[Physical]

Yoga is an all-round incredible practice that benefits your mind, your body and your soul. It can help you to discover peace within yourself, enhance your physical fitness, and improve your mental health and wellbeing.

Encouraging your children to give yoga a try at a young age is an amazing way to help them develop into happy, healthy young adults! Within reason, there is no age too young to get your child into yoga, and there are several very basic poses and stretches that you will be able to flow through with them.

If you are unable to take your child to a yoga class, then practicing at home is also a good way to introduce them to this spiritual activity. The following poses are perfect for getting started. It is a good idea if you do the pose first and then your child can follow suit!

Downward Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana)

This is one of the most common poses for yoga practitioners regardless of their age. It is a great connecting pose between other more complex poses, but can also be held on its own.

To get into this pose you must start on your hands and knees on the mat. Tuck your toes in, lift your buttocks up, and create a triangle with your body. Push your chest forward and allow your head to hang down. You may bend your knees slightly if required. Ensure you keep your feet firmly on the ground as you hold the pose in this position.

Downward Facing Dog is great for getting the blood flowing around the body and will also help your child to develop their balance and stability.

Mountain Pose (Tadasana)

Tadasana is amongst the simplest of the yoga poses and requires more concentration than it does physical ability.

All you have to do is place your feet firmly on the mat with your shoulders relaxed, and feel the crown of your head reach up towards the ceiling. Make sure you balance your weight equally between both feet and hold your hands in prayer position in front of your heart.

Mountain Pose is great for lengthening and strengthening the body, and can help to increase awareness and posture. It is also a good pose to help children focus on their breathing, as they are not distracted by trying to hold themselves in position as they may be with other more complicated poses.

Cobra Pose (Bhujangasana)

Begin by lying down with your chin on the mat, your belly down and your palms flat on the mat beneath your shoulders. Your legs should be together. Squeeze your thighs and buttocks and bring your head and chest up away from the floor without relying on your arms to do so. Keep your elbows tucked in to the sides of your body and push through your palms into the floor.

Cobra pose is great for stretching the muscles in the shoulders, chest and back. It improves flexibility and boosts the mood. Cobra pose can also help to reduce stiffness in the lower back.

Maintaining Healthy Habits

Yoga is an amazing way to enhance both your physical and mental health, and is therefore very beneficial to encourage your child to embrace. However, some yoga poses can be quite challenging and the key is to have fun and bond with your child. If they are struggling to hold a pose then you should always encourage them to exit the pose and try again.

As you continue to practice yoga together it will be exciting to see how you both progress, and how you feel the benefits in other areas of your life!

[Creative]

Yoga and meditation are two practices that go hand in hand. Even if you have only dipped your toe into the yoga pond for a single session, then the chances are this will have incorporated at least a short period of meditation. You will therefore already know how beneficial this is!

There are many benefits of meditation for the mind, and you certainly don’t have to be a yogi in order to meditate!

Whether you choose to meditate on your own, or to participate in a group meditation, the advantages of doing so in terms of your mental health are not to be overlooked. Even finding just five minutes each day to meditate can help you to slow down, process your day and alleviate any negative emotions and feelings that may be present.

Stress Relief

Giving yourself permission to focus only on the present moment by embracing a moment or more of meditation is an amazing way to combat stress.

Studies have shown that meditating can change the way that your brain and body respond to stress. This has an incredible knock-on effect on how prone to depression you are, as well as helping you to maintain a more positive disposition.

The science behind this potential for changing the response to stress is that meditation affects the parasympathetic nervous system. This is the system within the body which is responsible for releasing hormones and controlling the heart rate.

Mindfulness

Being able to train your mind to live in the present moment is beneficial for many reasons. First of all it can better enable you to know yourself, as you will become more aware of the things that you think and feel. You will turn auto-pilot off and act with intention.

 Secondly, it can help to turn the volume down on those thoughts and feelings that you didn’t invite in in the first place. This means you can pay attention to those things that will actually serve to enhance your happiness.

Additionally, mindfulness can increase your self-awareness and improve your attention span, helping to boost your productivity – whatever that means to you!

