Yoga has seen a significant surge in popularity over the past few years, with a 300% increase in participants over the last decade. More than 10.7 million people in France have practiced yoga at least once in their lives. This trend accelerated during the pandemic, with nearly 3 million new practitioners joining in.
While yoga remains a discipline primarily practiced by adults, it is increasingly making its way into the lives of children—at daycare centers, schools, and more recently, at home during the lockdown. This is especially good news in these challenging times when children's routines have been disrupted: homeschooling, canceled extracurricular activities, and reduced social interactions with friends. Our children are also susceptible to stress, and we are still learning about the long-term effects of these disruptions on their growth, development, and mental health.
As an excellent stress-relief remedy, yoga is becoming a go-to practice for children. However, this ancient discipline offers many other benefits:
1. Muscle Strengthening and Flexibility
Children’s yoga improves the musculoskeletal system and helps prevent common orthopedic injuries. It enhances posture, flexibility, and helps prevent back pain, which can appear during puberty. This is particularly important given that 20 to 50% of children complain of back pain, often due to poor posture, heavy backpacks, lack or excess of physical activity, or being overweight.
2. Motor Skills Development
Studies have shown that yoga positively impacts motor skills. During a yoga session, children improve their reaction time, planning, execution time, and motor speed.
3. Body Awareness and Control
The balance and focus required to perform various poses in sync with breathing help children better understand and control their bodies in space. Performing asanas—or poses in Sanskrit—requires precise placement of each limb, allowing children to discover their bodies more with each session.
4. Stress Reduction and Relaxation
Meditation and yoga stimulate the release of well-being hormones by reducing cortisol levels and boosting the secretion of serotonin and endorphins. Children relax while having fun, and this calming effect also contributes to improved sleep.
5. Enhanced Concentration
The various poses demand a great deal of concentration. Through stories or music, children will learn to focus their attention and better channel their energy. For older kids, who are constantly distracted by screens, improved concentration will enhance their learning abilities.
6. Boosted Self-Confidence
Practicing yoga requires concentration, determination, and willpower to maintain control over the body and perform the poses. This practice helps build self-confidence in children as they achieve new milestones.
7. Mindfulness
Mindfulness involves focusing on the present moment and being aware of what is happening inside and outside without judgment. While practicing meditation with young children can be challenging, regular short practices can quickly show benefits such as improved concentration, relaxation, kindness, and awareness.
There are many resources and tools available to help you introduce yoga into your children's lives. Younger kids will enjoy games, duo practices, stories, and music, while older children may prefer practicing alone or with friends to deepen their knowledge of the poses.
As parents, being involved in our children's well-being and development is just as important as their physical health, and yoga is an excellent way to contribute while enjoying quality family time together.
"Yoga is the journey of the self, through the self, to the self." — The Bhagavad Gita
