benefits of yoga for little ones

You may or may not have tried yoga yourself, in a studio or at home on your own or with a video by your side. There are so many wonderful benefits of practicing yoga and meditation as adults, for physical and mental clarity in this busy world. If you already know these benefits of yoga, you may or may not know how beneficial this practice is for little ones. We explain some of the benefits below and how you can bring in some elements of yoga to your home and routine. 

Decreases stress and anxiety and promotes mindfulness
Helping kids focus on the present action and task, allows them to slow down and be mindful. Yoga looks at breath and form, which isn’t something busy little toddlers would always consider. Relaxing into the process of yoga is a great way to shed worries or anxieties of everyday life, as that attention is focused elsewhere. 

Encourages concentration
As mentioned above, for a little one to work at something new or out of the ordinary, requires a lot of concentration and considered thought. This is a great chance for little ones to slow down and understand what their body is doing, furthering mindfulness and their attention span to certain activities.

Improves coordination and balance
Yoga poses and flow exercise improve coordination and balance (for adults too!). Certain poses target different areas of the body, and for little minds to understand movement of their own bodies. Giving them an oppertunity to coordinate slowly at their own pace, by replicating what they see. This also stimulates ideas of action and reaction.

Regulates emotions and aids a calm mind
Giving your little one the time each day to experience all of the above, gives them the mental and physical stillness to stop and evaluate the way they feel. This could be enhanced by prompting your little one with a couple of gentle questions, as simple as ‘how does this feel?’. Or recalling a moment in the day and asking how this made them feel. This could be incorporated into your yoga time, or quiet/ down time in the day.  

Where to find
There are plenty of helpful resources online for kids’ yoga. A great place to start is short routines and videos on Youtube, cosmic kids yoga is a popular channel. Gaia also offer plenty of kids focused yoga flows. If you would like to guide your own yoga with little one, there are beautiful print outs and posters available online with different flows centered on identifiable makers for kids (ie. Mimicking animals with poses, alphabet letters), a great place to find these is Pinterest. 

We hope you enjoy this special time with your little ones. Slowing down, and taking in the practice of mindfulness together. xx Nb