User- Friendly Guide for Parents and Caregivers
I have incorporated yoga poses into my teaching practice for many years. I’m not a certified yoga instructor, but I am currently training to be an instructor for Kundalini yoga. My point is, we - as parents and teachers - can incorporate yoga and mindfulness practices into our children’s daily lives without official training.
Yoga cards are a wonderful resource for learning the art of sharing yoga and mindfulness with the children in our lives. The cards are fun and user-friendly, and designed to make it easy to share and practice with children. It also gives us an opportunity to connect and gives children a tool that they can use on their own at any time.
Although all yoga activities can provide a variety of mind-body benefits, depending on the deck you purchase, there may be different benefits highlighted. My favourite yoga cards are titled:
“Yoga for Children, Yoga Cards.” Link to purchase is below.
This deck has 8 main benefits, these include:
1) Balance: Supports development of a focused, connected mind and body
2) Calm: Soothes the nervous system while encouraging mindful awareness
3) Connect: Supports parent-child bonding, connection, and community-building
4) Empower: Encourages mental and physical confidence
5) Focus: Cultivates ability to pay attention and concentrate
6) Restore: Encourages rest and rejuvenation
7) Strengthen: Promotes physical strength
8) Stretch: Supports flexibility
I love this deck because it gives you different ideas, games, and activities with step-by-step instructions. They are also full-color and include easy-to-follow visual guides. In my experience, the kids love these cards! They have fun doing the poses and they don’t even realize they are learning to be more confident, resilient, and calm.
It’s so important to have fun with your yoga time. Try keeping it relaxed and playful - this will help your child stay engaged and wanting to continue to learn the practice with you.
Yoga cards are available to purchase in many different places! I got mine from Indigo, but I have also seen them on Amazon.
There are many different resources out there to help our children and youth manage their challenges - whether that’s building relationships, worry, fear, low self-esteem, stress or anxiety. It’s up to us as parents and caregivers to use these resources so we can provide our children with the strategies needed to help them thrive in today’s world. Mental and emotional well-being are so important!
Teaching them yoga and strategies from my book, “Empowering our Future,” are all wonderful tools to help build resilient youth! These two resources are a wonderful way to start! My book is available to purchase through Amazon and Kobo. There’s also a direct link on my website at:
Until next time…strike a pose!