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. The opposite of a mindful life is a life lived on auto-pilot, trying to do too many things at once, rushing through life and never stopping to appreciate it. Of course, we all strive to avoid this kind of life. So how can we use yoga to enable our children to live a more mindful life?
How can yoga promote mindfulness for children?
Our YogaBugs classes naturally support and encourage mindfulness for children in many ways, including:
1. Focus on the breath
Our Children Inspired by Yoga classes offer plenty of opportunities for children to focus on the breath. This could be through breathing techniques. This mindful focus on the breath relieves anxiety and gently brings our awareness to the present.
2. Specific poses & activities to promote mindfulness
Our classes include activities and poses which are designed to promote and encourage a mindful state of awareness. These include, but are not limited to the following poses and activities.
3. Balance
Yoga develops and nurtures balance. Both physical
balance through practice and emotional balance in our lives.
Balance poses in our classes require focus and concentration.
For most children, simply standing on one leg in tree pose will require their full attention. In doing this, they will necessarily be fully present not only in the moment but in their own body. What could be more mindful than that?
4. Acceptance of self & others
Our classes offer a safe space for all. There is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ and everyone’s unique talents are celebrated. Often it will take time and practice to accomplish a particular pose (however we always offer adaptations and alternatives). Children, therefore, learn to accept that they cannot execute that pose just YET. Children also learn to accept that others can do things that they can’t (YET) and vice-versa. This acceptance of the present and awareness of their physical selves is an important element of mindfulness.
5. Self-awareness
In our YogaBugs classes, we discuss our feelings without judgement. Sometimes we feel shy, sad or angry and these are just as valid as happiness, excitement and confidence. YogaBugs experiences all these feelings during weekly adventures with the children. After all, to live a full life, we must experience the full spectrum of emotions. Children even learn to use animal yoga poses to physically communicate their emotions (for example mouse pose when they are feeling shy).
6. Visualisation through story-telling
“Your senses are your window to the world; you experience life through your senses… if you think about it, every sensory experience is so rich on its own. There is a unique quality to each of your senses.”
YogaBugs takes the children who attend our classes on a different magical adventure every week. Each adventure encourages the children to use their imagination to visualise their surroundings (jungle, forest, beach, pirate ship). Children are encouraged to think about all their senses to make the adventure truly come to life (smell the fresh sea air, hear the seagulls calling, taste the salt spray of the waves, feel the rough wooden planks of the deck, see the blue of the sky).
By drawing attention to each of the senses in our adventures, children begin to adopt this mindful habit in everyday life.
7. Meditation & relaxation practice
Practicing mindfulness advocate relaxation as a tool to support mindfulness:
“Both meditation and mindfulness happen in the NOW. They happen in the present moment. When we are tense, our minds are tense as well… Therefore, we must relax our bodies and minds to get the best results from meditation and mindfulness.
It’s integral. It’s crucial.”
At the end of each of our classes, YogaBugs and the children relax withy visualisation and deep breathing, as they reflect on the adventure that they have just been on together. This mindful breathing is one of the simplest forms of meditation, aiming to completely relax the body, mind and soul.
