I teach yoga to children of all ages (from babies to teens!) in schools and studios in South East London. I also teach privately for those who may prefer not to be part of a larger group.
If you would like to introduce yoga into your school or studio, or if have a child who is interested in trying yoga, feel free to get in touch to find out where I teach!
@stretchyyoga
Ph: 07852573335
Yoga for children is heaps of fun and has a vast array benefits. Some of these benefits include:
Increased body awareness
Manages stress through breath awareness, meditation and healthy movement
Builds concentration
Develops confidence and a positive self-image
Allows kids to be a part of a healthy, non-competitive group
Is a natural way to 'tune out' from over-stimululation
Just as we do, children often have to deal with many distractions, temptations, overstimulation and peer pressure. Yoga is a low-cost, helpful tool that can have a positive impact on children and adults alike. The benefits are not limited, they are abundant to all.
More detail on benefits:
1. Awareness of the breath
Breathing exercises can energise children or encourage relaxation, depending on what you teach. Different games and techniques help children connect to how their bodies feel as a result of deep breathing. Focus increases, as does their breathing and lung capacity. Stress is naturally reduced and healthy hormones are released.
2. Strengthening and energising
Some may think that yoga is just a type of ‘stretching’ and doesn't really build strength - this is absolutely not true ! Yoga builds strength. By talking about the different muscles used in poses and incorporating games and sequences, we build strength as well as body awareness and coordination. Bodies that are strong are able digest food better, maintain a healthy weight and can support the stress of carrying heavy loads such as school bags. Children who practice yoga are generally better breathers and have strong joints.
3. Balancing
Balancing poses teach children that with increased focus, you can increase attention naturally - that also includes children who sometimes struggle to focus. Various poses and games focused on balancing skills develop an intrinsic strength, evoke a meditative feeling, and promote stillness and a subtle quieting of the mind. This practice can help children deal with the stresses of living in todays society where over-stimulation is a common.
4. Stretching and lengthening
It's great for kids to be strong, but a body that's only based on strength has no way to yield under pressure. Strong muscles without accompanying flexibility can't move quickly, pulling on bones and joints. Yoga poses stretch muscles and through integrating breathing and movement, muscles become warm and become more flexible. They can yield when they need to, and support tender joints in a more functional way.
5. Awareness and focus
Yoga helps create awareness in the body through deep breathing and movement. It gives kids a way to express themselves, build a strong connection between what they hear and what they do. Children who have healthy body awareness are more confident, have improved postures have a sense of quiet strength.
6. Flowing, connecting and integrating
When we string poses together, we give our kids a taste of what it means to move with ease. It also helps them build the awareness that all of our movements are a series of coordinated efforts between muscles, bones, joints and nerves. Older children are more able to isolate different muscle groups and get more sophisticated about movements; things like keeping the arms lifted and straight in Warrior 1, while at the same time, dropping the shoulders to relax them. All these things together increase a child's sense of feeling integrated in their bodies.
7. Meditation, mindfulness and relaxation
Yoga is a mindful practice, so whether a child is holding a balancing posture, lying in meditation or moving through a series of poses, there's going to be a calming, soothing quality to the effort. I take the children on a ‘yoga journey’ which is playful, creative and educational to ensure kids stay interested and engaged throughout the classes.
There are lots of tools we use to teach yoga to children. The younger ones tend to enjoy games, doing poses from yoga books for children and singing songs with big, expressive movements. Older children love to create their own poses, be challenged by balancing and generally enjoy learning about the anatomy of our bodies and breath work.