Yoga Play With Kids by Tara Stiles

Kids can benefit from yoga, but let’s be honest, it’s great for the caregivers too.

Little ones are great teachers. They reflect back how we are and what we are teaching them. Playing Yoga together can be a wonderful practice of taking better care of yourself and setting lasting habits of self-care together. It’s important to have an encouraging mindset and remember yoga is about self-discovery, not what you can and can’t do. With practice we can do more, but the real gem is how we feel along the way.

Us grownups lose our sense of play so easily and get fixed on what we can and cannot do. Isn’t it wonderful that we can play yoga together, gain confidence, awareness, a sense of connection to yourself, each other and the world in a very real and grounded way? 

It’s great if you create time for yoga with your little ones that is a fun sense of play. An easy way to start is to do something simple like a tree pose yourself and ask your little one if they want to try it too. You can hold hands, support each other, and sway in the breeze. A call and response style can be nice for encouragement. Doing yoga together gives the little ones more assurance that they have a buddy and can see you succeed and wobble a bit and know that it’s ok for them to do their best and intuitively learn that self-discovery is the goal.

Using each other for balance in a boat pose is great fun also and builds a nice sense of confidence. You can always have a big finish to your session with a flying yoga pose party. My main suggestion would be to improvise, enjoy and create your own routines with the movements you enjoy most. Yoga can be like learning the alphabet. Once you know the letters you can start to put it all together and be creative. Remember, yoga works best when it feels like you. Enjoy the ride and remember you are the magic.

Tara Stiles is a wellness expert, bestselling author, and the founder of Strala Yoga. The Strala approach combines yoga, tai chi, and Traditional Chinese and Japanese Medicine to help people release stress, heal, let go of negative habits, and move more easily through everyday challenges. Tara’s bestselling books, which have been translated and published in multiple languages, include Strala Yoga, Make Your Own Rules Diet, Yoga Cures, and Slim Calm Sexy Yoga, and she has been featured in The New York Times, Vogue, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, Esquire, and Shape. Tara’s work has been used in a case study by Harvard University, she is a sought-after speaker on topics of entrepreneurship, health, and wellbeing, and she has lectured at venues that include Harvard and New York University. Tara works with The Alliance for a Healthier Generation, an initiative with the American Heart Association and the Clinton Foundation that combats childhood obesity, in order to bring Strala classes to more than 30,000 schools around the United States. She also supports the BOKS program, which delivers Strala classes and wellbeing resources to educators across North America. Her newest book, Clean Mind, Clean Body: A 28 Day Plan for Physical, Mental and Spiritual Self-Care (Dey Street Books), was released December 2020. Follow Tara @tarastiles