Benefits of yoga as a family

Yoga has taken a special place. Because yes, more and more of us practice it, between Hatha yoga, Ashtanga, or traditional yoga. According to a study, many people practice yoga at least once a year.

This figure speaks for itself: yoga postures allow letting go, relaxation, and much more! And in this incredible rise, parent child yoga is taking an increasing place. Thanks to often very interesting prices, these classes combine playful postures and real effects.

But precisely, what are the benefits of yoga for the family? What can motivate a father or a mother to initiate the practice of yoga to their offspring? Here's a short overview of yoga workshops between parents and children!

 

Family Yoga: What changes from traditional yoga?

It's all in the name: family yoga is not individual yoga, practiced alone with a mat in a group class. A family yoga session is therefore different, often in a small group, so as to focus on the right postures, breathing of each person, etc.

This is perhaps the first point: Parent-Child Yoga often provides more attention than a "normal" yoga session. Unless you take a private class, group classes are usually less focused on the proper holding of each posture.

Because yes, here we are dealing with a child, and specific safety rules must be respected, and even more attention must be paid to them. Even if the parent is there, the child himself does not always master the rules of yoga.

Then, family yoga also allows you to discover a new way of understanding the discipline. This aspect, if it can be decisive for the child, will also change the parent's perception of traditional yoga. Because here, it is less a question of doing yoga than of discovering it together.

Between breathing exercises, mindfulness and body to body relationship, yoga with the family is good for everything!

 

 

 

Family yoga: developing complicity

And yes, whether it's yoga, pottery, or judo, practicing an activity with your child creates bonds. It creates, but it also maintains the family flame that reigns between the two. And in this case, yoga has many benefits in itself, from meditation to flexibility.

Working all of this together also creates playful moments, anecdotes that can be told at the Sunday family dinner! Because let's not forget, following yoga sessions is potentially learning together how to reproduce postures and pranayama!

Moreover, when a position that is more difficult than another presents itself, the fact of being accompanied by his father or mother will make the child want to surpass himself, to overcome his fears and his limits, all this to touch an essential point, especially at this age: the pride of his parents. It's simple, but you should have thought about it!

Yoga is therefore a fertile ground to develop one's role as a parent in the best possible way, and to see one's child do well under a kindly gaze. And yes, becoming a yogi can be learned!

 

Family yoga: working as a team

We have just mentioned it, but if certain new postures are more difficult to reproduce, it can have the benefit of developing teamwork. Indeed, the yoga teacher may even build on this duo concept by regularly suggesting exercises where both parent and child are involved.

For example, "The boat for two" or "The flying carpet" are two exercises where both parent and child are involved in real teamwork. For the first one, hands and feet must touch each other, while for the second one, the child is positioned on the parent.

Here, it seems obvious that this will have the effect of making the sense of the team work, and, by extension once again, the family complicity!

 

 

Family yoga: a classic yoga?

We quickly begin to understand it, no, family yoga is not a classic yoga. In reality, it is necessary to quickly qualify this statement: yes and no. Let's start from a simple principle: there is no such thing as "classical" yoga, but there are many different ways to practice it.

But parent child yoga is classic yoga in some ways, since many of the postures are common to those generally known in a session between adults. The movements are just adapted to two physical levels, that of the child and that of the parent.

In addition, we find all the codes of a group class, since very basically, it is a yoga mat, a teacher, and students who listen to it. Note that like any individual lesson, it is possible to take private yoga classes with the family or online, yes!

But how can family yoga be considered as a yoga apart. First of all, it is important to remember that a child is not an audience like any other. This point should be enough to affirm that we are indeed there in front of a rather atypical yoga, which places the technique and the greeting to the sun as more thoughtful.

So yes, parent child yoga is a traditional yoga on paper, but in reality, things can be quite different, and that's quite normal!

 

Family Yoga: a good way to introduce the child to yogic values

Doing a yoga workshop with your child brings a lot of novelty to a family relationship. But it also allows you to share with your child values that may be dear to the mother and/or father: the values of yoga! Because this ancestral discipline is above all based on values, and yes!

These values are materialized through specific exercises, postures to be reproduced in duo, but also breathing exercises, relaxation, meditation. Linking the body, mind and spirit, welcoming the letting go together, trusting each other, aligning one's spine, developing self-confidence, these are the objectives and stakes of family yoga.

A regular practice will allow the child to adapt with more philosophy to daily life, and the parent to take a dose of good energy from this observation. And it doesn't get more complicated than that!

 

 

Family Yoga: retaking control of your body

Whether it is the parent or the child, family yoga allows us to touch each other and to become aware of the power of our bodies. Because, let's not forget, whether it's yoga or any other sport, our body is our engine. It is the one that will allow us to lead a sequence or to do a correct alignment!

Family yoga is generally open to children from a very young age. Thus, from the age of 3, a child will be able to become aware of his limbs, his flexibility, the strength of his arms and legs, all under the encouraging gaze of his parents. We always come back to this pride and complicity that will unite the duo!

The body is a good way to do yoga, especially through mindfulness or meditation at the end of the session. Containing one's impulses, feeling one's belly inflate as one breathes, these are also the stakes of yoga in the family. Children's yoga, or the gateway to refocusing and appropriation of one's body.

It is therefore clear that family yoga is a hobby, certainly, but has many other benefits! It effectively allows the development of complicity between parent and child, to take possession of their body together, or to touch the very values of yoga with their fingers.

This is a positive aspect, which underlines the fact that yoga for all is possible! It finally allows us to relax, to release the pressure that is incumbent upon us, whether we are an adult or a child. So, would you be interested in a family yoga class?