Yoga gives children a safe space to relax, breathe, and just chill out. Our job is to provide a calm and safe environment where kids can let the stresses from school, home life, and other growing-up-struggles melt away.

Not only does yoga help children while they are practicing, but it also teaches kids healthy coping mechanisms like calming themselves through meditation and breathing techniques. Parents can use these techniques at home.

Yoga is a perfect outlet for extra energy! Our class usually starts off with a sharing circle, followed by a lot of physical movement and activity and then ends with a meditation or reflection session to get them ready for the rest of their day. Yoga always makes kids laugh and smile.

Kids yoga develops great social interaction skills by using games and activities to keep children engaged during class. These activities encourage cooperation and compassion. Not only do children learn valuable social skills, yoga is a great way for kids to make new friends or participate in a healthy activity with their buddies.

Yoga encourages children to explore how they are feeling, what emotions come up in their practice, who they are and how they feel in certain situations. By exploring these feelings more in depth at a young age, children learn to be aware of themselves and their emotions and are more likely to develop better ways to identify stress and cope with it. Yoga promotes self-confidence by instilling healthy values in children, especially about themselves. Yoga teaches kids to appreciate WHO they are and HOW they are different and special- each child is a unique little human being with different brilliant qualities. Yoga allows children to explore this and encourage kids to be proud of who they are!

Yoga itself requires a certain amount of concentration which children develop with practice and as they grow. Yoga can give kids a great mental release... just a break from all the thoughts, worries, and exciting things happening inside their brains. This helps to improve focus and concentration at school.

Kids yoga is one big fun, happy, group. Each child is encouraged to be different and creative and whatever they need to be that particular day. There is no judgement in yoga- we are silly, we are loud, we are quiet, we do LOTS of things! Kids yoga is very accepting of different ideas and ways of doing things... as long as it benefits our bodies and our friends

All yoga classes conclude with a quiet time, also known as Deep Relaxation. Different from napping, this is an all-time favorite for yoginis of all ages. Called the "Do Nothing Pose," children relish lying on their backs in quiet, peaceful stillness, sometimes with music and a guided visualization, foot massage, or an herbal eye pillow. Even if just for three minutes, children learn to understand the importance of this peace and can carry it with them into their daily lives.

Practicing yoga provides kids an immediate outlet to reduce stress in a safe and nurturing environment. It is a physical exercise that produces happy endorphins. While breathing exercises slow down the heart rate, relaxation techniques are powerful sources for calming the mind and the body. Yoga teaches non-judgment and non-competition toward oneself and one another. These are all tools that a child can carry in to any difficult life situation.

Yoga teaches children that we are all the same inside, despite our outward appearance, race, and religion. We all have bodies that function, hearts that love, and feelings that feel. Partner yoga poses allow children to fully understand this concept of oneness by working together. Yoga inspires kids to be kind, patient, accepting, and emphatic with themselves and their peers.

Yoga poses vary from balancing, strengthening, twisting, back bending, and inverting. All of these poses have the ability to teach a child about their body. Yoga teaches children to listen to where in their bodies they feel a movement and express how it makes them feel when they are complete. Body awareness is an invaluable tool for all stages and ages of life.

Yoga is not a destination; rather it is a journey of a lifetime, which takes discipline. Ideally, when children learn at a young age the benefit of a committed practice, it ripples out into their everyday life activities, relationships, and responsibilities. When they learn that yoga takes practice versus an immediate accomplishment, they learn and accept that life is a path with good days, bad days, and everything in between.

Yoga helps develop fine and gross motor skills in addition to building strength and flexibility- important steps for growing kids!