VICTORIA TSO

Children’s yoga teacher and founder of Inner Child Yoga School

QMy son is so full of beans we're looking for ways to channel his energy positively and help him to focus on why it's good to relax. I've heard yoga can help – can you advise?

AYou are absolutely right that yoga is a super tool for helping children channel their energy and to help them self-regulate. Yoga not only has physical benefits, such as building strength, balance and coordination, it also improves quality of sleep and is great for children’s mental health. One of the greatest powers of yoga is that, by moving our bodies into the specific poses, we build our mind-body connection and children can let out their energy but also calm their minds. It means that even the bubbliest children are able to really settle into relaxation at the end of practice. There are lots of great yoga classes for children popping up (just check the instructor is properly trained in children-specific yoga) but it’s also great to practice at home. Yoga can be practiced anywhere with little or no equipment – and alone or in a group – this makes it hugely empowering. I recommend teaching children the sun salutation sequences as a warm up. They usually really enjoy these flows, and they help to stretch and warm the body. You can then move on to whichever poses your child enjoys most. Balancing poses such as tree pose and warrior 3 are great options for building focus, while grounding poses such as child’s pose and legs up the wall pose can help children feel peaceful and safe. It is really valuable to share breathing techniques with children, which can also help them regulate their emotions. The wood chopper breath is really easy to do and very energising while the Humming Bee Breath helps soothe the vagus nerve, calming children down. For further inspiration, there are resources over on my website to help parents and teachers share yoga with children. innerchildyogaschool.com