Yoga is an excellent way to spend time with your family. It allows you to bond with your loved ones by engaging in breathwork, mindfulness, and physical activities together. Aside from being an avenue to bond with your family, yoga also improves a sense of spiritual connectivity, calmness and can serve as a way to have healthy fun. If you’re already practicing yoga individually and want to introduce it to your families, there are some essential ideas you should adopt. You must avoid forcing it on anyone who’s showing resistance to practice with you, especially children. In some cases, a child may have a very short attention span, therefore, cannot concentrate on finishing the task at hand. It would help if you didn’t force the child to continue.

1. Ways to Integrate Family Yoga Practice
Michael Wolfe

2. Introduction
Yoga is an excellent way to spend time with your family. It allows you to bond with
your loved ones by engaging in breathwork, mindfulness, and physical activities
together. Aside from being an avenue to bond with your family, yoga also improves a
sense of spiritual connectivity, calmness and can serve as a way to have healthy fun.
If you’re already practicing yoga individually and want to introduce it to your
families, there are some essential ideas you should adopt.

3. You must avoid forcing it on anyone who’s showing resistance to practice with you,
especially children. In some cases, a child may have a very short attention span,
therefore, cannot concentrate on finishing the task at hand. It would help if you
didn’t force the child to continue.

4. The ideal way to deal with such cases is to ensure your kids see you when practicing
at home. The more you practice, the more the kids will become interested, especially
when they see the benefits. For example, the kids may observe that you are much
calmer after practicing yoga. Testimonies like this would help spur their interests
and make them want to practice voluntarily.

5. Parents can introduce their children to yoga by teaching them some easy poses.
When children start practicing yoga in their early years, it could help them improve
their flexibility, self-awareness, memory, focus, and much more.

6. There are a few yoga poses that are children friendly such as Arda Pincha
Mayurasana ( the dolphin pose), Talasna (the giraffe pose), Vrikshasana (the tree
pose), Bhekasana (the frog pose), or the Virabhadrasana (the warrior 3 pose). Slowly
introducing them to these poses would help them better understand and build their
interests.

7. When practicing yoga with your family, it is essential to make it as fun as possible,
especially when children are involved. Be lighthearted, tell them not to be afraid of
breaking the rules, and don’t try to make them take it too seriously. Although
breathing and safety are essential when posing, it is important to understand that
children need their freedom to adapt to their most comfortable positions.

8. When they make mistakes, it is best not to get frustrated or even act like you’re
displeased. Instead, make the yoga sessions more fun by allowing the kids to express
themselves freely. Kids enjoy imitating the sounds of animals, especially those which
some poses are named after. For example, they might want to croak when performing
the frog pose. It is best to laugh it off when they do, even if meditation and breathing
need a calm environment.

9. Another way to integrate yoga into the family is by practicing partner poses. You can
encourage your family members to pair with each other as it has some special
positive effects. You can start partner poses with easy poses for two people like twin
trees and partner forward fold.

10. When participating in partner poses, you must understand the importance of not
going beyond your comfort zone. In other words, you must stop when feeling like your
body can’t go any further to prevent injuries. It is improbable for both members of
the partner pose to have the same level of flexibility, so it is okay to stop before the
other person as it’s not a competition.

11. Partner poses are particularly beneficial to couples who regularly practice yoga
together. It can help them build a substantial level of trust, physical and spiritual
connection, and communication, all of which are essential to maintaining a
relationship.