Although yoga is usually practiced by adults, children of all ages can also easily do it. Children yoga is in fact, any yoga form that has been adapted in order to fit children’s needs. Therefore, this form of yoga takes into consideration all of the particularities that every age has and adapts its routines and its postures in order for children to be able to practice them in a safe manner. Although yoga can practically be done by all children, regardless of their age, the only limitation that it has is that children cannot be attentive at the same thing for a long period of time. This is why yoga classes for children incorporate all types of interactive games and pose meant to retain children’s attention until the end of the session. While different practices such as meditation suit best children of 12 or older, different games can make yoga suitable for even younger children. All in all, the central purpose of yoga for children is to stimulate their emotional, physical and mental abilities, which on the longer run can be rewarding for them. Moreover, yoga can also be successful if it is being used as a therapy form for children with mental or physical conditions.
There are a lot of reasons for which children should be introduced to yoga at an early age, but the main one is represented by the fact that this way they can be introduced to a healthier way of living. Although it might seem strange for some people, even babies of only 3 weeks can start doing yoga with the help of their mothers. Babies can be part of their mother’s routines and they can also be massaged in traditional yoga ways, which in turn can help them with digestion. As they grow older, children can be taught gradually how to do certain asanas by their own. However, children yoga classes are more focused on introducing to them yoga basics and not on making them memorize routines or asanas or forcing them to make these perfect. Basic self-control lessons, breathing techniques and relaxation techniques are other focusing points of yoga classes for children.
There are numerous health benefits that children can take advantage of if they follow yoga lessons. These include concentration improvement, headache reduction, and even obesity rate reduction. In addition, there are a lot of studies that showed that children suffering from autism can also somehow improve the way they are feeling by systematically doing certain yoga postures and breathing exercises. Balance, flexibility, and strength can also be improved during yoga sessions. Children suffering from mental disorders can benefit from yoga as well, as this can teach them how to calm on their own. Children suffering from post-traumatic stress disorders, depression, dissociation symptoms, anxiety or avoidant and intrusive symptoms can also be helped by yoga, as this has the ability to relaxing them and determining them to feel less stressed. Yoga can help disabled children as well, as this can realign and stretch the spine, relax nerve pressure, release muscle tension, lengthen the vertebrae space, ensure a better movement range and improve coordination.
As children yoga classes usually involve simple warm-up sessions, breathing and relaxation techniques, simple postures and re-awakening techniques, there is no reason for not enrolling your own child into one of this classes. The movements children are taught to do during these classes are gentle and do not pose difficult problems to them, being easy to imitate. Children yoga can also prove to be a lot of fun, as it usually involves songs and games that children like. In addition, the fact that children’s bodies are a lot more flexible than those of adults can make yoga even simpler for them, although the poses that they are taught during yoga lessons are not difficult at all. All in all, yoga classes can represent a great extra-curricular experience for your children and a healthy way to spend part of their time.