We know the benefits of yoga as adults, as we age it helps to maintain our flexibility, helps to reduce stress and among other benefits, yoga has restorative impacts on our minds and bodies. Yoga also has many benefits for our children, just a few poses can restore calm and mindfulness.. We have partnered with Jenni Freie, Physical Therapist at OrthoCarolina for a series of articles on yoga and how it can benefit your children. This week we focus on yoga poses to calm children. These poses can be done after school, before homework, as a break during homework, at bedtime or anytime that you find your kiddo is out of sorts.
Yoga can help your child build focus, by paying attention to their breath yoga helps to calm the mind and slow them down. Yoga breathing is something that kids can take with them to school to find calm and focus before exams or when they may be feeling overwhelmed at school.
Yoga offers kids a mental break, when they come home from school where they have been sitting most of the day, yoga offers a mental (and physical break) from the hyper focused setting of school. Yoga offers “white time” time when their minds can go blank and not have to “think” about what’s next or what they have to do.
It gives them a tactic for dealing with stress, as our kids get older, the pressure of school and sometimes life can leave our children with stress that they don’t have an outlet for. Just a few yoga poses can help to release the day to day stress that they feel.
It builds body confidence, yoga shows your children how wonderful the mind and body are and how they work together.
The benefits of yoga for children go far beyond the few we have laid out. Below are the poses that Jenni Freie suggests you start with. These poses are a great starting point and easy for kids of all ages to do.
Table Pose
Child’s Pose Downward Dog
Looking for more information about yoga for yourself? OrthoCarolina has some great articles about yoga as well as detailed directions on the yoga poses outlined above. In the next article we will cover yoga for your young athlete and how it can help with injury prevention.
About Jenni Freie: Physical Therapist
Jenni has developed her expertise in the area of orthopedics through her extensive schooling and continuing education courses. She became a Certified Clinical Instructor in 2011, an Orthopedic Certified Specialist in 2012, Graston Certified in 2013, and gained a Certification in Dry Needling in 2015. Also, in November of 2015 Jenni completed 200 hours of yoga teacher training through the Yoga Shala School.
Jenni’s vision is to provide quality treatments utilizing evidence-based practice and hands-on treatment to allow her patients to achieve their functional goals. She seeks to provide individualized physical therapy services to her patients.
