Yoga to Improve Children’s Mental Health
Emotional Regulation for Kids
As mental health and mindfulness continue to gain popularity, the practices of yoga, mindfulness and emotional regulation need to extend to children. Sharing these powerful energetic techniques with kids has the potential to create a new wave of presence that our children so desperately need right now.
In a world full of video games, competitive sports, bullying, high expectations, school pressure, and social media addictions, yoga offers a moment for kids to slow down and calm down. Yogiful teaches embodiment, emotional regulation techniques and self awareness in a way that most children may have never experienced before.
Kids yoga has the potential to positively impact our youth by equipping them with awareness, emotional intelligence and healthy coping mechanisms to face the challenges of modern life.
What would happen if all children learned emotional regulation and mindfulness tools before learning the alphabet?
Childhood Depression and Minority Mental Health
We are experiencing a worldwide mental health crisis, especially as it relates to our youth. 1 in 5 children ages 13-18 have, or will have, a serious mental health illness.
LGBTQ kids and youth of color disproportionately struggle with the children’s mental health crisis in the USA and worldwide. 10.6% of youth in the U.S have severe major depression. Among that, the highest rate of severe depression was 14.5% of youth who identified as more than one race.
According to Mental Health America, “the disparities in mental health treatment for youth of color is saddening. White youth are the most likely to receive treatment and asian youth are the least likely to receive mental health care. Youth of color with depression, particularly Native American or American Indian, multiracial, and black youth, were most likely to receive non-specialty mental health services in education settings. To create a healthier communities, and to better serve students of color who may only receive menthol health services in educational settings, schools need long-term financial support to build sustained and sufficient school infrastructure.”
From the latest Project Thrive report, 54% of LGBTQ youth are battling symptoms of depression, compared to 29% of non-LGBTQ youth.
Shockingly, more than 60% of youth with major depression do not receive any mental health treatment whatsoever. Studies show that yoga has an immense capacity to improve children’s mental health. Furthermore, inclusive yoga provides a safe space for kids of all colors and identities to practice emotional regulation, mindfulness and play, together.
Yoga to Improve Kids Mental Health
At Yogiful, we know that kids yoga and mindfulness have the potential to help kids maintain a healthy mindset, and navigate the stresses of modern life. We are in a time where emotional regulation techniques and mindfulness practices are essential in day-to-day life. Teaching children yoga and mindfulness to children has the potential to expand their capacity for emotional intelligence, sense of self and overall wellness from an early age.
We all have the power to help - by offering children the tools and resources that they need to keep a healthy body, mind and spirit.
Benefits of Kids Yoga
Kids yoga is a playful activity that has students giggling, cooperating, and gaining compassion for themselves, their peers, and the world. Yoga is a non-competitive practice that can increase confidence, compassion, and emotional regulation while leaving participants beaming from the inside out.
The Yogiful experience is like an imagination-filled roller coaster ride. Sometimes we are acting like a helicopter flying to a magic garden and sometimes we are relaxing our central nervous system through emotional regulation practices.
Whether the kids are giggling uncontrollably while rolling around acting like their favorite animal, or calming their central nervous system through guided relaxations on a rainbow, kids yoga is sure to bring more peace and fun to all participants.
Some benefits of kids yoga include:
Allows children to gain confidence
Awareness of self
Improves attention
Improves balance
Increases strength
More patience
More compassion
Reduction of stress and anxiety
Posture
Non-competitive sport
Emotional regulation
Supports a health immune system
Increase positive body image of self
Awareness of how to care for our body
Sensory awareness
All body types can do yoga
Calms the central nervous system
Helps increase brain development
Helps executive thinking in prefrontal cortex
Helps respiratory system
Helps keep a healthy gut
The list of benefits go on and on, but more than just a list of benefits, kids yoga has the potential to create lasting positive effects in the hearts and minds of our youth.
Leaders of Tomorrow
Children are the future leaders of our world. I hope that those leaders are the mindful and compassionate trailblazers that we so desperately need. We need visionaries who are confident problem solvers, equipped to solve the issues in our world that continue to come to the surface.
We need future leaders who can meet these challenges with the grace, excitement, and presence needed to make executive level decisions that will also promote social good.
The old patterns aren't working. The best investment we can make in this world is with our youth. All children are our children. It is time we start acting like it.
Join Yogiful in improving kids mental health
Yogiful teaches yoga, mindfulness and emotional regulation techniques to children, in order to build tomorrow’s future leaders into compassionate, conscious and confident stewards of community.
Are you with us?!
Join our Kids Yoga programming, our Kids Yoga Teacher Trainings, or visit our online resources for kids yoga to learn more.
