Words and Model: Victoria Tso
If you’re reading this, chances are you’re already interested in yoga and aware of its incredible benefits including better connectedness, feelings of calm, increased self-awareness, and of course building strength, balance and coordination. Many of us have established a regular practice, whether through a weekly yoga class, daily self-practice, or a mix of both. But are you sharing yoga with your family? One of the girls in my preschool classes, Willow – aged just three – recently told me “I love doing yoga because I am strong and it makes me stronger and when I get upset and people don’t listen to me I do my yoga and it makes me happy again”. WOW! To be this self-aware at just three is incredible. I happen to know that Willow’s mum practises yoga regularly and encourages Willow to teach yoga poses to
her and her friends. Creating these positive relationships with yoga at such a young age can set children up for a lifelong yoga practice, something they can come back to throughout their lives. But how do we do it? As a specialist children’s yoga teacher I am often asked, even by fellow yoga teachers, how to get children to enjoy yoga regularly, how to encourage them to find stillness or focus on their breath and how yoga can be enjoyed together.
The first thing to do if you want to encourage yoga at home is to let your children see you practise regularly and talk about how it makes you feel. Many of us meet our mats early in the morning before our family’s rise, which is sensible as it means we aren’t interrupted, but try to generate some discussion about yoga practise throughout the day. Once your family have an awareness of yoga you can begin to enjoy it together. Here is a yoga story to accompany the popular children’s book “The Monkey Puzzle” by Julia Donaldson. As you read the story simply make the pose for each animal.
Be the elephant and make yourself as big as you can in star pose. Fold forwards at the hips and imagine your reaching your trunk to the floor.
Start in easy pose, sitting upright with legs crossed.
Be the monkey feeling worried after losing his mum – give your knees a big hug while remaining seated.
Be the butterfly and flap your legs like wings in butterfly pose.
Fold forward and hang like a bat in forward fold. Let your head feel heavy, you could cross your hands or try to tickle your toes.
Balance in tree pose
like the parrot
Be the elephant again in star pose and make yourself as big as you can.
Balance in a yogic squat like a frog – can you hop up your mat?How far can you go?
Be the caterpillar by enjoying puppy pose. Notice how it’s a very different shape from the butterfly.
Be the monkey again giving a big cuddle to his mum.
Yoga stories are a great way for children to learn new yoga poses and really enjoy the process. It’s important when introducing children to new poses to keep the focus on building strength and balance more than flexibility. Children are naturally flexible and teaching them backbends and inversions should be done with great care. There are, however, many poses that children can enjoy safely. You can use a number of resources, including flashcards of child-safe poses to create sequences of poses to enjoy together and to play lots of games with. Hiding cards around the room for a yoga pose scavenger hunt, playing yoga pose statues, or mirroring poses are great games to enjoy as a family. Journaling is another great activity to include in your yoga routine. Giving children time to write or draw and reflect on the things going on around them, set goals, or just doodle can be hugely valuable.
HERE ARE FURTHER FIVE TIPS TO HELP YOU FIND SUCCESS
1
MAKE THE BREATH VISUAL
Whether you fog up mirrors, use a breath ball to lead the breath, make ripples on a glass of water or blow a pom-pom across the dinner table, making breath visual for children is a great way to engage them with it. As they gain more control over their breath you can share other breathing techniques with them. Once children grow confident using their breath to calm them they can use this tool throughout their lives without anyone ever knowing – what an incredible gift to share!
2
KEEP IT FUN
Using yoga stories, games, music and a good mix of activities keep yoga time fun for everyone. There are so many options available so try to tailor them to your child’s interests. IF they love to dance then Yoga Pose Statues is great fun or if they are quite competitive and enjoy challenges, give them balances to work on – can they still do the pose balancing a yoga block on their head?
3
BUILD YOGA IN YOUR ROUTINE
For us as adults too, it’s much easier to find consistency when it’s a part of our routine. Perhaps yoga works well for your family in the mornings, or maybe it’s better as a calming activity before you sleep. When doesn’t matter too much, it’s about what works for you. This said, don’t force it. We all have days when we don’t want to meet the mat and that’s okay, it’s more important to keep a positive relationship with yoga than to always feel tied down by it – while routine helps to build success and consistency, forcing yoga when it doesn’t feel right turns it from an enjoyable activity to something everyone dreads. Also, try not to focus on the clock. If your child practices for five minutes or fifty isn’t the measure of your success – it’s how much your family is enjoying and engaging with you that counts.
4
CHOOSE A TIME WHEN YOU ARE ALREADY TOGETHER.
Instead of calling children away from other activities for yoga try to practise when everyone is in the same space and not distracted with other tasks such as after a dog walk or meal time. Talking about when you plan to practise yoga can help with this as everyone is on the same page and expecting the same activity.
5
MAKE IT SPECIAL
Creating a calm space, or having some particular items which come out only during yoga time can make it feel magical and special. Many families find crystals or singing bowls along with a yoga mat work well to make yoga time feel sacred. If you have a permanent space in your home for yoga, this is fantastic but for many of us it isn’t feasible. Children often enjoy making space, however, so can enjoy setting up for yoga as much as the poses themselves. Challenge them to unroll the mat, place some crystals, shells, or other items from nature, or maybe even smudge the space (with your supervision) for you before you get going. Creating mandalas together which can be hung on the walls can also be a beautiful way to make physical space for yoga. I hope I have inspired you to share yoga with your family, and if you do want to set up a regular practice as a family, you can find free resources on my website innerchildyogaschool.com to get you started. I would love to hear how you get on so please do get in touch to let me know how you’re getting on.
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