“While we try to teach our children everything about life, our children teach us what life is all about.”
—Angela Schwindt
Once I had my baby, I became one of those people who had the best intentions for my yoga practice. Even though I knew I would no longer be able to get to the yoga studio for those hour-long classes, I thought I would figure it out somehow, that I would find a way to keep my practice alive.
Like almost every parent I know, I was in for a shock when the little one finally arrived.
I tried attending baby yoga classes, but I spent the entire time feeding him. There is no time for my personal practice. While she was sleeping, I was too tired to even give my practice the attention it deserved, let alone get up from the couch.
For a while, I mourned the loss of those studio classrooms. I missed the guided sequences, the community, the space dedicated to practice. However, once we settled into a bit of a routine, I stopped fighting my pain to head for the yoga studio I’d left behind.
Finding a New Way to Exercise
In a way, I found this new way of practicing out of necessity. I started meditating with my daughter in my lap. These were short sessions, nothing showy. Just breath and presence.
As she grew up, we started practicing yoga asanas together. We will copy trees we saw on a walk or animals we saw at the zoo. I will practice mindfulness while rocking him on the playground, bringing awareness to the present moment and practicing gratitude for these precious days.
Somewhere in all this there was a change. My yoga practice became more consistent than ever before — not because I was going to a studio or following hour-long sequences, but because I was already there with my daughter, breathing, moving, and being present together.
Somewhere in all this there was a change. My yoga practice became more consistent than ever before — not because I was going to a studio or following hour-long sequences, but because I was already there with my daughter, breathing, moving, and being present together.
So, if you’re struggling to maintain your practice, I want to share something that may seem counterintuitive: practicing and teaching yoga to the children in your life, whether they’re your own children, nieces and nephews, students, or neighborhood kids, can be the key to deepening your own practice.
Easy exercises to teach and try
Here’s how to turn everyday moments into yoga opportunities, without adding a single thing to your schedule. I encourage you to try one or more of these, and then adjust them to suit your needs.
1. Stretching in bed when you wake up in the morning
Before your feet hit the floor, before the day begins, there is a window for practice. Instead of jumping straight into the morning rush, take two minutes to relax in bed with your child. Extend your arms upward. Pull your knees close to your chest. Twist gently from side to side.
Make it an invitation rather than a directive: “Do you want to go with me?” Most children will naturally engage in this, and you are teaching them that moving and breathing can be their first choice of day.
Make it an invitation rather than a directive: “Do you want to go with me?” Most kids will naturally join in, especially if it means a few extra minutes of connection before the day draws their attention elsewhere.
You are teaching them that movement and breathing can be their first choice of the day. You’re giving yourself those moments too. No mat, special clothing, or travel to a studio is required.
Want to make this morning ritual even more powerful? Add an element of gratitude. After some light conversation, share something you’re grateful for or a positive thought about the day ahead. “I’m grateful for this comfortable bed and this time with you.”
keep it simple. Children often mirror this practice, starting their day with praise rather than being rushed into direct demands and tasks.
2. Memorable moments while waiting
Waiting is everywhere in life with children. The bus stops. Doctors’ offices. School pick-up lines. Instead of filling these moments with calls or mental to-do lists, turn them into opportunities for presence.
When my daughter and I wait for the bus together, we really start paying attention to what’s going on around us. Snow falling in winter. Leaves change color in autumn. The patter of rain on the pavement. Birds are chirping on the surrounding trees.
“What are you listening to right now?” It becomes our game. Or “What’s different today from yesterday?”
This practice of being in tune with the present moment, of paying attention to what is actually here rather than what is going to happen next, is mindfulness in its purest form. Children learn to see the world with new eyes, and so do you.
3. Deep breathing throughout the day
You can practice mindful breathing anywhere-Before transitioning at home, in the car before going to an appointment, standing in line at the post office, sitting in a doctor’s waiting room, walking from the car to the grocery store entrance.
Keep it simple. Breathe in for four counts, exhale for four counts. That’s it. No fancy technology needed. Just intentional breaths shared together. I thought I was teaching my daughter a breathing exercise? She was absorbing it, making it her own, and reflecting it back to me when I needed it most.
