FEELINGS Yoga & Mindfulness for Kids!
Feelings are a constant part of our experience as human beings, no matter how old we are! Big or small, easy or uncomfortable… our emotions aren’t going away anytime soon, so helping kids learn to recognize, express, and navigate their feelings is absolutely critical to their health and well-being. When we provide a safe and shame-free space for children to experience their feelings, and then help them understand and cope with those feelings, we’re empowering them to:
Recognize and name their emotions without fear or judgment
Develop healthy ways to share and communicate their feelings with others
Build skills for managing and coping with emotions
Grow their resilience and confidence in navigating emotions
Find empathy for themselves and others
Learn to trust that all feelings are valid and temporary!
These skills never stop being important - as children grow, emotional intelligence becomes an important factor in navigating social situations, creating meaningful relationships, and even succeeding in school and work. Supporting emotional intelligence now helps to pave the way for a bright, happy, and healthy future ⭐
Here are some ways that you can make learning about feelings fun this month! Whether you’re a parent connecting with your little one, or a (yoga) teacher in a classroom, I hope that you and your littles enjoy these activities 💜
Movement
We can use yoga poses to embody different emotions, helping us think about how our physical bodies feel when we are sad, excited, happy, etc. Knowing how we react to an emotion is really useful, because often these reactions can serve as a warning sign for big feelings coming up! For example, if my muscles start to tense up and my voice is getting louder, I might be getting angry or frustrated. And now, since I can see that coming, I might ask for some time by myself, or a hug, or anything else that helps me cope with feeling angry! As parents and teachers, we can help kids recognize these moments by saying something like, “Hey, I notice that you’re speaking louder, and your face is red. Do you want to take a breath? How are you feeling?” (P.S - if you have an experience like this to share, drop it in the comments!)
Ok, back to yoga poses:
Extended Mountain Pose: embody joy! Spread your arms wide and stretch your fingers up to meet the warm sunshine. Smile, as you imagine sunlight filling your body.
Standing Forward Fold: embody sadness, or tiredness. Let your upper body hang really heavily as you release all of your muscles in this fold. Close your eyes and gently rock from side to side.
Goddess Pose: embody anger as you sink into this Goddess squat. Push your feet really firmly into the floor and feel all of your leg muscles tense and engage. Clasp your hands together. Reach your hands up as you extend your legs, and swing them down toward the floor as you sink into your squat. Let out a fierce ROAR!
Dancer Pose: embody confidence! This is a balancing pose, and it’s completely normal to wibble-wobble around, falling in and out of balance. Allow yourself to giggle when you’re unsteady, and to be proud of yourself as you make adjustments and find moments of balance. We do not have to be perfect in order to feel confident!
Butterfly Pose: embody a content and care-free attitude. Imagine yourself as a butterfly, flying anywhere you want to be, landing on beautiful flowers, and enjoying a lovely day.
Child’s Pose or the fetal position: embody a sense of safety. Imagine that you are curled up inside a quiet, safe little bubble. You can stay here as long as you want, breathing and comfortable.
There are also so many incredible songs about feelings that we can incorporate into our practice, play at home or in the car, and spend time talking about (playlist linked below)! I won’t lie to you, I LOVED making this playlist and listening to these songs. It felt pretty darn soothing to my own inner child 🥰
“Grizzly Bear Grump” by Stephanie Leavell is a great movement song for reinforcing some safe ways to move our bodies when we’re feeling grumpy. We definitely want to practice things like this when we aren’t grumpy, so that it’s easier to integrate when we are!
I also loved the idea of adding some more emotions into the classic, “If You’re Happy and You Know It!” In this version, I pulled some ideas from various resources, and made up some of my own, too. Feel free to do the same, making this song fit for you and your child/ren!
If you’re happy and you know it, do a dance. If you’re happy and you know it, do a dance!
If you’re happy and you know it, and you really wanna show it, if you’re happy and you know it, do a dance!
Other verses:
If you’re sad and you know it, you can cry (and give a hug)!
If you’re silly and you know it, make a face!
If you’re angry and you know it, breathe and roar!
If you’re sleepy and you know it, yawn and stretch!
After singing this, I like asking kids what other emotions and actions we could incorporate - last week, one little yogi said pouty 😂 Kids are full of great ideas, and asking them to think about it helps them continue to explore their own emotions and experiences.
We can also explore this month’s theme through play! I made a free set of movement cards to inspire your littles to turn up their imaginations and get their bodies moving. These 8 cards feature different animals, like a Sad Eagle and a Happy Dog, and you can encourage children to act out each of these animals and feelings. You could turn up some music and turn this into a freeze dance activity, or place the cards on yoga mats for a game of musical mats! The button below will take you over to the Store, where you can download these cards for free 😊 And if playing with these cards inspires a make-believe game featuring animals and feelings? All the better 💜
Mindfulness
In last month’s Arctic Animals post, I shared two breathing techniques that would be great to teach kids to help them regulate their emotions. Read that post 👉 here. This month, let’s talk about a couple of simple practices!