Alleviating Anxiety

Meditating has been shown to alleviate symptoms of anxiety, and can help to create a calmer and more peaceful mindset.

People who struggle with anxiety disorders often turn to medication in order to help them manage their condition. However, it is being increasingly shown that meditation could be a much more natural way to treat the issue. Meditation and anti-anxiety medication can also be used in conjunction in order to enhance the relief sought.

Ready to Meditate?

Whether you are freshly inspired to give meditation a try after reading this article, or you had already been thinking about it for a while, then there is no reason that today can’t be the day you get started.

You can click here to browse our range of activewear to find something comfortable to wear. Creating a comfortable and peaceful area where you can meditate uninterrupted is the second step. This will more than likely be in your home somewhere, but you can also choose to meditate outside if the weather is being kind to you!

Begin with simple five minute meditations where all you have to do is sit and focus on breathing deeply in and out. Keep your mind clear and try to keep your attention solely on your breathing. Once you have mastered the art of staying still and remaining present for short periods, you can begin to build your meditative practice. As you continue to do so, you will soon notice the benefits to your mind and other areas of your life!

[Spiritual]

Keeping your energy levels consistent throughout the day is often an impossible challenge! With busy schedules and endless to-do lists, there often isn’t enough time to get as much as sleep as you need, or prepare super healthy meals to adequately fuel your body.

When you feel that slump coming on, there are several simple but effective things that you can do to refresh your mind and rejuvenate your body. And, yoga is close to the top of that list!

The following yoga poses are great in their own different ways for enhancing your energy levels and keeping fatigue at bay.

Bow Pose (Dhanurasana)

This is an invigorating pose that opens the heart and energises the body. When you enter the pose, you will be naturally stimulating your nervous system, which prompts you to become more awake and alert. Because of the movements involved, this pose is especially great for those who have desk jobs. It stretches the entire front of the body, whilst also strengthening all of the muscles in the back.

To get into this pose you must first lie flat on your mat, stomach down, with your hands resting on either side. You can then bend your knees and bring your heels close to your tailbone. Try to keep your knees hip-distance apart.

Reach both of your hands back to hold onto your ankles and then lift your heels up towards the ceiling. Lift your thighs up away from the mat, and your head and chest will naturally follow.

Push your tailbone firmly into the mat as you move deeper into the pose by lifting your thighs and heels further away from the floor. Your shoulder blades should be pushed firmly towards your back, and your shoulders should be away from the ears.

Focus your gaze in front of you as you breathe deeply in and out for ten counts. As you hold this pose, you will expel stress, anxiety and fatigue from the body! After your ten breaths, lower your thighs back to the mat slowly and release your entire body back down to lying flat again.

Headstand Pose (Sirsasana)

Inversions in yoga are perfect for stirring up the nervous system and pushing the mind into action! When you practice Sirsasana, your circulation will be kickstarted, and you will be empowered by the accomplishment of being able to hold the pose – what better way to wake yourself up!

If you are new to yoga, and aren’t comfortable doing this pose yet, then it’s important to build up to it gradually. First learning to do an L stand against the wall will be super helpful.

In order to do this, you must come onto all fours, with your heels touching the wall. Keeping your shoulders over your wrists, you can then bend your body as though you are about to enter Downward Dog. With your body in position, you can then bring your feet up the wall, making sure to keep your knees bent.

Once you are comfortable in this position, you can straighten your legs so that your body is at a right angle to the wall. In order to maintain your shape as you hold this pose, push through your feet into the wall, engage your abs, and try to keep your shoulders away from your ears.

Once you have mastered the L stand against the wall, you can then straighten one leg at a time up towards the ceiling until you feel like you have the strength and coordination to fully enter the Headstand Pose.

At first you should aim to hold this pose for up to ten seconds. You can then build upon this in ten second increments each time you practice the pose, until you can hold it for five minutes or more! You can then begin to experiment with variations on this pose!

Yoga Poses for Optimum Energy

Regularly practicing these yoga poses can add up to great things for your energy levels, but you can also utilise them in moments where you feel your energy is lacking. Remember, it’s always best to practice yoga in supportive yet comfortable clothing. Click here to check out our range of high-performance active wear for everything you need!