The more you practice in small moments throughout the day, the more natural it will become for both of you.
Many times when I was mentally confused about something, she would place her hands on both my shoulders and say, “You’ve got this, Mom. Take a deep breath.”
The more you practice in small moments throughout the day, the more natural it will become for both of you.
4. “Drop and Roll” Game
This is one of my favorite practices for moving energy quickly! Whenever you need to change your mood, shift your mindset, or gain a new perspective, come into yoga postures.
Kids getting restless at the grocery store? “Drop and roll down here, dog!” (Yes, right there near the cereal aisle.)
Are you feeling stuck in some problem at home? “Let’s do Vrikshasana and see if we can think differently while maintaining balance.”
Feeling drained of energy before dinner? “Everyone come into child’s pose for ten breaths.”
The beauty is that it works anywhere. When emotions run high in the park. In your living room when everyone needs a reset. Even in the waiting room of the dentist office when nerves need to settle. Any A moment can become a practice moment.
Movement changes everything. It changes your physical state, which changes your mental state. Children learn this through play, and so do you. Sometimes the quickest way to get back to center is to move your body in a new way.
Movement changes everything. It changes your physical state, which changes your mental state. Children learn this through play, and so do you. Sometimes the quickest way to get back to center is to move your body in a new way.
5. Meditate before sleeping
If you’ve ever tried to meditate in your home while the kids are awake and active, you know it’s nearly impossible. But bedtime? That’s your window.
After stories and tuck in, try a simple body scan or visualization with them. “Close your eyes and imagine you are a starfish swimming in warm water. Feel your arms become heavy. Your legs become soft.”
By guiding them through relaxation, something happens in your own nervous system. It gets resolved. It becomes soft. Your breathing slows down. Your shoulders sag. Your mind, which has been racing all day, is finally allowed to rest.
This thing you’re already doing every night becomes your meditation practice.
6. Yoga on travel days and in hotel rooms
Traveling with kids often means limited space and restless energy. As it turns out, these are ideal conditions for yoga. A room in the hotel becomes a studio. Waiting at the airport gate becomes an opportunity for twists and turns. During rest, the back seat of the car becomes a place for shrugging shoulders and light stretching.
When you redefine “practice” as something that can happen anywhere, you stop waiting for ideal conditions that rarely come.
Hotel rooms have become unexpected practice spaces for us. We make it playful (animal poses are a favorite), but my body still gets the stretch it needs. My breathing is still deep. My mind is still stable. When you redefine “practice” as something that can happen anywhere, you stop waiting for ideal conditions that rarely come.
7. Yoga through acts of service
The mat is just a place where yoga lives. It also depends on how we show up in the world and care for others. There are countless opportunities to incorporate service into your life with children. Volunteering at a food bank. Helping an elderly neighbor with yard work. Making cards for people in nursing homes. Participating in community cleanliness day.
For ten years, my family has hosted a pajama drive in our town, collecting new pajamas and distributing them to children in a less fortunate school in town. this practice of karma yogaSelfless service has become one of the most meaningful parts of our yoga practice.
When kids see you embrace a yoga lifestyle that goes beyond postures and breath to include compassion, generosity, and showing up for others, they learn that yoga is a way of being, not just a thing you do.
When kids see you embrace a yoga lifestyle that goes beyond postures and breath to include compassion, generosity, and showing up for others, they learn that yoga is a way of being, not just a thing you do.
And you? You are also practicing. Not on the mat, but in the world, where it matters most.
the practice that was always
What children really need from us is not perfection in our practice. they need us appearance. And in teaching them simple exercises for presence, whether through breath, movement, or mindfulness, you create your own practice without needing to be anywhere other than where you already are.
My practice looks different now than it did before I became a parent. It has changed and adapted over the years as my daughter has grown. But it’s alive, persisting in our days together in a way I never imagined when I thought “real” practice only happened in studios. The practice is in the slow breaths we take together. In gratitude we share during our morning walk. In our memorable moments of waiting for the bus. In service projects we work as a family. In the body scan that helps him settle into sleep.
Practice was never considered separate from life. It always had to be woven through it. And children, with their natural presence and their ability to find happiness in the simplest moments, are some of our best teachers for remembering this.
