What are the benefits and is it REALLY for children?
Greater Good Magazine defines mindfulness as: “maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment, through a gentle, nurturing lens. Mindfulness also involves acceptance, meaning that we pay attention to our thoughts and feelings without judging them — without believing, for instance, that there’s a “right” or “wrong” way to think or feel in a given moment.”
Children tend to live naturally in-the-moment. However they can sometimes worry about future events (starting school or nursery for instance). Mindfulness can therefore be a great tool for relieving this anxiety and practicing and developing this tool only benefits children as they move through life.
Top 4 benefits of Mindfulness Yoga for children:
1. Stress reduction through breathing.
When practicing yoga, you aim to focus on and control your breath, which helps you to be present in your yoga practice while also focusing on the present moment rather than all of the thoughts that can flood your mind.
There are many, child focused, exercises to learn about controlling your breathing and noticing your thoughts. A great example of this is Cosmic Kids Yoga’s Be The Pond. By giving children the understanding of how to notice their feelings, without becoming them, with practice “being the pond” becomes a powerful tool to begin to process their emotions without reacting.
Cosmic Kids Yoga has a great range of materials on mindfulness and yoga available on their website and youtube channel. a post titled Five Fun Breathing Exercises for Kids with ways to teach kids how to breathe deeply and focus on the breath.
2. Exposure to mindfulness/meditation.
Mindfulness is achieved by focusing awareness on the present moment while acknowledging other feelings and releasing them. When children are focusing on their breaths and poses, they are able to release other thoughts and simply focus on the present. Mindful breathing is a form of meditation, which is a wonderful relaxation method.
3. Promotes a healthy body.
Practicing yoga helps to stretch and strengthen the body as well as improve balance and coordination.
4. Provides confidence building
As a child practices yoga and sees and feels changes, such as mastering a new pose or being able to hold one’s balance longer, confidence is fostered and a sense of achievement is felt.
Super Star Sport are passionate about getting children fit, active and healthy both physically and mentally. We strongly believe mindfulness yoga can be extremely beneficial to young children and give them important tools to manage their feelings such as stress and anxiety.
Through fun, engaging and imaginative sessions, children explore their thoughts and feelings while stretching and strengthening their bodies.
We are proud to be offering all nurseries, early year settings and primary schools a free mindfulness yoga workshop delivered by one of our fantastic staff. We will also give you a free session plan so teachers and staff can continue to deliver the session. To book your free session, please email info@superstarsportda.co.uk and we'll take care of the rest.