Imagine giving your child a secret superpower. One that helps them calm down, feel more focused, and sleep more soundly. Breathwork helps your child with all that, and the best part is that it uses something they do all day, every day—breathing!
Breathwork is easy to weave into your child’s bedtime routine. Whether it’s during bathtime, storytime, or cosy cuddles, simple breathing exercises can work wonders for melting away the day’s stress and helping your child settle in for a peaceful night’s sleep. Ready to discover how this powerful practice can transform your child’s nights and equip them with lifelong calming tools?
Keep reading to learn how to get started!
What is Breathwork?
Breathwork is a series of techniques used to intentionally manipulate your breathing pattern to achieve a desired outcome. Generally, breathwork is done as a way to lower stress and calm the body and mind. Many techniques stem from Pranayama, the yogic breathing practice. However, breathwork has evolved beyond that and transformed into an entirely new discipline utilised by millions of people every day as a holistic and natural approach to stress management.
What Are the Benefits of Breathwork for Children?
Children today are experiencing stress at alarming levels. 71% of parents stated that their school-age child was experiencing stress or challenges at school. These stressors ranged from concerns of safety to bullying to academics and everything in between. While this number can seem alarming, breathwork allows you to teach your child the tools they need to be able to lower cortisol levels and calm themselves down.
Breathwork has shown a variety of benefits including improving mood, increasing memory and focus, promoting creativity, increasing sleep quality, increasing feelings of relaxation, reducing symptoms of stress, and reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression.
In addition to these benefits, a regular breathwork regime for children also:
● Creates a mental pause button and allows the child to interrupt the fight or flight response that is often experienced during stressful events and return to a relaxed and responsive state.
● Improve the physical health of your child by keeping their heart rate slow, lowering their blood pressure, improving immune response, and decreasing muscle tension.
● Helps the child make calm and clear decisions while improving self-control. Breathwork can also grow the prefrontal cortex (thoughtful executive functioning part) of the brain. It also helps to clear up “foggy” thinking and improve memory, attention, focus, and
concentration.
How to Incorporate Breathing Exercises Into Your Child’s Bedtime Routine
As parents, we all know the importance of a calming and peaceful transition from the busy schedules and demands of the daytime to a night of restful and deep sleep. Adding breathing exercises for kids into your child’s bedtime routine can help the transition move smoother as well as equip them with calming tools that will serve them for the rest of their lives.
There is no right or wrong way to add breathwork into your child’s routine. Some parents choose to do a few breathing techniques all at once during one part of the routine while others like to spread out smaller techniques through the wind-down time. Here are a few ways to add
breathwork to your child’s bedtime routine.
1. Bathtime Calm Breaths
During bathtime, encourage your child to take slow, deep breaths as they play with bubbles or toys. Try having them attempt to blow the bubbles in the water or blow a toy sailboat across the surface. The warm water will also help them relax as you wind down
for bedtime.
2. Pyjama Time Breathing Game
Turn breathing exercises into a nightly game as they get dressed in their pyjamas. Have them take a deep breath as you or they remove their item of clothing and exhale as they slide into their bedtime clothes. Piece by piece, breath by breath, they learn to calm their body and prepare for sleep.
3. Breathwork During Storytime
Storytime can be a great chance to incorporate deep breathing. Pause after each page to take a deep breath in and out before moving to the next. You can also find books about breathwork to help guide you through an evening session.
4. Breathing with Bedtime Cuddles
Once the day is done and your child is tucked in bed, take a few minutes to do breathwork exercises together before turning the lights out. Not only is this calming for both you and the child, but it also fosters a sense of connection and comfort.
Breathing Exercises for Kids
Teaching deep breathing to kids doesn’t need to be hard or overly complicated. In fact, the more fun and easy we make it, the more the child will take to it! Preschool breathing exercises should be taught with a storyline or fun imagination play. Older children who can follow along with numbers and counting may benefit from more advanced breathing techniques.
When it comes time to sit down for a breathwork session with your child, try to do a few different techniques to keep the session captivating while also discovering which techniques work best for your child. Soon, these breathing techniques will become second nature and your
child will be falling back to them naturally in times of stress or emotional discomfort.
Here are a few ways to teach calming breathing exercises for kids:
● Have your child imagine a big beautiful flower in front of them. Then, have them take a big sniff of the imaginary bud using their nose to inhale deeply. Once they have inhaled fully, instruct them to breathe out of their mouths slowly with control.
● Have your child imagine a birthday cake with a candle. They need to take a big deep breath to have the air to blow out the candle! Once they have filled their lungs, have them exhale through their mouth with pursed lips as if they are blowing out that candle.
● A great way to teach belly breathing is to have your child lay on their stomach and breathe in and out deeply and slowly. This will allow them to feel if their stomachs are expanding with the breath. They can also do this seated by placing their hand on their abdomen and watching it rise and fall with breathing.
● There are many different animal-inspired breathing techniques that are fun for kids. All these techniques begin with having your child take a deep breath in. For snake breath, your child will hiss through closed teeth like a snake for as long as they can before beginning again. For lion’s breath, your child will open their mouth as wide as they can and forcibly exhale making a noise that resembles a roar. Bumblebee breath has your child hum through closed lips as they exhale through their nose.
● Breathing techniques with counts can be great for older children. Begin breathing in for 5 counts, hold that breath for 5 counts, exhale for 5 counts, and hold the empty breath for another 5 counts before beginning again. This is also called box breathing.
*Please note that this list is non-exhaustive of all breathwork techniques.
How to improve your breathwork techniques
Like anything in life, breathing techniques take practice, especially for smaller children. The more you practice together, the easier it will become for them. Everyone is unique and some techniques will work better for some than others. It is also important to note that this is not an
exhaustive list as there are endless breathing techniques.
The best way to learn how to perform and teach breathwork efficiently is by getting breathwork teacher training. Knowledge is power, especially when it comes to breathwork. Imagine being able to give children life-altering tools that they can have for life. Learning these calming techniques as a child sets individuals up for a lifetime with a healthy and beneficial coping skill.
Conclusion
Breathwork is more than just a tool to help your child get ready for bed, it’s a lifelong skill that empowers your child to manage stress, improve focus, and find calm in any situation. By incorporating these simple exercises into their nightly routine, you’re not only setting them up
for a more restful sleep but also giving them a toolkit for emotional resilience. The more you practice together, the sooner you’ll notice how they naturally begin to turn to breathwork when they need it most. So, start tonight, and watch as your child blossoms with this gentle yet
powerful practice.
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