A vital part of maintaining overall health is to engage in regular exercise. Exercise can take many forms, and all are good for both the mind and body, but yoga is a form that impacts all areas of health, particularly mental health, in profound ways. 

Typically, yoga is thought of as an exercise for adults, but children can practice, too, and reap the benefits just the same. Here's how yoga can promote mindfulness for kids and how our Calm Kids app can help. 

The Benefits Of Yoga For Adults

The benefits of yoga are seemingly endless. With even a tiny amount of yoga incorporated into your workout regimen, you will improve your overall health and wellness. The Centers for Disease Control suggests adults exercise 150 minutes per week, which can be divided into 30 minutes five days a week. With as little as one workout per week dedicated to yoga, you'll boost your wellbeing.

By practicing yoga regularly, you'll notice your body change in many positive ways. You'll gain strength, flexibility, stability, endurance, and balance. You'll increase your metabolism and maintain a healthy weight. 

Yoga decreases pain in joints and builds and tones muscles, and it even improves cardiovascular health and increases lung capacity. It's excellent for your circulation and will prevent injuries. 

In addition to the physical benefits, yoga decreases stress and anxiety, and it promotes better sleep at night, a combination that leads to better mental health. Yoga improves your self-confidence and gives you more energy. Just 30 minutes of yoga a week will improve your health in countless ways. 

How Yoga Can Improve Mindfulness In Children 

Yoga is not only beneficial for adults; it's great for kids, too. Your child will also gain strength and flexibility, stability, and balance by integrating yoga, but the benefits don't stop there. Yoga is an incredible way to promote mindfulness in kids. 

Mindfulness is a skill, and it needs to be learned and practiced. Children need to learn mindfulness at a young age, as it aids in healthy development and is a skill that will serve them throughout their entire lives. 

Mindfulness requires focus, attentiveness, and thoughtfulness, as does yoga. Remaining engaged in yoga requires focus, alertness, and pushing yourself requires thoughtfulness. When your child practices these skills in yoga, they'll transfer to your child's life beyond the mat. 

Yoga isn't just body movement, though. It also contains intentional periods of meaningful rest and meditation. Children need to be in tune with their bodies and minds to engage in these moments, which takes practice. With regular yoga, your child will get the chance to practice rest and meditation and ultimately increase mindfulness. 

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Benefits of Mindfulness In Everyday Life 

We know yoga improves mindfulness, but why is mindfulness so important? We mentioned it aids in development, but there are specific skills mindfulness can improve. 

Mindfulness helps children listen to their bodies. By listening to their bodies, they can recognize signs of sickness, stress, and anxiety, and on the flip side, know when they're healthy, stable, and happy. Knowing these signs can help them self-regulate and self-care and make decisions that promote a better lifestyle.

Mindfulness aids in emotional regulation in children, too. They can better recognize triggers, remain calm under duress, and heal when wounded. Better emotional regulation will also increase their emotional intelligence, allowing them to better notice and respond to the emotions of others, ultimately helping their social skills. 

Mindfulness also aids in communication. Children must first understand to effectively communicate, especially their feelings, and understanding comes from mindfulness. 

Finally, mindfulness helps self-control. Being present and aware helps all people be less reactive and consider consequences before taking action. Through mindfulness, children can learn to be present in the moment and aware of their surroundings, leading to self-control in all situations.  

How Yoga Transfers Into Other Areas of Life 

In addition to gaining mindfulness, through yoga, your child’s memory and concentration will improve, helping them in school. Their self-esteem will grow, giving them confidence in their physical and mental abilities. 

Your child will become more disciplined and self-assured, knowing they can accomplish tasks and want to do so. Yoga will also encourage self-discovery, self-reflection, and decision-making; this is hugely important in adolescence and beyond.

Yoga will also give your child a better night’s sleep, which is as important as exercise in maintaining your health. A good night of sleep will improve all the skills your child practices during yoga. 

How Often Children Should Do Yoga

So how often does your child need to practice yoga to reap the rewards? While it's unnecessary to give them a strict exercise schedule, encourage them to practice regularly. At least once a week is an excellent place to start. To truly develop mindfulness, your child needs to practice consistently. 

If your child is resistant, suggest practicing yoga together. Seeing you perform yoga will encourage your child to participate, and it’ll be beneficial for you, as well. A healthy child needs a healthy parent. 

There are many types of yoga, too, so try different kinds if you find your child isn’t enjoying it. Once you’ve found the right fit, you and your child will love practicing yoga together. 

Use The Calm Kids App

Now that you know why your child needs to practice yoga, it's time to start. As a parent, you're busy. You not only have the responsibility of caring for yourself, but you also have your child to care for, too. Adding exercise to your child's routine can be difficult, and we want to take the challenge away.

The best way to gain mindfulness is by practicing it, and practice requires modeling. If you're not a yogi, you probably don't know how to model yoga, which is where we come in. Our app, Calm Kids, is a simple way to take the thought out of yoga and make practicing easy. 

Our goal is to improve the mental health of future generations, and yoga will help. Our app makes yoga fun and rewarding, ensuring your child wants to continue practicing. By clicking here, download Calm Kids and help your child learn mindfulness today.