The Importance of Breathing Exercise For Kids
Pranayama or breath regulation has been greatly emphasised in Yoga and has drawn special attention from the scientific community. Breath regulation includes modulation of the pace of breathing, viz. slowing down or pacing the breath, manipulation of nostrils, chanting of humming sounds, retention of breath etc.
Breath play provides a series of fun activities and games for kids of all ages. Breath play allows kids to see and feel their breath to generate an awareness of how their breath works in their own bodies. Through play, they discover that altering and controlling their breath can change and affect the way they feel.
Some examples of breath play are blowing bubbles, blowing on pinwheels and blowing bubbles. These playful breath games are great visuals that allow kids to physically see what happens when you breathe differently.
The online database, PubMed, PubMed Central and IndMed were searched for citations for keywords“Pranayama”and“YogicBreathing”. The search yielded a total of 1400 references from the date of inception of the databases till July 2017.
Advantageous effects of yogic breathing on the neurocognitive, psychophysiological, respiratory, biochemical and metabolic functions in healthy individuals were elicited.They were also found useful in management of various clinical conditions. Overall, yogic breathing could be considered safe, when practiced under guidance of a trained teacher .