Interest in yoga has never been greater, with elite sports people from David Beckham to Rafael Nadal including yoga in their training programmes whilst well-known celebrities from Jennifer Aniston and Jake Gyllenhall through to Davina McCall have established yoga practices. However the huge rewards of yoga – both physical and mental – are increasingly being acknowledged as having a positive effect on children’s fitness, ability to focus and high stress levels.
According to research carried out by Mumsnet (October 2009) pre-school children are one of the most stressed out age groups! At first sight, this seems unlikely but closer examination of the life of many children – with its diet of TV advertising, computer games and poor nutrition – suggests that children’s wellbeing and mental health is being undermined by the pressures of modern life. In essence, children’s lifestyles are often so sedentary that they’re not physically active enough.
There are few physical activities that small children can actually do better than grown-ups and yoga is certainly one of them! Their natural flexibility and energy mean that they can do yoga postures that many adult yoga practitioners have spent years trying to achieve, and in some cases can only dream about! Breathing and warm up techniques help children to focus whilst the posture work strengthens and tones their bodies. Relaxation and visualisation techniques help concentration and improve sleep patterns. Small children need no incentive to become superheroes, scary snakes and ferocious lions – their imaginations just kick in. By going on an adventure with your child, you too get to experience what is so magical about being a child for an enchanting few minutes.
The YogaBugs blog contains lots of ideas for yoga inspired activities you can do at home with your kids – http://www.yogabugs.com/blog. We publish our blog posts on our Facebook page – http://www.facebook.com/YogaBugs. For media enquiries, contact [email protected].
