Kids Yoga & Mindfulness - 'Breathing Buddies'

Focus on breathing, Pranayama in Sanskrit, is a fundamental component of any well-rounded yoga and mindfulness practice. However, for young children an instruction to follow the rhythm of their breath can be difficult. This is when a prop such as a breathing buddy can be a useful tool to implement into your child’s yoga practice. Here is my daughter above, practicing belly breathing with her breathing buddy!

Breathing with a breathing buddy is as simple as asking your child to pick one of his/her favorite stuffed animals and lie down on their back with their ‘buddy’ on their belly. Children are then asked to pay attention to the rise and fall of their buddy as they breathe in and out.

The use of a rubber duck or a fish is a variation I like to use for this belly breathing exercise too. This allows you to introduce the component of guided visualization into the practice.

How to do Belly Breath:

• Ask your child to lie down in a comfortable place

• Ask her to place her fish, or rubber duck on her belly

• Ask her to imagine the duck, or fish, swimming in the sea and bobbing up and down with the waves (the rise and fall of her belly).

• Encourage your child to keep the breathing exercise going for a few minutes, until they are relaxed and calm. if they are fidgety or impatient, it is best to try it again later.

• This is a fun, relaxing visual and imaginative exercise for children.

What is important about practicing the mindfulness aspect of yoga with children is to make sure you introduce the practice when they are in a calm and balanced state, not when they’re feeling stressed or they will resist it.

Mindfulness and yoga can be easily incorporated into your daily routine and becomes a handy tool during challenging times of the day such as bedtime. You could make the breathing buddy exercise a part of your bedtime routine as a start, and when the practice becomes familiar, eventually children will be open to practicing the exercise during other challenging situation through the day.

On a final note, in my classes and/or sessions I love to use breathing buddies that have special significance, and that can be related to other aspects of mindfulness such as wishing, gratitude and feeling blessed, imagination and knowledge. My personal favorites are ‘Wishful' the unicorn, ‘Pinky’ the sweet wise owl pictured on her yoga mat below.

I hope you have enjoyed my blog on breathing buddies, and that you try the practice of Pranayama with your child and his own buddy. I would love to hear stories on how it went! To share your experience you can comment below. Don't be shy!

Until next time, don't forget to

Be realistic & daydream often

Ashleigh XO