The first practice (I’ve done this with ages 4 - 10, but you could definitely adapt for younger kids) requires some colorful play scarves. We pile the scarves up in the middle, and we all sit around them. Now, you can kind of play this in levels. First, I might be the one to pick a scarf, and together we could decide what emotion that color of scarf represents. For example, if I chose a blue scarf, we might decide it represents sadness. Then, I would scrunch the scarf up into a ball, and on 3, I would throw it into the air, as high as I could. While the scarf is in the air, we act out being sad, whether that’s through sound, making faces, or moving our bodies (though sound is my favorite for this activity). As soon as the scarf hits the ground, we freeze. We’re totally quiet, and we pay attention to how our bodies feel. We take a nice deep breath. Shake it out. And play again! You could take turns being the person who chooses a scarf, or maybe each person chooses one and then you share your feeling/color combo afterwards. It’s always really interesting to see the emotion that kid’s attach to different colors, and how they are the same or different from child to child! I love this game, because it’s hitting a lot of different bases. Yes, we’re growing our emotional intelligence, but we’re also working on our observational skills, focus, body awareness, and self-control as we move-move-move while the scarf is in the air, notice it land on the floor, and make the choice to freeze!
I love this second practice because it’s easily incorporated into everyday life, and because we’re gonna get a little science-y 🧠 We all know that our brains are pretty cool, right? They handle a lot of information! Because they have to handle so much info, and take in so much stimulus, there’s a part of our brain that has to act as a filter, helping us focus on the important stuff and not be completely overwhelmed. This part of the brain is called the Reticular Activating System, or RAS. Have you ever been thinking about buying a certain car, and then start to see it everywhere? Or been totally tuned out until you hear your name, and it snaps you to attention? That’s the RAS, catching the things that we’ve decided are important, and making sure that we see/hear them!
A really simple way to see this at work with kids is to choose a color together, and look for that color as you move about your day. At first, you guys may not notice it often! But pretty soon, you’ll be seeing it everywhere. How does this tie into mindfulness? Well, when we have those woke-up-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-bed days where we’re convinced that everything sucks… our day is probably going to suck. We’ve primed our brains to notice all the things that go wrong! But, if we can choose a more positive outlook, and choose to look for the good things that happen, our RAS is going to help make sure that more positive thoughts and interactions make it into our awareness 💕 Give it a try, and let me know how it goes! And if you’re up for a little research, there’s a lot of fascinating stuff to learn about the Reticular Activating System!
Music
I hope you and your littles love this Spotify playlist as much as I do! It’s full of songs that range from silly to comforting, and are filled with many many different feelings and experiences.
Books
I’ve arranged these in ABC order by author’s last name this time, so that if you’re like me and wanna head to the library and throw them all in your bag, you can just go down the list 😂
The Wrong Side of the Bed by Lisa Bakos
When Sophie Gets Angry - Really, Really Angry by Molly Bang
I Am a Tornado by Drew Beckmeyer
I'm Worried by Michael Black
I'm Sad by Michael Black
Happy Hippo, Angry Duck by Sandra Boynton *great for toddler storytime!
If You’re Happy and You Know It! by Sandra Boynton
The Way I Feel by Janan Cain
Crocodiles Need Kisses Too by Rebecca Colby
Dragons on the Inside (And Other Big Feelings) by Valerie Coulman
Everything Will Be OK by Anna Dewdney *one of my favorites form this list
The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld *another favorite for showing how we can support others
Crunch the Shy Dinosaur by Cirocco Dunlap
Glad Monster, Sad Monster by Ed Emberley
I'm Feeling Macaroni and Cheese by Tina Gallo
Weasel is Worried by Ciara Gavin
Mad, Mad Bear by Kimberly Gee
Glad, Glad Bear by Kimberly Gee
My Heart is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall
The Many Colors of Harpreet Singh by Supriya Kelkar
How to Apologize by David LaRochelle
The Boy With Big, Big Feelings by Britney Lee
The Color Monster: a Story About Emotions by Anna Llenas
I Feel! by Juana Medina
Taking a Bath with the Dog... and Other Things that Make me Happy by Scott Menchin
Grumpy Pants by Claire Messer
Wild Feelings by David Milgrim
I Feel Happy & Sad & Angry & Glad by Mary Murphy
When an Elephant Hears No by Dazzle Ng
Big Bear Hug by Nicholas Oldland
The Feelings Book by Todd Parr
I Feel Teal by Lauren Rille
How do You Feel? by Lizzy Rockwell
I Want to be Mad for a While! by Barney Saltzberg
Grumpy Bird by Jeremy Tankard
Mouse Was Mad by Linda Urban
My Friend is Sad by Mo Willems
Bear Feels Scared by Karma Wilson
Hooray for Hat! by Brian Won *great for storytime!
How Do Dinosaurs Say I'm Mad? by Jane Yolen
Which book is your favorite? What great one did I miss?!
Officially, according to the calendar, we’re in the last month of winter. See you in the spring!
