In India, children's yoga has been practiced for centuries; in contrast, western countries, such as Germany, only discovered children's yoga a few years ago. However, it is now experiencing a real boom. Many studios offer yoga for children, some even specializing in kindergarten and school children. But what exactly is children's yoga and what is it actually used for? It has positive influences andwith good exercisesit's a lot of fun for children.
Basically, children are real yogis because they usually don't think much about the future and the past, but are in the here and now. When playing, they often sit on their heels, are naturally agile and, if possible, often run through the forest. With these findings, the question of why is even more pressing.
There are very important reasons, because in times of Netflix and digitalization, children spend a lot of time in front of the PC or tablet, smartphone or TV from an early age. The flow of information is extremely fast and is increasing all the time. In addition, there are demands at school and possibly stress in free time, depending on how parents plan it. Children don't have much time for themselves.
With yoga, children benefit from exercise and relaxation and their own body awareness and motor skills develop positively.Yoga for childrenhelps to create islands of calm. It trains sensory perception and children learn how to deal with emotions. Yoga also increases the ability to concentrate. What is particularly worth emphasizing is that yoga teaches that every child is perfect the way they are. It creates awareness that when children are authentic and follow their own path, they can give the most to the world.
What is strengthened in children?
In addition to the advantages of children's yoga already mentioned, there are many more reasons why yoga has a positive effect on children's well-being. Yoga helps children reduce stress and they sleep better because they can relax more easily. TheMuscles and ability to moveand thereby the body development are improved. Both attention and the ability to concentrate are increased, as is self-confidence. Creativity and imagination are encouraged and the immune system is strengthened. Moods stabilize andYoga promotesalso an improvement in the ability to deal with conflict. In addition, children learn about their own bodies and bodily functions.
Children's yoga not only makes you flexible, because it also supports physical, emotional, mental and psychosocial development. Everything we adults have to work hard for is easily given to children with yoga.
At what age is children's yoga useful?
In principle, yoga can be practiced with babies. Especially because toddlers and babies basically imitate everything that mom and dad do. It corresponds to their everyday life as this is how they learn to speak and their motor skills develop. The exercises do not correspond to the actual meaning of yoga, but it is good for the babies to learn the movement sequences. Baby yoga has been used in India for a long time. It promotes motor and mental development and can be very easily done at home instead of in the studio.
