How To Introduce Yoga To Your Child At An Early Age?

As your child enters into his or her primary school years – the level of stress increases. And the stress inducers can be the exam pressure, the homework tension, competition in sports – to get selected in the favourite team. So how do you as parent help your child deal with all this stress that can mindboggling for him or her.

Well, you can introduce your child to age-old technique of busting stress – yoga.

How Will Yoga Help Your Child Unwind & Stay Relaxed?

Yoga with series of series of deep-breathing exercises and meditation, help in calming the mind thus making your child aware about his or her surroundings and resulting in enhanced concentration skills, strength and flexibility. The child learns to handle the stress positively and thus stay calm, cool and collected during stressful situations like exams, and selection processes that may trigger stress in him or her.

How To Introduce Yoga To Your Child From An Early Age?

Here's how you can introduce yoga to your child from an early age.

1. Make it fun: While keeping the basic essence of yoga that is discipline and concentration introduce some fun elements in the session. You can do so by asking your child to close her or her eyes and to imagine things he or she wants to achieve in life
2. Be organized: Pick up a suitable time to begin the yoga sessions with your child. You can start with warm up, some fun poses that your child will enjoy, have fun playing a few games and end the session with some breathing exercises or meditation. Whatever you do, make sure to add some fun in it or your child will get bored in no time. In addition, don’t extend the session for more than 15 minutes and gradually when you feel that your child is getting interested in the session, increase the sessions by 5 minutes till you reach 30 minutes
3. Alternate places: Doing yoga in the same old places will not attract your child which is why you can bring some fun here. You can take your child by the beach and engage in yoga by the bay or simply go to the park during the weekends and do yoga amidst nature with fresh air to breathe and your child can go back to playing once the session is over. Your backyard or garden will also be a good place to engage in yoga sessions with your little one
4. Be simple: You need not introduce any hardcore techniques to your little one as he or she will only mess them up. Keep your session simple in which your child can perform the various methods with an ease while he or she also needs to have fun learning them. Going overboard will only have his or her interest worn out
5. Meditation and deep breathing can be fun too: Ask your child to count his or her breaths as he or she breathes in and out. This will keep your child engaged positively and will try to outnumber you as well. If you can involve your child’s friends as well so that he or she has a company while practicing yoga

Teaching your child to breathe and flagging off the sessions with basic and simple poses will ensure that your child retains interest in yoga and make it a habit for life. You need not force your child to be regular, but can engage in it every alternate day to keep with the flow. The best way to ensure that your child stays interested in yoga and motivated during the sessions, is by practicing with him/her rather than making him/her engage in the task alone.

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