当今时代，做个小孩也好难啊。

It's hard to be a kid today.

孩子们小小年纪就要处理许多来自环境的干扰、互联网的诱惑，过度刺激和同伴压力。学校也面临严峻挑战：要在条件缺乏的情况下做更多的事情，甚至连最孤僻的孩子也要有创造性的照顾到。

Children deal with many distractions from the environment, temptations from the Internet, overstimulation and peer pressure. Schools are challenged to do more with less and be creative in how they reach even the most isolated child.

儿童瑜伽是一种低成本但极为有用的工具，可以对孩子产生积极的影响。

Yoga is a low-cost, helpful tool that can have a positive impact on children.

这里小编总结了一些

瑜伽对孩子们的好处:

Here are some of the many benefits of teaching yoga to kids:

发展身体意识

Develop body awareness

学习如何以健康的方式使用他们的身体

Learn how to use their bodies in a healthy way

通过呼吸、意识、冥想和健康运动来管理压力

Manage stress through breathing, awareness, meditation and healthy movement

构建专注力

Build concentration

增加他们的自信，建立积极向上的自我形象

Increase their confidence and positive self-image

成为健康、无抵触的群体的一部分

Feel part of a healthy, non-competitive group

在学校里，瑜伽也能让老师受益: 

In a school setting, yoga can also benefit teachers by:

给他们一个应对课堂挑战的方法

Giving them an alternate way to handle challenges in the classroom

给他们一个能与课程计划相结合的健康活动

Giving them a healthy activity to integrate with lesson plans

给他们一个混合多元的锻炼方法

Give them a way to blend exercise into their classes

现在，

让我们揭示儿童瑜伽的七大奥秘吧

Now, let's reveal the 7 secrets of children's yoga:

1.领悟呼吸

1. Awareness of the breath

呼吸练习可以激励孩子，鼓励他放松。同时也取决于你的教学内容。不同的游戏和技巧可以帮助孩子们体验深呼吸的身体感觉。提升专注力、呼吸和肺活量，自然而然的压力会相应减少，并释放健康的荷尔蒙。

Breathing exercises can energize kids or encourage relaxation, depending on what you teach. Different games and techniques help kids connect to how their bodies feel as a result of deep breathing. Focus increases, as does their breathing and lung capacity. Stress is naturally reduced and healthy hormones are released.

2.增强力量

2. Strengthening and energizing

孩子们可能觉得瑜伽对拉伸很有好处，但却不能增强体力。对老师来说，包括与孩子对话在内，练习瑜伽对构建身体强度的帮助是很重要的。对孩子阐述体式中使用的不同肌肉，并结合有次序的游戏将有助于构建肌肉力量、身体意识和协调能力。强健的身体能更好地消化食物，保持健康的体重，还能承受负重的压力，比如背包。身体也能通过更好的呼吸方式让工作更有效率，也能保护那些比较脆弱的关节。

Kids think that yoga is great for stretching, but doesn't build strength. It's important for a teacher to include conversations, as well as exercises around how helpful yoga is for building strength. Talking about the different muscles used in poses and incorporating games and sequences will help build strength as well as body awareness and coordination. Bodies that are strong digest food better, maintain a healthy weight and can support the stress of carrying heavy loads, like a backpack. Bodies will also breathe better, work more efficiently and protect the more fragile joints.

3.平衡

3. Balancing

教孩子平衡性体式，随着焦点的增加，即使对于那些挣扎在注意力挑战中的孩子们，你也可以自然地增加他们的集中力。姿势和游戏侧重于平衡技能，培养内在的力量，唤起冥想的感觉，并使人镇定，让人内心平和。这可以帮助孩子们应付生活在一个混乱的世界中的压力，因为不断的刺激是生活的一部分。

Balancing poses teach children that with increased focus, you can increase attention naturally, even in kids who struggle with different attention challenges. Poses and games focused on balancing skills, develop an intrinsic strength, evoke a meditative feeling, and promote stillness and quieting of the mind. This can help kids deal with the stress of living in a chaotic world where constant stimulation is a regular part of life.

4.伸展

4. Stretching and lengthening

对孩子来说，强壮是很好的，但是仅仅依靠力量是不能应对压力的。强壮的肌肉如果没有柔韧性，就不能快速移动，也不能拉动骨骼和关节。瑜伽姿势伸展肌肉，通过呼吸和运动的结合，肌肉变得温暖，变得更加灵活。它们可以在需要的时候收缩，并以更有效的方式支持脆弱的关节。

It's great for kids to be strong, but a body that's only based on strength has no way to yield under pressure. Strong muscles without accompanying flexibility can't move quickly, pulling on bones and joints. Yoga poses stretch muscles and through integrating breathing and movement, muscles become warm and become more flexible. They can yield when they need to, and support tender joints in a more functional way.

5.专注力与领悟力

5. Awareness and focus

瑜伽有助于通过深呼吸和运动来提高身体的意识。它给孩子们一种表达自己的方式，让他们所听到的和他们所做的之间建立起牢固的联系。有健康身体意识的孩子更自信，更强壮，有更好身姿，呼吸更好，有一种平和的力量。

Yoga helps create awareness in the body through deep breathing and movement. It gives kids a way to express themselves, build a strong connection between what they hear and what they do. Children that have healthy body awareness are more confident and strong, have better posture, breathe better and have a sense of quiet strength.

6.协调力、联想能力和整合事物的能力

6. Flowing, connecting and integrating

当我们在一起摆姿势的时候，我们给孩子们一种放松的感觉。它还帮助他们认识到，我们所有的动作都是由肌肉、骨骼、关节和神经组成的整套系统协调配合完成的。年龄大一点的孩子还能区分不同的肌肉群，更能联想到运动的复杂性。所有这些还可以增强孩子对事物认知的整合能力。

When we string poses together, we give kids a taste of what it means to move with ease. It also helps them build the awareness that all our movements are a series of coordinated efforts between muscles, bones, joints and nerves. Older kids are more able to isolate different muscle groups and get more sophisticated about movements. All these things together increase a child's sense feeling integrated.

7.冥想和放松

7. Meditation and relaxation

瑜伽是自然的冥想。因此，一个孩子是否保持着平衡的姿势，坐着或通过一系列的姿势去冥想，这将会是一种有品质的平静方法。让年幼的孩子在垫子上休息时冥想一些事，这会有助于提升专注力，比如建议他们想到最喜欢的颜色或玩具。大一点的孩子会发现冥想的结构越少越容易休息。

Yoga is meditative by nature. So whether a child is holding a balancing posture, sitting in meditation or moving through a series of poses, there's going to be a calming, soothing quality. Giving younger kids something to do as they rest on their mats will help with their attention, such as suggesting they think of a favorite color or toy. Older kids will find it easier to rest longer with less structure.

有很多工具可以用来教孩子们瑜伽。这些年轻人喜欢游戏，比如做一些书上的儿童瑜伽体式、大声歌唱、做富有表现力的运动。年龄较大的孩子喜欢创造自己的动作，挑战更难的平衡姿势，以学习更多关于肌肉和解剖学的知识。

There are lots of tools you can use to teach yoga to children. The young ones like games, doing poses from yoga books for children and singing songs with big, expressive movements. Older children love to create their own poses, be challenged by balancing and learn about the muscles and other aspects of anatomy.