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Belly breathing is a very popular activity in children's yoga classes. All or most children's yoga books talk about it (usually with someone else's head or a toy on a child's stomach to watch the breath), and teachers seem to love teaching it.

Here's my issue with belly breathing and why I don't practice it with kids:

Technically, belly breathing should be the most natural of the breaths. Belly breathing is what you do when you sleep...deep, rich breaths that naturally create a rise and fall of the belly, along with the movements of the diaphragm. You can see it very clearly if you watch a baby sleep.

However, when you tell a child (and most adults) to belly breathe, instead of coming into this very natural breath, they come into their muscles, deliberately distending their stomachs with their inhales, and sucking them in with the exhales. The most natural of breaths, now becomes completely superficial and, well, unnatural.

The thing that makes classical belly breathing so challenging is that it requires complete surrender to the breath and a return to complete neutrality...one of the hardest things the conscious mind can do, and a near impossibility for children to properly accomplish.

And that's the mini yogis minute for this week. You can sign up for mini yogis teacher training to learn all the ins and outs of working with kids. And be sure to check back for a new tip each week or sign up below for weekly reminders.

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