CHILDREN'S YOGA AND MINDFULNESS
Yoga & Mindfulness for Children
All children will, at times, have difficulty focusing and managing their emotions. This is often the case for many adults, too - we all have aspects of life that are challenging and that we struggle with. Stress, in particular, is an epidemic in our society and, of course, children are affected by it, too. This can show up in many different ways with children - they can struggle to sleep, lose their appetite or overeat, have tantrums, tears, exhibit irrational behaviour and/or have difficulty with concentrating on their school work.
So How Can Yoga and Mindfulness Help a Child?
Yoga and mindfulness are traditional practices but, despite being many thousands of years old, they have so much to offer our contemporary life, addressing many of the profound challenges of our children’s lives such as overwhelming stress, poor physical health, overstimulation and disconnection.
In particular, they can offer our children simple but powerful practices that can help them to better understand and manage their emotions, reduce their anxiety, stabilise their energy and create a sense of safety and peace in both their body and mind.
I have seen how this works firsthand when I worked in two primary schools in the North West of England and where every week I brought the tools of Yoga and mindfulness to the young children. I taught all age groups from the ages of 5 to 11 and, in one of the schools, I also had a separate little mindfulness group for children who had more specific needs.
"If every 8-year-old in the world is taught meditation, we will eliminate violence from the world in one generation."
Creating A Positive Impact With Yoga For Children In Schools
I was fortunate enough to spend a year working in two local primary schools teaching Yogasana, simple breathing techniques and mindfulness practices to children between the ages of 5 and 11. It was an extremely positive experience with the heads of both schools reporting back that these practices offered the children support and stability.
I was lucky that the schools involved were very forward-thinking and during my time there made the Yoga and mindfulness classes a priority, integrating the lessons into the weekly timetable. Each child was given his/her own mat, the practice space in both schools was quiet and peaceful and the individual year group teachers frequently told me that they used the Yoga and mindfulness techniques back in the classroom, reinforcing the efficacy of the practices.
Teaching children simple stress management techniques and giving them simple tools to help navigate their world in a healthy way enabling them to reach their full potential has been one of the highlights of my teaching career.
If you would like to learn more about Yoga and mindfulness for children and Yoga and mindfulness in schools, please get in touch today.
