Why Yoga is good for Kids?

My six-year old son loves to do the cobra pose. Ever since I started practicing yoga I make a constant effort to develop an interest in my son for yoga. There are innumerable benefits of yoga. There are countless benefits of yoga apart from just flexibility. Yoga helps in focusing on a task along with increase in confidence.

Many children are naturally flexible, while others are not, yoga helps in increasing flexibility by allowing a child to gently stretch the muscles. It stretches the soft tissues, ligaments and tendons. Some other forms of exercises create violent movement of the muscles which leads to fatigue. But yoga if done with proper breathing and relaxation will not cause fatigue. In yoga you will have to hold a position for long so automatically it helps in strengthening and toning the muscles.

Holding a pose, concentrating in breathing in and out and chanting ‘Om’ helps in improving the concentration of the child. It helps in developing attention span and also makes a child discipline. By doing yoga a child learns to live in the moment.

Good breathing is emphasized in yoga. While children are not ready to do pranayam, but a little bit of breathing in and out improves a child’s lung capacity and they breathe better. Children are made to relax consciously during yoga. Yoga helps to relax. It is a huge stress buster. It helps in releasing physical tension of the kids. Yoga helps in improving your inner self and it is not competitive like sports.

Yoga has benefits from flexibility to concentration and it is good for peace of mind too. Encourage your child to practice yoga.