Mindful Child’s aerial yoga classes for kids are designed to help children develop mindful movement, deep breathing, the ability to manage stress and much more. Movement is essential to the development of the brain and the learning process. When you integrate therapeutic movement with mindfulness you have a powerful tool to treat anxiety and stress.
Mindfulness in the Aerial Yoga Hammock
Mindfulness is a focus in my aerial yoga classes for kids. At Mindful Child, we practice mindfulness in the aerial yoga hammock. Mindfulness shifts your focus to the present moment, so you can notice what you are feeling without judging it as good or bad.
Neuroscience has studied the positive effects of naming one’s feelings. Most individuals let their minds dissociate and are mindless in their day-to-day actions. Researchers found this mindless state is increased activity in brain’s default mode network (Posner et al, 2016). This default mode network keeps the brain overactive and on high alert. It has been found to be hyperactive in individuals suffering from high stress and anxiety.
One way to decrease the brain activity in the default network is to shift your attention to perform a mindfulness task – like noticing what you feel, see, hear, taste, and smell. Mindfulness moves the brain out of the default mode network into the higher brain centers such as the prefrontal cortex. This movement out of the lower centers and into the higher thinking centers of the brain deactivates the stress response. It shifts the activity out of the amygdala (emotion center) into the prefrontal cortex (thinking center).
Want your Child to Learn Coping Skills while having FUN?
I teach mindfulness and movement in every class at Mindful Child. Teaching kid’s mindfulness when they are happy and calm in the aerial yoga hammock is key to teaching them to deactivate the stress response in the lower default brain center and move attention to the higher brain areas. If you want to learn more way to teach copings skills or de-stress sign up for a aerial yoga class,aerial yoga camp, occupational therapy or kid’s yoga teacher training. I have lots of options for you to choose from!