Recent studies have found that yoga can help children manage their stress and anxiety to lead healthy, balanced life. Your child doesn’t need to have the experience or skills to start practicing. They simply need to start. Once they’ve started, it will become a part of their life with your help and guidance. Not only does it help them manage their stress, but it also keeps them active and promotes a balanced life.
The Benefits Of Yoga For Kids
Yoga’s philosophy teaches not only children but adults as well, how to bring together all the aspects of their wellbeing – the emotional, physical, and spiritual aspects of their lives. This helps to encourage mindfulness and inner peace.
Children are super sensitive, highly intelligent beings. They are totally receptive to their environment and are affected by their surroundings in profound ways. They are influenced by so many external factors such as parental pressure, stress, peer pressure, school pressure, competitive sports, TV, videos, game consoles (play station, Wii, and all other technological advancements), chemicals and pesticides in foods, bad eating and the list goes on. Childhood illnesses are also on the increase; ADD, ADHD, anxiety, insomnia, obesity, low muscle tone, low levels of self-esteem, lack of self-worth, and fear are prevalent problems in our society.
Modern-day children are born with huge amounts of energy and with much higher levels of intelligence than we have ever seen before. They are often difficult to calm or settle, they get bored easily and need constant attention and stimulation.
Yoga offers children a place to download all this sensory input. Yoga classes are designed to teach children tools to self-calm, de-stress, find inner balance and manage this intense energy so it can be used in effective and constructive ways. It’s a place where children are encouraged to accept and love themselves and others just the way they are.
Teach these skills to your children from a young age as it’s beneficial to their emotional and physical growth, improving their overall wellbeing. This can assist children in managing their stress, developing relationships, and promoting mindfulness. These tools will assist them from childhood right through to adulthood.
Additional health benefits include:
- Reduces chronic pain
- Improved strength
- Improves aerobic capacity
- Develops balance and coordination
- Improved quality of sleep
- Reduces stress and anxiety
- Promotes emotional balance
- Improves mood
- Promotes resiliency
Yoga helps children feel safe
It improves low self-esteem, increases self-worth, and builds confidence. It helps children communicate better and express their emotions. Yoga improves focus and concentration. It improves low muscle tone, increases flexibility, strength and coordination.
Yoga helps alleviate aches and pains and helps with respiratory disorders.
Yoga helps children with sleep disorders.
It helps with depression and anxiety.
Yoga helps develop personal responsibility and self-discipline. It reminds children of their connection to source and their unlimited creative power.
4 Yoga Poses For Children
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Bridge Pose
This pose assists in stretching the spine and thighs.
To perform this pose, start by lying on your back with knees slightly bent and feet firmly planted on the floor hip-distance apart. Lay your arms alongside your body. Slowly inhale, lifting your back off of the floor. Keep your butt tight, supporting your body weight with your feet, arms, and shoulders. Interlace your fingers and push your body higher. Hold for a long as possible, breathing slowly and then releasing. If your child experiences any discomfort, don’t force the pose, rather re-evaluate the position and seek professional advice if need be.
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Tree Pose
This pose promotes balance and improves concentration.
Standing upright with legs straight and arms alongside the body, slowly lift your left foot, bending the knee. Lift your hands above your head and hold for 30 seconds, switch sides, and repeat. If your child is unsteady, let them press their bank against the wall for support.
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Cobra Pose
This pose promotes back and core strength.
Lie o the ground, arms alongside your body and toes flat on the floor. Pull your shoulders back and keep your abdomen engaged. Lift your chest off of the ground, using your hands for support. Hold for 20 seconds and then release.
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Cat Pose
This pose stretches the abdomen, neck, spine, and torso.
Get down onto your mat and begin on your hands and knees with your back in a tabletop position. Make sure that your knees are just below the hips. As you exhale, arch your back towards the ceiling. Inhale and return to tabletop position.
Yoga is a great tool to develop life skills and when put into practice on a daily basis. The poses suggested are easy to perform and are a great starting point for those beginning their yoga journey. Once you’ve got the fundamentals down pat, you will be able to move onto more complex poses. Always remember that if you experience the pose, don’t force the pose, rather stop.
Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy
If you are looking to become a yoga instructor, then you should really consider taking our Yoga Instructor Course. Follow this link to learn more and to register.
