5 Ways to Practice Yoga with Your Child
Many yogis come to the mat each day looking for a peaceful retreat from our busy, pressure-filled lives. We’ve discovered that we can only access our best selves when we take time each day to slow down, be present, and reconnect with our inner selves.
Kids feel that too. They are impacted by today’s highly stimulating hustle culture and can benefit from a yoga practice of their own. In addition to providing a time and space to wind down and balance the nervous system, yoga offers many benefits for kids, like increased strength, balance, flexibility, coordination and body awareness. Yoga also helps children build self-confidence, lessen anxiety, learn healthy emotional regulation, enhance concentration and develop a greater sense of connection to themselves and others.
Your inner narrative may be questioning your child’s attention span or feasibility of attempting a calming practice such as yoga, and this is a common misconception. Yoga comes in all shapes and sizes and just takes a little creativity and exploration on the parent or teacher’s part to discover what activities resonate most for your child.
Additionally, yoga is so much more than the asana, or yoga poses. Below you’ll find five different practices you can try with your little ones.
Breathwork
Teach your kids that breathing is one of our greatest superpowers. It’s kind of like the gas pedal on our bodies - when we take slow, deep, steady breaths, we can slow our bodies down and feel more calm.
My two favorite breathing techniques for kids are Rainbow Breathing and Heart Breathing:
Rainbow Breathing is quick, easy, and great for a moment of heightened emotion. Instruct your child to breathe in and out as he waves his arms left and right in the shape of a rainbow. By connecting our breath with our body’s movement (a foundational yoga principle), we can calm our nervous system and come back to balance.
Heart Breathing requires a bit more time and patience, so introduce the concept the first time when your child is feeling calm. Lying down, have your child rest their hands on their heart. Play some relaxing music and invite your child to imagine that their breath is coming in and out of the center of the heart. Encourage them to feel their body slowing down with each long, steady breath. When they’ve reached a calm place, consider inviting them to imagine that they’re sending love and kindness to someone they care about with each outward breath.
The book “Breathing Is My Superpower” is a great addition to your child’s yoga library to help teach ways we can regulate our emotions with our breath.
Mindfulness Practice
Turning off the tech and simply tuning into each other may be all the medicine you need, but here are a few of my favorite mindfulness activities that help soothe the mind and body.
Take a Yoga Walk together - let go of any set expectations or destination and just wander, tuning into things you’d normally glance over - like the ornate patterns on a leaf, an intricate spider web, or a well-constructed bird's nest. You may want to bring a basket with you so you can collect the treasures you discover along the way.
Create a Sound Journey for your child by putting together a playlist of sounds that they can identify. In my child yoga classes, I like to choose a theme - like the ocean - and string together 10 ocean sounds - a whale breaching, seagull squawking, wave crashing. Have kids lie on their yoga mats with eyes closed so they can really tune into each sound. Zeroing in on just our sense of sound is a great tool to quiet the stress response.
Here’s a Forest Sound Journey to get you started!
Yoga Poses
Get playful with the poses - wag your tail in downward dog, hiss in cobra, flap your wings in butterfly. Your child may only have the patience for one or two poses and that’s worth celebrating! The goal isn’t a 60-minute flow. Rather, we’re hoping to infuse moments of yoga throughout the day - a mountain pose in the morning to stretch out the sleepies, a downward dog in the afternoon to reset the nervous system, and a child’s pose with a soothing back rub at bedtime.
Mountain Pose (Tadasana) is a great pose to do when the aim is to feel sturdy and grounded. Here’s how to instruct your child into the pose:
Stand tall and imagine you are lifting the top of your head to the sky.
Let your arms fall to your sides and turn your palms forward.
Breathe steadily in and out and stand strong like a mountain.
Tree Pose (Vrksasana) is an excellent balancing pose for beginners. Start by holding your child’s hands until they feel comfortable in the pose. When they’ve found balance, slowly take your hands away - even if just for a moment.
From Mountain Pose, find a spot on the wall to focus on.
