Youth Yoga Practice
To help your child develop their own at-home yoga practice, help them pick at least one item from each category in order! Begin by reminding them that yoga can help: change your day with positive thinking, deep breathing and moving your body keep you healthy, and practicing rest resets the nervous system.
Centering
1. Activate the sense of touch and color awareness through playdoh time, “calming bottles” or coloring.
2. Connect with the body through self-massage, wiggling part-by-part, or making figure 8’s with the joints.
3. Marching! Add swinging opposite arms to wake up both sides of the brain.
4. Pinwheels! Slowly “smell the flower” and “cool it off”, wave it slowly through the air, or spin it with fingers.
5. Check-in How are you feeling today? What’s on your mind? What could you use right now? Body sore?
Breathwork
1. 3 deep breaths: breathe in through the nose, out through the mouth – very slow and quiet.
2. Lion breath: inhale and scrunch up the face and hands, exhale and open the eyes, mouth, tongue, and hands!
3. Bee breath: inhale slow and quiet, exhale, and HUM as long as you can - letting the next breath come naturally.
Poses (hold single poses for 3-5 breaths, and repeat 3-5 times)
1. Sun Salutation (if they forgot, play Kira Willey’s “Sun Salutation” song on YouTube)
2. Cat (on hands and knees, inhale spine curves head/tail up, exhale spine arches with belly up and head/tail down)
3. Warrior 1-2-3 (lunge facing forward, lunge sideways, and balance on one foot)
4. Rabbit to Pigeon (1 - sit on ankles, head on floor, hands clasp behind back and lift arms up to make the rabbit ears. Then 2 – release arms, bring head/torso up, and slide one leg back so sitting on just one ankle. Both sides
5. Windmill (stand legs wide but stable, fold at the waist and let hands come to floor. Inhale and twist spine to right, raising the top arm. Return to center on the exhale. Inhale and twist to left. On round 2, hold each side for 3-5 breaths.)
6. Butterfly (sit on the mat, put your feet together and let your knees open and lower to mat. Hands hold your feet and your arms and spine straighten. “flap” your knees if you like!
Meditation/Relaxation
1. Lie on your back, knees bent, feet on floor. Place a rock or toy on your belly and watch your item move up and down with your breath. Try not to control the breathing or movement, but just watch. Don’t let it fall off! Rubber ducks work best J
2. Lie on your back, knees bent, feet on floor. Close your eyes and imagine a rainbow above you – watch the colors swirl around you.
3. Lie on your back, knees bent, feet on floor. Close your eyes and imagine you are in your favorite, save place – real or imaginary. Breathe light into your body. Imagine you find a gift just for you!
4. Listen to a guided meditation on YouTube! Parent search for “kids guided meditation” and listen to it before they do (because you never know with YouTube…)