Engaging The Heart, Mind and Body Of Young Ones Through Yoga

Yoga For Kids

We’ve all heard of the benefits of Yoga for adults, for people with back problems, high blood pressure, respiratory problems, cancer patients in recovery and moms to be, but did you know that children who are thought yoga at a young age reap a host of benefits too?

Just like for adults, Yoga helps kids find balance in their lives, enabling them to cope with situations better. It’s a great tool for channeling  kids energy and teaches them to be more relaxed and calm. Yoga for kids promotes the philosophy that active bodies support healthy, active minds. It also develop better body awareness, self-control, flexibility and coordination early on which they will carry with them through life. Plus, one of best influences that yoga has on children is it teaches them to handle stress and conflicts as well as to deal with emotions in a positive manner.

Yoga has also been shown to help children with ADD/ADHD, hyperactivity, anxiety and other behavior disorders. Yoga poses that instill calm, confidence and balance help them channel their impulses that crave a stimulus. Yoga is thought to kids through visualization of the poses, like for example in the mountain pose with their feet firmly on the ground and heads raised to the sky, they imagine themselves strong as a mountain or in the tree pose imaging themselves tall, trying to reach the sky with their branches. This helps kids build focus, release physical and emotional energy and improve physical fitness. Relaxation is another aspect of yoga beneficial for children to relieve stress. How much stress can a child have to relieve you may ask? But, believe it or not quite a bit. Many kids go through their parents separation or divorce, the pressure of school work, competition and even just fitting in socially can cause quite a bit of stress. Yoga breathing exercises help them stay centered and calmer through these difficult situations and times.

Yoga sessions for children include lot of storytelling and mental imagery to develop the imagination. Social emotional games played during yoga classes help as counseling tools to develop trust, compassion, communication, teamwork and leadership skills. As yoga teaches us through it’s practices to activate the present by coming to a stillness, kids tend to open up a lot more when they achieve this stillness. It is then the best time for them to open up their hearts and cultivate their own compassion and sensitivity to emotions, for us parents it is to learn about the inherent goodness in our children, to cultivate, nurture, protect and develop that goodness.

For this and more, Yoga is a great way for engaging the heart, mind and body of young ones!

*Photo credits: Photos by Axel Bührmann, Scott Ableman on flickr

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