Yoga for Kids

Yoga For Kids

Our children today are exposed to a lot of stress factors. They are under pressure daily to do homework, they encounter competition from other children, and sometimes playground bullies. After school game activities take their time and energy and create their own set of stresses...and sometimes our kids are just over-scheduled. Just like us adults, these kids need something relaxing to turn to-- and that solution could be Yoga.

Yoga for kids helps them develop better body awareness and it also helps them achieve total self control, flexibility and coordination. These benefits can carry through not only into their classroom, but these exercises can help them with their daily routines and carry on the benefits throughout life.

Yoga for kids has shown to help hyper-active children to settle down and it has also proven to help those with attention deficit. Children today crave movement and sensory motor stimuli that can help then balance out the flow of their inner souls. Yoga for kids can help them channel their impulses in a positive way.

The two main Yoga for kids poses that seem to do the most for children are the warrior pose and the tree pose. These two yoga poses helps instill in them calm, confidence and balance.

To encourage your youngsters to take active part in Yoga exercises, get them to think about what the real posture means while perfecting the pose. Have them imagine that they are really what the poses are symbolizing, let them be the postures – strong and confident like a warrior, or strong, beautiful, beneficial and calm like a tree.

Yoga for kids with partners is also a good way to build up trust with your children. It develops their team skills and fosters a closer bond. Important additional benefits for the same expenditure of effort!

Many kids have trouble closing their eyes when trying to relax and focus on their exercises. One thing that encourages a child to relax is visualization. Have them think of something that they really like and let them imagine being or experiencing what they imagine.

Ask them to imagine their favorite spot in the house or let them think that they are in outer space floating, or let them visualize that they are at the beach, playing their favorite sport or doing the activity they like best

Other methods to try are having them focus on belly breathing first and then have them listen to soothing and relaxing music.

Encourage each child to share their own experiences. Every day at the end of each session of relaxation exercises, encourage the children to tell the group what it was like to be in their visualized surroundings. Ask them also to share with everyone what place they imagined they where visiting.

Another approach is to create a guided imagination by telling them a story with a calming theme of some sort.

Children have active imaginations and can imagine all sorts of things. Imagination can help them feel calm. Plant a scene in their minds of walking on a green pasture, or let them think that they are butterflies in a beautiful garden. Or fireflies blinking through their yard on a balmy night.. The main idea in here is to instill a sense of peace and feeling of oneness with nature.

Yoga for kids should be taught more frequently and in different places. It is important to teach children the meaning of union of mind, body and spirit.

Children can benefit immensely from Yoga. There is such a wealth of knowledge and healthful beginnings that we can offer our children with the practice of Yoga when they are young.