Photos: Ashley Avis and her kids @ashleyavisco
Why Start Young?
Most of us discover yoga as adults, but, when practiced from childhood, its silent gifts unfold early. A simple yoga and meditation practice can anchor a child’s emotional and physical well-being, helping them grow into more resilient, mindful adults.
Nurturing Emotional Balance
Young people benefit profoundly from learning to connect breath with emotion. Yoga and meditation open pathways to greater self-awareness, enabling children to breathe through difficult feelings, name them, and find calm in the process.
Easing Anxiety, One Breath at a Time
Stress isn’t reserved for adults. Today’s children face pressures, from performance to peer dynamics. Yoga offers a simple, science-backed tool to help modulate stress responses. Just a few breaths can bring pause, clarity, and emotional renewal.
Movement That Builds Strength: Inside and Out
Yoga’s gentle poses work to ground the body, build coordination, and grow strength without wear. As children move in breath-synced motion, they also boost confidence, balance, and connection to their body.
Growing Compassion and Connection
Movement rooted in mindfulness builds more than muscle—it cultivates kindness. Yoga teaches children, often first through themselves, to hold space—for themselves, for their peers, for their world. Self-awareness naturally blooms into empathy.
Sharpening Focus with Stillness
Yoga encourages children to slow down, hold space, or stay present in pose. These moments of mindful attention aren’t just posture practice—they’re retraining the mind, strengthening focus, and creating a foundation of presence for all areas of life.
How to Get Started
Enjoy yoga as a family with teacher and Manduka ambassador, Desi Bartlett, and her son Rocket. From movement to meditation, these short, heartfelt sessions help you share the mat in ways that connect and inspire.
Yoga for Kids: a 20-minute playful session to move, stretch, and express.
Meditation for Kids: a gentle 4-minute breath-based relaxation to pause together.
Restorative Yoga for Kids: an easy 12-min practice to help balance the nervous system and relax before bed.
A Practice That Grows With Them
Introducing yoga to a young heart isn’t just a pastime. It’s giving them tools for emotional health, embodied strength, and mindful connection. A gift that carries well into everything life becomes.
Looking for more?
Yoga for children with autism: visit here
If you’re interested in becoming qualified to teach yoga to children, check out the approved children’s yoga courses on the Yoga Alliance Professionals website here.
Words by Melissa Albarran, YAP and Manduka.
