The younger generations are significantly more health-conscious, environmentally aware, and present in the moment than we were while growing up. As they face more challenging academics, they become increasingly eager to find ways to cope with their studies and enhance their mental capabilities. Such realization helps them acknowledge the importance of yoga for students and how a disciplined practice can shape formative years. Yoga promotes both mental and physical health benefits to boost cognitive health, promote rejuvenation, and adapt to challenging activities.
Children have their fair share of struggles both mentally and physically. At a time when we expect them to be athletic, we must also create a tiny space for them to slow down.
Students are in-between multiple subjects and assignments as they learn mathematics, science, history, and vernacular with the same intensity. As they are juggling with academic schedule between school and home, they also need to unwind and relax.
Yoga helps them discipline their bodies and calm their minds. The age-old Indian techniques help them stay flexible while improving focus nurturing their physical and mental state.
While explaining yoga to a child share the benefits they can extract by putting their bodies through movements that they didn’t know they could do:
Losing focus while trying to learn multiple subjects, especially in a digital era is quite common. Yoga reduces hyperactive behavior that often promotes inattentiveness. Attention spans have reduced primarily after we began consuming short videos, and yoga is a practice that fights this condition.
Mindfulness is the best example to explain the importance of yoga for students. It is a practice to be in the moment and make the most of the present.
From a young age, we are taught to aim high. The life of a student revolves around going from one grade to another to pass school, then going to college, and pursuing higher studies or getting a job. The rat race begins early in life, making the next target the most important one.
Mindfulness, on the contrary, teaches us how every moment is precious and how we can control our minds. It is a visualization practice that improves imaginative skills while we try to articulate our emotions.
While rote-based learning is discouraged students need to have a good memory to grasp subjects. Understanding complex topics requires learning formulas and theories that you can learn, write, and explain.
Yoga improves memory function for both students and adults. Children suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder reportedly reduce symptoms of inattentiveness and hyperactivity after months of yoga and meditation.
Yoga helps us understand our breath and that is the first step to go with nature. Living beings breathe all the time, but only yoga and meditation can bring mindfulness to this routine. Breathwork during yoga makes us aware of this continuous movement and helps us understand how nature works.
Once your kids start doing yoga regularly, introduce them to outdoor spots where they can breathe amidst greenery. Help them connect with plants and explain the interesting relationship with how we inhale what they exhale. These are tiny steps to make them more environmentally aware and live consciously.
As growing adults who have too much on their plates, the mental chatter never seems to stop. Just like in school, they move from one subject class to another, their lives are fast and they have much to do. Stress is an inevitable part of trying to outperform bringing challenges, fear, and procrastination.
Yoga calms their minds and brings them peace. The importance of yoga for students has everything to do with aiding their academic performance, and this is directly linked to lower anxiety levels and sharper cognitive abilities.
7-8 hours in school and 3-4 hours of studies suggest that the majority of the day for an average school goer goes around books. A sedentary lifestyle picks up early due to less movement and longer hours of sitting.
Yoga stretches our body and spending 20-30 minutes doing asanas can keep our weight in check. While sports activities are recommended for growing kids, yoga brings in much-needed flexibility that boosts metabolism and strengthens the core.
Self-care is an underrated skill that students can learn early with the help of yoga. The practice makes us aware of our bodies that reflect through both abilities and inabilities. When we push our bodies towards movements, we are unaware of, they teach us how every part works differently.
Children are often taken care of by their parents and caregivers. But as they grow older, they need to learn how to take care of themselves. Teaching self-care from a young age encourages them to treat their bodies positively and stay away from harmful habits.
Yoga helps us explore how our bodies are the temple that we have been blessed with when we were born. When children acknowledge the importance of their bodies and what it does for them, they are keen on self-care.
A practice that helps us relax, calm our minds, and reduce stress, naturally boosts sleep. While we feel children who don't have responsibilities like adults would have better sleep, they can often be subject to anxiety and depression leading to insomnia. Some children with conditions like Autism Spectrum Disorder, reportedly have less sleep and yoga can reduce their sleep disorders.
Growing kids naturally have more energy than aging adults. But negative emotions can make anybody feel dull and morose. These suck our energy that can be replenished by the right amount of yoga. Practicing specific postures that challenge our bodies can increase enthusiasm for life and uplift our mood. They fill us up with positive hormones that keep us more physically active and don't dull our energy levels.
Practicing yoga makes us nurture our bodies and minds at the same time and that creates a connection like no other. Yoga poses create sensations in our body that are controlled with breathwork as we try to balance both together.
As a school that constantly tries to nurture the lives of every student, we encourage physical activities in different forms. Our in-house gym and outdoor playground are two areas dedicated to physical development for growing kids. But even through these activities, we promote the benefits of yoga and meditation to improve focus and mental wellbeing for our students.
Modern life is filled with digital distractions through laptops and mobile phones that are needed for both studies and recreation. But we discourage overuse that leads to a disconnect among growing kids.
Promoting teamwork through activities that challenge and interest them improves productivity. An activity like yoga brings them closer to nature and appreciate their world around. So, teachers and parents are encouraged to share the importance of yoga with students so that they can bring such activities to their routine.
