Helping our Kids and Grandkids Deal with Stress and Anxiety, Part 2

This old world is different from the one that we were raised in. It's even different from the world in which our own children were raised. Our kids and grandkids DO have to deal with the stress and anxiety that comes with our modern-day world. Parents and grandparents can help.

In a previous blog I addressed helping your grandchild deal with stress by using breathing and mindfulness techniques. In this one, I'll show you some yoga poses I've gleaned from various websites. Let's begin!

A good starting place for me is a good book, and they have some appropriate ones out there:

The premise of Mariam Gates' book, "Goodnight, Yoga," is quieting your mind and body before bed. She uses things in nature to show the young child yoga poses. My grandson and I looked at traditional yoga poses and came up with our own animal names for some of the poses. My grandson does not live with me, so by using these animal names, he can remember the poses after he gets home to his house. Hopefully he can try them before bedtime to calm himself after a busy day. Here are some we copied from websites and some of our own.

Cat pose.

Snake pose.

Next we decided to use super heroes or athletes for some of our poses. These could be used to energize when he gets home from school or even to start his day BEFORE he goes to school.

Next we decided that it was easy to remember some of the poses if we named them after OBJECTS. The "cat" pose above, for example, could be renamed as the "table" pose. Here are more examples of what we came up with for poses named after objects:

This traditional yoga pose is done as if you're rising from a chair.

Your grandchild simply tries to form his body in the triangle-shape of a tent.

The suggestions for children regarding how long to hold these poses is about 10-15 seconds. If you're a grandparent that keeps your grandchild after school, these are some great wind-down poses. You can also teach your grandchildren when they come for the weekend or an overnight. We grandparents should help with the raising of children any way we can. And help them deal with stress in their lives. My last blog about helping our grandchildren deal with stress was about mindfulness and breathing techniques. Those go hand-in-hand with yoga. You'll also have to show them how to breathe as they are doing each of these poses. 

Besides the above book, I found a website that deals with bedtime yoga for kids. It even suggested that parents start a ritual at their house of the WHOLE FAMILY doing yoga together before bed. Wouldn't that be great! And as I said, grandma could do bedtime yoga with her grandchildren when they come to visit. 

Perhaps as a yoga practitioner yourself, you know these bedtime poses. They are great for relaxing before bed and help with such things as restless leg syndrome or those nighttime leg cramps we often have. You can do them with your grandchild!

Websites to visit for great suggestions and tips:

​childhood101.com/yoga-for-kids/

​www.kidsyogastories.com/yoga-for-anger/

​www.kidsyogastories.com/superhero-yoga-for-kids/

My previous blog about helping your grandchildren deal with stress:

​www.gigisseasonings.com/blog/teaching-your-grands-mindfulness-to-deal-with-this-modern-world

Parting thoughts~

"Give this world good energy." Unknown

"Yoga means addition--addition of energy, strength, and beauty to body, mind and soul." Amit Ray