Slowly begin to lift your left foot and place it on the inside of your right leg. *Avoid placing it on the inside of the knee - higher or lower is fine.
With all the weight in your right foot, imagine there are roots growing down from it, holding you firmly into the earth.
Slowly raise your hands up like branches on a tree. What kind of tree are you? Do you live in a forest or on the beach? What color leaves do you have?
Try it again with the other leg.
Cat + Cow Poses are a great way to warm up the spine at the start of the day.
Come to all fours on your hands and knees (tabletop).
For Cat Pose, arch your back like a cat does when it’s stretching. Tuck your chin and look at your belly button. Look over one shoulder and say “meow” to a cat friend. Now look over the other shoulder and say “meow” to another cat friend. Can you wag your kitty cat tail?
For Cow Pose, let your belly fall down toward the mat, lift your chest, and look up at the ceiling. Say “moooo!”
Cobra Pose (Bhujangasana) is a gentle beginner backbend for children and it opens the heart, stretches the abdomen, and strengthens the spine.
Lie on your belly with legs stretched behind you.
Place your hands next to your shoulders on the and gently press them into the ground to lift your chest, shoulders, and head off the mat.
Squeeze the legs together and imagine they are one long snake tail.
Look up and hiss like a snake!
Downward Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana) is a fun first upside down pose that feels playful while also calming the nervous system.
From tabletop, spread the fingers wide and press your hands into the mat.
Curl your toes under and lift your hips up and back. Try to straighten your legs and press your heels into the mat, but only as far as feels comfortable.
Wag your doggy tail and consider amping it up a notch by lifting one leg up at a time, to make a three-legged pup.
Butterfly Pose (Badakanasana) is one your child may already know from gym class or an after school activity.
Sit down on the mat and sit up tall to lengthen the spine.
Bring the soles of your feet together to create butterfly wings with your legs.
Hold your feet with your hands and move your knees up and down to flap your butterfly wings. What color are your wings? Where are you flying?
Bring your hands up to the head and use your fingers to make antennae.
Boat Pose (Navasana) builds core strength and balance.
Sit down on the mat with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor.
Lean back slightly and bring your arms straight out in front of you.
Slowly lift one leg up and then the other. It’s okay if your boat tips over, just turn it rightside up and start again.
Once your legs are lifted, squeeze them so your boat feels strong.
Now row your boat while you sing “Row, row, row your boat.” What kind of boat are you? A sailboat? A canoe? A speed boat?
Child’s Pose (Balasana) is the perfect place to turn down the noise and access a sense of calm. Teach kids they can “come home” in this pose anytime they need to.
From tabletop, lower your hips to your heels.
Stretch your arms forward and lower your forehead to the mat.
Close your eyes and breathe slowly in and out. If your child welcomes it, rub his back in big circles to encourage a state of relaxation.
Tip: Let your child help pick his or her yoga mat - there are so many cute designs out there that make getting on the mat more fun.
Gratitude Ritual
Positive psychology research shows there’s a direct association between gratitude and wellbeing. When we cultivate a mindset of gratitude, we’re able to see through a more positive lens, tuning into the positive parts of our lives rather than the negative. Here are two gratitude ritual ideas - whatever you choose, try to stick with it because the more regularly we practice gratitude, the more automatic and subconscious it becomes.
Find the WOW in your day - During dinnertime have each family member share a bright spot from their day.
Play the gratitude ABCs - Take turns stating people and things you’re grateful for to all the letters of the ABCs.
Silly Games
Yoga isn’t always meant to be serious. When your kids are feeling extra wiggly, skip the breathwork or poses and jump straight into a game of Yoga Freeze Dance. Put on an upbeat playlist with your family’s favorite tunes and dance around the house. When the music stops, pick a yoga pose and freeze! For an added challenge: try to balance in the pose for 10 full breaths and then start again.
I hope these ideas are just what you need to get your family on the mat!
Namaste.
By Hannah Price, Holistic Wellness Coach and Registered Yoga Teacher.