While there is plenty of buzz about how yoga benefits adults (ie. increased flexibility, muscle strength, blood flow, improved posture, the list goes on.), what is less popularly discussed is the benefits of yoga for children.
What Is Kids Yoga?
Kids Yoga is exercise routines uniquely designed to help children develop an awareness of their body and nurture important skills such as focus, relaxation, and mindfulness by introducing them to movement-based practices and poses that are best for growing bodies and presenting them in ways that they will understand.
Similar to the yoga that you may know as an adult, Yoga for Kids offers a number of valuable benefits.
What Are the Benefits of Kids Yoga?
Yoga is good for your body
Kids naturally use yoga throughout the developmental stages. How do you think “Happy Baby Pose” or “Child’s Pose” got their names?! We guide children through movements to connect the brain and body. Yoga poses can be playful, fun, and challenging and in Kids Yoga, instructors focus on bringing those qualities out in the positions and sequences they suggest. As a growing child and adult, yoga brings you balance and helps you to develop strength, flexibility, and awareness of your body.
Yoga is exercise in a non-competitive environment
Competitive sports, such as dance, gymnastics, soccer, softball, and tennis, are introduced at a very young age and account for a majority of the exercise opportunities kids are introduced to. Most of us probably grew up doing some type of organized competitive activity or even grew up on the four-square court or playing tetherball.
Yoga is unique in that kids are taught to use their body in a space where they are not being compared to anyone and there is no end goal besides them appreciating the body they are in. The only thing to do is to be present and move in ways that feel good to the body.
Building a healthy relationship with exercise and movement outside of competition is an important lesson for kids to learn at an early age and maintain into adolescence and adulthood.
Yoga teaches kids about respecting themselves and others
One of the only rules we have in my Mindful Kids Class is to listen and be safe with your body. This translates to taking care of your body and mind in everything you do from playing and eating to how you communicate and connect with others.
Yoga helps kids build confidence in themselves
Anyone who has learned a new skill knows that repetition leads to growth. By practicing yoga consistently, kids gain confidence in their strengths, and learn how to be patient when they stumble or fall. Most importantly, they learn how to get up and try again.
Yoga helps kids develop emotional intelligence (EQ)
We live in a very fast-paced world where kids are unavoidably exposed to lots screen time and distractions. Feeling stressed, frustrated or anxious as a result is a natural reaction but children have not developed the skills or tools that they need to deal with these big emotions effectively. In Kids Yoga, children learn how to calm their body, breathe deeply, and listen to what their bodies and minds are telling them so they can better understand these complex feelings.
Kids Yoga gives parents time and peace of mind
Whether you use this time to sit back and observe or relax and have a coffee and read, enjoy some time to yourself knowing your kids are being engaged in a positive way.
Try Kids Yoga For Free
Mindful Movement with Maggie online workout platform offers at-home yoga classes for kids and their parents. Get the whole family moving and start seeing these incredible benefits transform your bodies and minds.
Have your tiny tots try out Mindful Kids in our weekly class offered via Zoom every Thursday at 2:30pm PST. Class is FREE when you sign up for M3 or $5 drop in by signing up below.
What are people saying about Mindful Movement’s Kids Yoga?
“My girls (3 1/2 and 23 months) LOVE doing yoga. My eldest would love to come every day to work out with Maggie if she could. Some days she requests to do yoga at home just like Maggie does.”
-Sivan O.
“Charlotte loved her time in yoga with you - she now practices her tree pose every night before bed, and she’s so proud of her improving balance. Your yoga class helped her tremendously with separating from me when preschool started last year.
Thank you for your love and support of our kids - you create such a fun and safe environment for them to grow.”
-Sara Egide
“Maggie has an amazing demeanor that marries a calming nature with a wonderful sense of fun that both my kids (infant and preschooler) responded incredibly well to and just loved taking classes with her. Maggie does a great job of tailoring her classes to different ages and also gets the parents involved so we all were able to get a great yoga session in!
My preschooler loves practicing his yoga positions at home now and it has helped ‘ground him’ when he starts getting really wound up! My daughter had some mobility delays, including a tight neck and head tilt after classes with Maggie, she is back on track and flourishing.”
-Brooke Price
