Yoga For All Ages
Yoga For Children:
Practices For Over-Eights:
- Dynamic postures and exercises, such as Sun Salutations and sequences of poses.
- Shambhavi Mudra, which involves focusing on the center of the forehead between the eyebrows, combined with visualization. Concentrating on the forehead helps to balance mental, physical, emotional and sexual developement.
- Alternate nostril breathing (nadi shodhana) induces calm, soothes nerves, and maintains the health and balance of the pineal gland.
- Yoga sleep (yoga nidra) and listening exercises (antar mouna) improve memory. Rotating guided journeys and visualisations while in relaxation tap into the child’s inner world.
- Mantras are soothing, deep-level sounds, which relax the brain and improve memory. It is beneficial to siinf in different languages – sing mantras (sound phrases) or kirtans (simple spiritual songs) to help connect with the subconscious and calm the mind.
- Yantra breathing is a sense exercise that combines breathing and concentrating on a visual source, such as a geometric design, the shape or shade of a flower, or numbers on a blackboard written in different colors of chalk.
- Visualization Exercises. Children who start yoga early are able to see a word, visualizie it, and memoriize it by making a picture in the mind’s eye. This skill can facilitate spelling, reading and other subjects.
Tips To Remember:
- Think of the spine as a vertical column
- Make sure that you breathe freely.
- A practice is a framework for exploration. It is organic, always changing, just as we are, so bring it to life!
- Dynamic exercises are fantastic for kids, keeping them engaged, but do not be afraid to encourage stillness. Kids love Savasana(Corpse Pose).
