Mindfulness Yoga - Belly Breathing

It has been shown in many health studies that there are many physiological benefits to breathing into the belly. These benefits can include the slowing down of your  heart rate and getting more oxygen to the lower lungs, the blood, and effectively your whole body.

It is often a natural process for children to breathe into their belly. With this practice you can help them enhance and retain this skill in a few ways.

One of the best ways to do this is to ask them to breathe into their belly like a balloon:

• 1. Ask them to close their eyes and put their hands on their belly.
• 2. Encourage them by saying: Imagine your belly is a balloon. You can think of the colour. Name it if you like. (This is especially good for small children.)
• 3. Breathe in and imagine you are filling up the balloon. Breathe out and let the balloon empty. Inhale to fill the balloon again. Exhale to let it empty.
• 4. Repeat this (with or without additional verbal cuing) for one minute.

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