-acceptance, friendship, and compassion which I have taught in my classes before I became an author. For my first story I have chosen animals and trees as main characters because I am drawn to nature and for children is easier to relate to animals when speaking about difficult subjects of self-love or friendship.
The story itself came to me as a spur-of-the-moment idea. Having a main structure for the story I keep adding more details later on and working on it until it is polished enough to share with my editor and illustrator.
“Focus on the message you want to pass on, the legacy you want to leave behind with your books and what the world needs more to be a better place.” – Agnieszka Migew
Yoga is a philosophy of becoming more aware and mindful towards yourself and others. Becoming a better version of yourself requires diving deep into who we are as a person. Gratitude for instance plays a big part in it by recognising things we should be grateful for instead of taking them for granted. Appreciating others for what they do for us helps us to become more compassionate, loving and also make us want to give back.
As for self-acceptance, recognising our own strength and building confidence will help us to become more resilient when dealing with difficulties in life but also will help to achieve future goals. Self-love is the greatest gift we can give ourselves and practising regularly will help us to become more gentle towards ourselves and less judgemental.
Feeling loved will help us give the same to others and spread the energy of love around. It’s contagious.
As part of yoga sessions I teach children about self-love and how to practise that by being gentle towards ourselves, recognising our own strengths and dealing with big emotions which helps them to grow their confidence, gives them tools to deal with negative thinking and being gentle towards themselves instead of judgemental.
I have already written two stories with a theme around kindness and another one about emotions which is a poem I’m working on getting them shared with literary agents in the hope of getting traditionally published and available for a larger audience.
What I hope children learn from my books is to be more self-aware of who we are and how we can make a difference in our life and others by feeling and showing gratitude, recognising our own strengths which lead to more confidence, understanding the meaning of true friendship, and feeling compassion towards others which is an important skill to develop early in life alongside with being kind.
What advice would I give to others if they want to write a story?
Focus on the message you want to pass on, the legacy you want to leave behind with your books and what the world needs more to be a better place.
