Research has shown that practicing yoga and mindfulness can provide many benefits for children, both physical and mental. Yoga can help advance endurance, strength and balance. It has the ability to improve focus, memory, self-esteem and classroom behaviour as well as decrease levels of anxiety and stress.
Yoga can be a great way to create a positive morning routine, but yoga paired with mindfulness and meditation techniques is also a wonderful way to help children wind down and relax at night before bed.
Mindful & co kids have developed a simple evening yoga routine that helps children release energy and wind down.
Half an hour before bed, we want to wind our children down to a place of calm and quiet, helping them to fall asleep quickly and rest well through the night.
Some great yoga poses and practices that help to induce sleep, release energy and calm the mind are:
1. Crescent moon pose
The crescent moon stretch can trigger pandiculation (the stretch equals yawn instinct), helping to induce sleep
2. Lotus and/or Cloud pose
Lotus or Cloud, with eyes closed, are both great meditative poses that help children slow down and relax before bed
3. Om Chant
The Om chant can be a great practice to help children release energy before bed. Let the sound rise from the belly and out of the mouth
Here at the Forest Folk we sell several products developed by Mindful & Co Kids that can encourage and assist our children to enjoy and participate in mindful activities. Perfect for introducing this evening routine are the Yoga Flash Cards and Yoga Mats which we have in two different, beautiful prints.