Yoga benefits for kids | Healthy Life

Have you ever wondered when the babies start crawling and sitting, every pose they do resembles yoga postures. Children body is so flexible and practicing yoga can benefit them in many ways. Yoga, the 5,000-year-old art of fusing the body and mind, is not just transforming adults today. Because of its amazing benefits, yoga for children is all the rage and is spreading rapidly around the world. Children naturally have that flexible body. Yoga helps kids to remain calm and focused in their life.

Some benefits of practicing Yoga at young age helps in:

• Develop body awareness
• Learn how to use their bodies in a healthy way
• Manage stress through breathing, awareness, meditation and healthy movement
• Build concentration
• Increase their confidence and positive self-image
• Feel part of a healthy, non-competitive group
• Have an alternative to tuning out through constant attachment to electronic devices
• Maintains Flexibility and Strengthens Growing Bodies

Some of the solid reasons to put your kids in yoga classes are listed below

1. Flexibility of the body
   Children are born with an innate flexibility and yoga poses help to prolong this gift. Poses like Warrior 1 and two aid in developing strength in their growing muscles and bodies.  Yoga teaches balance in many poses and it helps kids who take part in sports.

2. Enhances Concentration
   Some slow-paced yoga postures like balancing tree, dancer poses helps to learn self-control, enhancing their focus and awareness. Flowing from pose to pose, for example from warrior 3 to standing tree Pose takes great attention—a skill that is essential in most learning environments.

3. Increases Self-Esteem and Confidence
   When a child displays great strength, focus, and flexibility in Yoga, it does wonders for their confidence. A successful crow Pose or side crow pose yields poise and power, which leads them to believe in and pursue their true abilities.

4. Teaches Present Moment Awareness
   Yoga teaches how the body and mind are inter connected  and  how we should be aware of our selves. When children are engaged, focused, having fun, and following a yoga lesson, they are in the present moment. This self-awareness of both body and mind helps children to be cautious in any situation.

5. Cultivates a Peaceful, Relaxed State of Body and Mind
   All yoga classes conclude with a quiet time, also known as Shavasana or deep relaxation pose. Teachers will teach how to bring calmness in each organs step by step and helps in whole body relaxation while we are still aware of our surroundings.  Even if just for three minutes, children learn to understand the importance of this peace and can carry it with them into their daily lives.

6. Gives Tools for Stress Management
   Yoga helps the body and mind to reduce stress. Practicing yoga provides kids an immediate outlet to reduce stress in a safe and nurturing environment.  Yoga is a challenge for our own body and everyday we try to do a yoga pose better. When we do yoga we are not in competition with anyone. Yoga teaches non-judgment and non-competition toward oneself and one another. This prepares kids mind to face any challenges in life.

7. Creativity and Imagination
   Many times kids yoga teacher can bring  themes that are fun and engaging like “Jungle Safari.” When children are exposed to this creative opportunity, to make up their own yoga poses to fit with the theme it inspires them to be free, creative, and self-expressive.

8. Encourages Kind Peer and Social Interactions
   Yoga teaches children that we are all the same inside, despite our outward appearance, race, and religion. We all have bodies that function, hearts that love, and feelings that feel.  Yoga inspires kids to be kind, patient, accepting, and emphatic with themselves and their peers.

9. Teaches Discipline and Responsibility
   Daily practicing yoga brings discipline in kids life. Once they understand the challenge and benefits of doing yoga they will discipline themselves in not only practicing Yoga but also in other fields of life. This is taking responsibility for their action, helping others, staying composed and understanding the social responsibilities. When they learn that yoga takes practice versus an immediate accomplishment, they learn and accept that life is a path with good days, bad days, and everything in between.

Image courtesy: http://vtphysicaltherapy.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/10297891_464404297025295_3324349245708703342_n.jpg