The Benefits of Parent & Child Yoga
Why should parents and children do yoga together?
Since the very start of running my adult yoga classes parents have asked, can I bring my child? Most children want to come out of curiosity. Where is it that Mummy, Daddy, Granny etc is going on a Tuesday night and what are they doing? Some children also do yoga in school, so they know what it is and enjoy it. I have allowed children to come to my adult yoga classes with their parents and its been a joy! I love seeing kids enjoy themselves with family. In fact, this joy was the main reason I trained to be a Mini Me Yoga Ambassador.
To begin let’s review the benefits of Mini Me Yoga:
- Joy – the main aim of Mini Me Yoga is to bring joy to children. I think we can all agree we want our children to be as happy and joyful as they can be.
- Positive Thinking – Mini Yoga helps children harness the power of positive thinking. As adults we all know how easy it is to spiral down a path of negative thinking if we’re having a bad day or if something goes wrong. Mini Me Yoga gives kids the skills to use the power of positive thinking.
- Managing Big Emotions – everyone struggles to manage their emotions – even us adults! But Mini Me Yoga can help children process and manage those big feelings in different way. Allowing them to express themselves when maybe they don’t have the words.
- Improves Confidence and Self-Esteem – low confidence or self-esteem can start early on in life and is something a lot of people carry through to adulthood. Once its deep set it’s a hard rut to get out of. Mini Me helps children build their confidence and carry it through life.
There are many more benefits to Mini Me Yoga – you can check them all out here!
So now we know the benefits of Mini Me Yoga, lets delve deeper and see how doing yoga together can benefit children – and their parents.
- Healthy habits – Mini Me Yoga develops skills that can last a lifetime. As I said above, confidence, emotional management, positive thinking. These are all things both children and adults need. Doing Mini Me Yoga together helps your child build these skills, use them in everyday life and set them on a path to life-long healthy habits. Additionally, the benefits aren’t just linked to children – parents are just as likely to benefit too!
- Setting a good example – We all lead busy lives, between children, work, hobbies etc we’re always running around somewhere. Most children know that their parents are busy people. By setting aside time to do Mini Me Yoga together you’re showing children that mental wellbeing is important and something to take time to care for. It takes 66 days to build a habit. Setting aside that Mini Me Yoga time (just 15 minutes!) will help your child build there mental wellbeing into their daily routine – maybe even for life!
- Spending quality time together – As I said above, we’re busy people and our kids are pretty busy too! School, hobbies, clubs, sports! Sometimes it can be hard to find something and some time to do things together. Mini Me Yoga can be a great, short activity you can do together. Plus, its age appropriate for all children and can be adapted to suit any ability. Its something you can do as a family with all your children. I bet your pets will get involved too! Cats and dogs love yoga!
- Connecting – Finally, connecting! Mini Me Yoga promotes making eye contact with everyone that your doing yoga with at the beginning of the session. This says to a person, ‘I see you’, ‘I acknowledge you’, ‘I respect you’. Often, we don’t make eye contact, with our children or with other people. This connection is really positive and can have a great affect on the relationship between you and your children.
I hope you enjoyed this blog and are inspired to do some yoga with the children in your life!
Sophie x
PS – in the Caerphilly area of Wales? Want to learn more about Mini Me Yoga and how you can use it with the children in your life? Come along to my Graduate Training Day. Saturday 7th December at Firefly Yoga Studio (NP11 7HZ)
Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/406161756734012/
Website: https://www.fireflyyogawales.co.uk/mini-me-yoga
Telephone: 07875739478
Sophie Davies
