Go back to Articles menu

Benefits of Yoga for Children

Mind

Body

Spirit

Overall

Yoga is a unique ancient healing art from the East, a non-competitive form of exercise, which can be safely children of any ability.  All yoga postures can be modified, recognising everyone is different.  During a child’s formative years, it is important to build self-esteem, self-awareness and strengthen the mind and body.  Yoga teaches children about how their bodies work, from which they may develop a common sense of the body as a foundation for well being throughout their lives.  Children practicing yoga learn to channel their energy into positive activities.  The child’s mind, often over-stimulated by television, computer games and the hectic pace of today's lifestyle, benefits greatly from the focus and gentleness of yoga practice.  Most importantly, children practicing yoga develop a respect, appreciation and desire to take time for healing the body, mind and spirit.  The result is a stronger body, increased self-confidence, calm mind and uplifted spirit

Yoga was developed in India over 5,000 years ago and was created to teach the joining together of mind, body and spirit, which serves to create harmonious, balanced, responsible human beings.  Yoga is not a religion. 

Hatha Yoga can be thought of as the art of balancing and integrating the opposites that exist within every one e.g.  sun-moon; male-female, yin-yang, positive-negative, left-right, inhale-exhale, aggression-submission, push-pull.  

It is a system of breathing techniques and postures designed to strengthen bones, stretch muscles, massage internal organs, improve blood circulation, and develop flexibility of the joints, tendons and ligaments.  Yoga also has a regulating effect on all the systems of the body, including the nervous system, the endocrine system, the circulatory respiratory system and the lymphatic system, aiming to produce optimum and natural functioning of the whole body.

The stretching and relaxation aspects of yoga are a perfect way for children to begin enjoying exercise.  Every child succeeds as each child can improve and do what is right for his or her own body.  Many yoga postures imitate animals or things found in nature, for example, the tree or flower postures, cat, cobra or lion.  These stimulate a child's sense of creativity and imagination. 

Four categories of postures enhance physical and neurological skills.  There are lying down, seated, standing, and inverted postures.  Within each category there are also back bending, twisting, balance and forward bending postures.  Each posture has health benefits. The balance postures work to enhance concentration and focus, learning how to clear the mind from outside influences for a moment, helping children to learn more easily. All the posture work develops strength, flexibility and coordination skills, which can improve ability in other sporting activities whilst also reducing the risk of injury.  Through the practice of weight bearing yoga postures, growing banes are strengthened and the range of motion in the joints is increased. Because yoga helps to regulate the hormone glands naturally, the emotional roller coaster children often experience during adolescence can be smoothed.

The traditions, methods and styles of Hatha Yoga are many and varied, but all seek to strengthen the body, quiet the mind, open the heart and lift the spirit.  Hatha Yoga teaches everyone how to be present in each moment, how to bring mindfulness, intention and whole-heartedness to everyday life.  This is what Louise aims to bring to each class, along with a little exercise, adventure, creativity, imagination and fun!