The Mental Benefits of Yoga for the Developing Mind of a Child

The Mental Benefits of Yoga for the Developing Mind of a Child

Children today are more stressed out than they’ve ever been in any other generation. There are a variety of disorders that begin at an early age that no young person figuring their way out in the world should have to deal with. Research suggests that yoga has the potential to help children cope with stress and regulate their moods. This is due to the mind training you do which creates an emotional balance. These are important tools to have as you develop during younger years.

Yoga helps to develop the mind and strengthen the body. The expectations and stimulation of today can potentially be counterbalanced by kids doing yoga on a regular basis. This can help with any present conditions or prevent them from occurring at all. The mental benefits for the developing mind of a child occur indirectly through yoga. Certain yoga poses can help with cognitive memory, clarity, and concentration. When this starts at an early age, it promotes greater intelligence and better mind management skills as a whole.

• Yoga Helps Children Deal with Their Lives

A child’s life is full of distractions. They may be tempted to do things that shouldn’t do to peer pressure, and they are overstimulated. Many educational systems are implementing yoga to try to counteract this. It doesn’t cost much and they are given helpful tools to manage their lives at school.

• Yoga Encourages Nutritional Health

It doesn’t matter how old you are, we often eat for emotional reasons. Emotionally driven foods will often be full of sugar, carb heavy, and full of fat. Yoga helps kids to develop body awareness. They are more likely to target their emotions instead of going to the cookie jar. They are more apt to going for the apple instead.

• Yoga Builds Concentration

Certain yoga poses will promote the blood to move the opposite ways. For example, an inversion will get the blood to move in the opposite direction. This is good for promoting better concentration. Researchers have found evidence that yoga affects neural patterns in the mind which are responsible for concentration and how well you focus. When children have better concentration, they are more capable of listening to what they’re being taught. As yoga helps a child to be aware of what’s going on in their body, they can use this with the education of the mind also.

• Builds Confidence

Part of any learning process includes socializing. Children that have a hard time playing with other kids are possibly lacking self-confidence. Yoga promotes a healthy self-image because children can feel the strength it takes to hold yoga poses. They become more aware that there is a deeper aspect of themselves. Street smarts are just another type of mental development. It is equally as important to know how to communicate as it is to learn school curriculum. This type of learning should occur early in life for kids.

• Reduces Anxiety

Learning while a child suffers from anxiety is much more difficult. This is because they can’t concentrate and will have a hard time remembering what they’re been taught. Yoga reduces anxiety that may be preventing a child from developing mentally. Rumination can often cause anxiety because this emotion comes from fear. Fear comes from thinking about what might happen. Yoga poses, breathing exercises, and meditation helps us to look at what we’re thinking about and how it affects us. When we can look at the monkey mind, we have a better chance of overcoming whatever anxious feelings come up.

• Balancing Poses in Yoga Improves Focus

Balancing poses will help kids to hone their focusing skills. It becomes quite apparent that you’re not concentrating fully when you’re in a yoga pose and fall out of it. The simple act of balancing and staring at a point on the wall teaches kids how it feels to focus. This becomes natural once the feeling is there. There are games that can be incorporated into yoga for children that helps to increase balancing skills.

• Yoga Promotes Creativity

There are plenty of fun games that can be created within a yoga practice for kids. Big expressive movements and singing are all a part of it. Older children can create and name their own yoga poses. This helps to expand the mind for greater creativity.

Yoga helps improve cognitive functions at a cellular level. Stress is reduced, body awareness becomes more prevalent, and memory is improved. Through the physical exercise of yoga, the body becomes stronger and so does the mind. Having children do yoga at a young age will help with mind development, paving the path for success and fulfillment in their future.

Guest Article.