Teaching Yoga to Children

Most adults take yoga classes not only to improve their posture and flexibility but also to reduce the stresses they encounter in their daily lives. Adults, yes? But children?

When children take yoga, it is mostly for fun and exercise. Children are quite flexible, particularly in their younger years so teaching them yoga from as early as 3 years old will likely teach them the value of exercise and also body-awareness. Besides that, children these days are more stressed than ever. The competition seems to be greater. The work load seems to be heavier. It is for these reasons that some concerned parents enroll their children in kids’ yoga classes to help them relax.

Children’s yoga differs from the yoga we are used to in that the atmosphere takes a somewhat younger vibe. These are children, after all. Yoga teachers may employ visualization techniques in order to help their children better do the different poses or to help them understand what each pose is for. Knowing what they are doing also helps them relax as they go into the moment of doing the said pose. The kids get their fun while doing something that benefits their body and eases their stresses.

Another benefit of yoga for children is that it helps them focus and develop self discipline, and even self confidence. Parents are using yoga to instill in their children such traits, the same way martial arts did for their generation. I’ve heard several yoga instructors say that it is really special to teach yoga for children because it differs from adult classes in such a way that children are still unhampered by the dictates of society and are thus able to relax more, breathe deeper, and generally exhibit what yoga is really about.

As adults taking the usual yoga classes, maybe it pays to visit some kids’ yoga classes for a while and see what could be perhaps yoga in its pure form, one where when you’re posed as a cow you really are a cow, or a lotus when you’re posed as a lotus. It is that creative and innocent trait in children that could teach us a thing or two.