Yoga can provide numerous benefits to children in terms of their physical, mental, and emotional well-being.
Here are some reasons why yoga can be helpful for children:
🧘♀️ Physical Fitness: Yoga involves a series of postures that promote flexibility, strength, and balance. It helps improve overall physical fitness, enhances body awareness, and encourages healthy movement patterns.
🧘♀️ Stress Reduction: Yoga incorporates deep breathing techniques and relaxation exercises that can help children manage stress and anxiety. It activates the body's relaxation response, leading to a reduction in heart rate, blood pressure, and cortisol levels. It's important to pay attention and help children learn HOW to take a deeper breath - belly breathing and not just chest breathing (shorter in depth). Kids will sometimes hold their breath so encourage them to breath through the movements.
🧘♀️ Emotional Regulation: Yoga fosters self-regulation skills by teaching children to recognize and regulate their emotions. It promotes mindful awareness of thoughts and feelings, helping children develop tools to cope with challenging emotions and stressful situations.
🧘♀️ Concentration and Focus: The practice of yoga involves mindful attention and concentration. Through various postures, breathing exercises, and guided meditation, yoga improves children's ability to focus, concentrate, and sustain attention.
🧘♀️Body and Self-Acceptance: Yoga encourages children to practice self-acceptance and empathy towards themselves and others. It helps them develop a healthy relationship with one's body, leading to improved self-esteem and confidence.
🧘♀️ Improves Sleep: Regular yoga practice can improve sleep quality and promote better sleep patterns in children. The relaxation techniques and stress reduction benefits of yoga can help calm the mind and prepare the body for a restful sleep.
🧘♀️ Beneficial in many ways to support a child's motor and sensory systems overall. Therapists can often use yoga as part of the assessment process to help identify any challenges but also a child's strengths.
It is important to note that practicing yoga with children should be done under proper supervision and with age-appropriate modifications. There are kid friendly programs available, search your area for options.
Online options are also available.
Thanks for reading! Have a great day!
Jessica Earle, Occupational Therapist
I heartily agree with the entire post. If a child will practice yoga even when reluctant to begin they become more confident, focus better, can access calming strategies in times of stress. Realistically children get the same benefits as adults they make look different getting there but the result is the same.