We all love our kids so much that we are willing to do anything for them. As a parent I can’t say enough how important it is that we teach our kiddos awareness of their bodies and how they work. It’s not as hard as you may think. We don’t have to sign them up for a human physiology class or put them into a yoga teacher program. Just encourage them to practice these 3 yoga postures for kids that we recommend. Just by them doing these daily alongside their best friend (You 😉 ) they will start to notice a difference in their bodies all on their own. Having these experiences will encourage them to dive deeper.
Don’t worry if you are a parent new to yoga. The body is a fine tuned instrument. You know when your body is in tune and out of tune. These are simple enough for anyone and everyone.
Posture 1- Yogi Squat- The yogi squat looks silly and allows you to have some fun with movement and expression. Yogi Squat opens up the hips and can bring relief to the lower back. Kids aren’t most likely experiencing tension in these areas yet, but we want to help prevent that from happening. Most adults have a hard time with this one. Just try your best and let your kids feel amazing that they can do it and you can’t. 😆 Remember to try and keep your heels down, chest up and shoulders pulled down and back. Instead of rounding the back, feel the heart open. Try and stay in this posture for at least one minute. Feel free to go longer and enjoy more open hips and less tension in your lower back.
Posture 2- Cat Cow- This is so beneficial to do everyday of your life. Why not develop the habit with our kiddos as soon as we can. We have something called cerebral spinal fluid that flows up and down our spine and up to the brain. It’s the stuff that helps add padding between the brain and the skull and between each vertebra. By flexing and contracting our spine we are not only helping create better alignment in our spine, we are also pumping this fluid up and down our spine and lubricating our spine and getting fresh fluid up to the brain. Come onto hands and knees. Inhale and lift the chin to the sky while flexing the spine down to the ground arching the back. Once you have found your expression of this pose reverse the motion while exhaling- bringing the chin to the chest and pushing the spine to the sky, rounding the back like a halloween cat. Do this for at least one minute and go at a pace that feels best for you.
Posture 3- The definition of yoga is union. In essence everything that unites you is yoga. So for this last posture we are going to try something a little different and offer a way to have fun with it and make it your own. Let’s just come up and start to shake, dance and move. Be silly!! Move the body like you have never moved it before. Imagine anything that can be giving you a challenging day is just shaking off of you and leaving you. Moving the body and getting the blood moving in our body will energize us and help clean the body of toxins. Feel free to put a song on and sing and dance along. Dance with your kiddo, create synchronized dance moves, wear silly yoga pants and just get down. Whatever it is that you choose to move to, just really connect to it and let everything else go. Let your freak flags fly and unite all the parts of you.
Bonus Posture- After all the moving and shaking there is no better time to come into stillness. Come into savasana. Lie on your back, let the feet turn out naturally, hands down by your sides with palms face up and bring your awareness to your breath. You will notice that you can still feel the energy pulsing through you. It will feel like it is literally dripping out of you. Stay in this posture for a minimum of 3 minutes. After lying there for a few mins go ahead and sit up into a cross legged pose and sit in meditation for a few minutes. Perhaps setting an intention in your mind or out loud together. Enjoy the new found clarity. Encourage some journaling afterward. After you guys try these, feel free to give our little guy’s yoga video a try. He was 9 years old when he made this.
Remember never take our word for any of this. Go out and try it. Give it your all. We love you! We want everyone to be able to feel more joy and bliss in their lives. These are just some simple techniques that we have used and had success in our own lifes. It's not about where we are trying to get. It's just about enjoying the journey along the way.