How Yoga Helps Reduce Stress In Children
Child stress can be present in any environment that requires the child to adapt or change. Signs of stress in children often manifest as physical or behavioral changes.
It is important for parents to recognize the signs of childhood stress and look for possible causes. Likewise, you need to take the right steps to help your child reduce his stress and anxiety levels. Yoga practice is one of them.
Stress in childhood
Stress can be a response to a negative change in a child’s life. Although small amounts of stress can be good, if it is too much, it can affect the way he feels, acts, or thinks.
One of the problems when it comes to understanding stress in children is that we adults do not understand it, since many overwhelming events that we can handle with relative ease are capable of causing stress in a child. As a result, even small changes that at first glance are unimportant to us can affect children’s feelings of safety and security.
Although it is not always easy to recognize stress in children, we can find clues when short-term behavioral changes occur, such as mood swings, bad behavior, changes in sleep patterns or enuresis.
In addition, in some minors, stress also has physical effects, such as stomachaches and headaches. Trouble concentrating, sudden poor school performance, becoming withdrawn, or spending a lot of time on your own accord are other signs that your child may be experiencing stress and anxiety.
Other signs that can indicate childhood stress are the acquisition of new obsessive habits, such as thumb sucking, nose picking, hair play, lying, defying older people, or being intimate with younger children.
Yoga to reduce stress in children
One of the great benefits of yoga is its ability to make those who practice it more predisposed to deal with stress. This works at all ages, therefore, also with children. The difference is that with minors the practice adapts to them to make it more interesting.
The problem is that many parents believe that their children will not be able to complete a session due to the nature of yoga practice. However, this is unfounded. Even the most active and negative children may find the practice of this discipline interesting.
The key to introducing yoga to children is to do it gradually and with exercises and activities adapted for them. Through exercises, stories and songs, the little ones are able to enter the practice of yoga and discover its most basic fundamentals and enjoy them.
One of the most important elements why yoga is successful at all ages is due to concentration on the breath. Having the opportunity to breathe slowly and deeply sends a calming signal to the brain. Soon the children learn to value this state and are carried away in the session.
It should be noted that several studies support the benefits of yoga practice in childhood, even in school itself. For example, a 2018 study published in Psychology Research and Behavior Management claims that participating in yoga and mindfulness activities at school helps students who show anxiety improve their emotional health and well-being0.
When it comes to childhood stress …
If toxic stress is not controlled in children, its negative consequences can become a lifelong problem. A child who is experiencing high levels of stress will suffer physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, and academically. Yoga offers a simple solution to the problem of stress in the little ones. It is probably not enough, but it will help improve the matter.
A yoga practice that includes breathing techniques, behavioral guidelines, and physical postures can be of great value to children, especially those facing emotional, social, and physical challenges or conflicts.
In addition to improving many physical qualities, such as balance and concentration, yoga will help you concentrate and focus, improve your self-confidence and self-esteem, and strengthen your mind-body connection.
