Article

Yoga is often hailed as a great exercise for adults – helping to keeps our limbs flexible and our minds calm – something which many of us are seeking as we lead increasingly hectic lives.

But did you know it also has all sorts of benefits for children too? Children today have pretty darn hectic lives too, between school and homework and often also a pretty jam-packed social calendar of parties and activities. They deal with many distractions, temptations, overstimulation and also, as they slowly move towards tween- and teenage age, peer pressure. So what does yoga have to do with this, I hear you ask? Well, quite a lot, possibly. Why? Because yoga is a low-cost, helpful tool that can have a really positive impact on children – in many ways.

In facct, here are just some of the many benefits of teaching yoga to kids:

Develop body awareness
Learn how to use their bodies in a healthy way
Manage stress through breathing, awareness, meditation and healthy movement
Build concentration
Increase their confidence and positive self-image
Feel part of a healthy, non-competitive group
Have an alternative to tuning out through constant attachment to electronic devices

Sounds like something you'd like your own kids to try (and maybe even do with them)? Great! If you happen to have a yoga studio near where you live, give them a call and enquire about whether or not they do classes for children (more and more of them do). If not; there are plenty of apps available now that let you stream entire yoga classes, and many of these use storytelling, animation, and video examples to teach kids a variety of yoga poses appropriate for all skill levels and ages. And last, but not least, there is Youtube – where you will find tons and tons of yoga videos aimed at kids – but that you can do too. In fact, this might be the perfect introduction to yoga and one where you don't have to part with any money in order for your kids to test it out and see if yoga is something they would like to keep doing. We love these ones from Alo Yoga: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XpqNAWnfTo Here is another one we really like – and we think your kids will too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2TIGigPAtE

health

Yoga is often hailed as a great exercise for adults – helping to keeps our limbs flexible and our minds calm – something which many of us are seeking as we lead increasingly hectic lives.