Why Kids Need Yoga as Much as We Do

Yoga for children can help counter the stress experienced by little ones living in a hurry-up world. Learn the benefits of teaching yoga for kids.

Our children live in a hurry-up world of busy parents, school pressures, incessant lessons, video games, malls, and competitive sports. We usually don’t think of these influences as stressful for our kids, but often they are. The bustling pace of our children’s lives can have a profound effect on their innate joy—and usually not for the better.

I have found that yoga can help counter these pressures. When children learn techniques for self-health, relaxation, and inner fulfillment, they can navigate life’s challenges with a little more ease. Yoga at an early age encourages self-esteem and body awareness with a physical activity that’s noncompetitive.

Yoga Gives Children Confidence

When children practise yoga, they learn and master new poses. Being able to master even the smallest pose, such as touching your toes, is a huge achievement for our children. With every new pose that they learn and master, the more confidence they gain.

Yoga Promotes Healthy Bodies

During the children’s yoga class, the children are stretching, strengthening and buildings their coordination. Yoga is proven to improve a person’s flexibility and increase blood flow; the same benefits gained in adult yoga are gained in children’s yoga too.

Yoga Improves Concentration

Yoga is like a short brain break. It empties the mid for the children. This gives them renewed focus, attention and enthusiasm for learning new things later in the day or even later that week. Children that practise yoga not only gain an improved level of concentration but they also increase their attention span too.

Yoga Helps Manage Stress

Through yoga sessions, we teach the skill of controlled breathing. This controlled breathing technique works really well for stress and anxiety. We teach children how to use their breathing to reduce their stress. Once mastered, this is then a skill they can use in later life and for years to come. Yoga and the breathing techniques can also be used as a powerful tool when minimising feelings on anxiety.

Yoga Introduces Mindfulness

Through yoga, our children align their bodies and minds. This is exactly what mindfulness is; the aligning of the body and the mind. We often use stories and characters to engage with the children in our classes. The stories will always have a mindfulness message within them. This may be a message about following your dreams, believing in yourself or building confidence, for example.

Yoga Improves Balance

Yoga is an excellent way of developing coordination, and it works brilliantly for balance too. Yoga poses work through a range of muscles in the body, and this helps children find their symmetry. It helps improve their body coordination and encourages motor development too.