Managing emotions | Yogafulminds

Managing Emotions

Sometimes we need to help children manage emotions and

yoga is a practice in self-regulation. Young children are more

influenced by their ’emotional brain’, than their ‘logical brain’

and often experience BIG feelings. Although these feelings

can sometimes seem a little silly to us, they are very real for

a young child. So how can we help our children deal with

these strong emotions?

Yoga poses

We can express our feelings & emotions through our bodies by using yoga poses (this is especially effective when combined with facial expressions!). By naming the feelings as we do these poses with children, they will become better able to recognise and name their own emotions.

For example:

I am feeling shy or tired - mouse pose
I am happy today - downward dog pose with a wagging tail
I’m feeling angry or frustrated - snapping crocodile or volcano pose
I am brave and confident - starfish or mountain pose
I am feeling playful and energetic - monkey pose

Movements

We can use different movements to help children manage emotions, depending on how they are feeling. For example:

If children are feeling angry or frustrated by a particular task, we can acknowledge this, name the emotion (anger/irritation), then suggest taking a movement break together, such as spider pose. We might end this movement break with a loud exhale or ‘lion’s breath’ (in lion pose), releasing the anger along with the breath.
When children are tired and over-active after school, we can use slow, gentle movements, or even stillness, combined with deep belly breathing to unwind. This is known as conscious breathing.
When a child is anxious or upset, we can use an activity such as feather-blowing to calm and organise thoughts and feelings.

Breath

We have just mentioned the importance of 'conscious breathing’ in helping children manage their big emotions. This simply means being aware of our breath and how it can help us deal with our feelings by regulating and calming ourselves. By focusing on the breath, we can start to change negative emotions into positive ones.
As we slow our breath, our heart-rate and blood pressure return to normal and we start to feel less anxious or stressed. Bee breath is perfect for reducing anxiety.
Taking deep, conscious breaths fills our bodies with oxygen and can energise us when we are feeling tired or run-down. Alternate nostril breathing can improve concentration.