“While we try to teach our children everything about life, our children teach us what life is all about.”
—Angela Schwindt
After I had my baby, I became one of those people who wants to practice yoga with the best of intentions. Even though I knew I wouldn’t be able to go to the yoga studio for those hour-long classes anymore, I thought I’d figure it out, that I’d find a way to support my practice.
Like almost every parent I know, I was shocked when the little one finally arrived.
I tried to attend baby yoga classes, but I kept feeding her. No time for my personal practice there. When she slept, I was too exhausted to get off the couch, let alone give my practice the attention it deserved.
For a while I mourned the loss of these studio sessions. I missed the guided sequences, the community, the dedicated space just for practice. However, once we got into a routine, I stopped fighting my pain at the yoga studio I had left.
Discovering a new way of practice
In a way, I stumbled upon this new way of practicing out of necessity. I started meditating with my daughter on my lap. These were short classes, nothing special. Just breath and presence.
When she got older, we started practicing yoga postures together. We imitated the trees we saw on a walk or the animals we watched at the zoo. I would practice mindfulness by rocking it on the playground, bringing awareness to the present moment and practicing gratitude for these precious days.
Somewhere in all this, something shifted. My yoga practice was more consistent than ever—not because I was going to a studio or doing hour-long sequences, but because I was already there with my daughter, breathing, moving, and being present together.
Somewhere in all this, something shifted. My yoga practice was more consistent than ever—not because I was going to a studio or doing 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: doing yoga and teaching yoga to the children in your life, whether it’s your own children, nieces and nephews, students, or neighborhood kids, can be the key to deepening your own practice.
Practices that are easy to teach and try
Here’s how to turn everyday moments into yoga opportunities without adding anything to your schedule. I encourage you to try one or more of them and then adjust them to suit your needs.
1. Waking up in the morning stretching in bed
Before your feet hit the floor, before the day begins, there is a window for practice. Instead of jumping right into the morning rush, take two minutes to stretch out in bed with your baby. Extend your arms above your head. Press your knees to your chest. Gently roll from side to side.
Make it an invitation, not an instruction: “Do you want to stretch with me?” Most children will naturally join in and you teach them that movement and breathing can be the first choice of the day.
Make it an invitation, not an instruction: “Do you want to stretch with me?” Most children will naturally join in, especially if it means a few extra minutes of bonding time before the day demands their attention elsewhere.
You teach them that movement and breathing can be the first choice of the day. You also give yourself these moments. No mat, no special outfit, no trip to the studio required.
Want to make this morning ritual even more powerful? Add an item gratitude. After a few light stretches, share one thing you’re grateful for or one positive thought about the day ahead. “I’m thankful for this cozy bed and this time with you.”
Keep it simple. Children often repeat this practice, starting their day with gratitude rather than rushing in with demands and tasks.
2. Mindful moments while waiting
Waiting is everywhere in life with children. Bus stops. Doctors’ offices. School lines. Instead of filling these moments with phones or mental to-do lists, turn them into an opportunity to be present.
When my daughter and I are waiting for the bus together, we start to really notice what’s around us. Snow falls in winter. Leaves change color in autumn. Rain patters on the pavement. Birds chirping in the trees nearby.
“What do you hear now?” becomes our game. Or “How is today different from yesterday?”
The practice of tuning into the present moment, noticing what really is, rather than rushing ahead to what’s next, is mindfulness in its purest form. Children learn to see the world through new eyes, and so do you.
3. Deep breathing throughout the day
You can practice conscious breathing anywhere— before moving house, in the car before going to an appointment, standing in line at the post office, sitting in the doctor’s office, walking from the car to the entrance of the grocery store.
It’s easy to do. Inhale for four counts, exhale for four counts. That’s all. No need for fancy tricks. Just deliberate breathing together. The breathing practice I thought I was teaching my daughter? She internalized it, made it her own, and reflected it back to me when I needed it most.
The more you practice in small moments throughout the day, the more natural it becomes – for both of you.
A few times when I was in a mental tailspin about something, she would put her hands on my shoulders and say, “You got this, Mom. Take a deep breath.”
The more you practice in small moments throughout the day, the more natural it becomes – for both of you.
4. “Go and roll” game.
This is one of my favorite quick energy shifting practices! Whenever you need to change your mood, change your mindset, or gain a new perspective, take a yoga pose.
Kids restless at the grocery store? “Drop and roll into downward dog right here!” (Yes, right there, by the cereal.)
Do you feel that the problem at home is stuck? “Let’s do tree pose and see if we can think differently while we’re balancing.”
Energy becomes chaotic before dinner? “Everyone drop into child’s pose for ten breaths.”
The beauty is that it works anywhere. In the park, when emotions run high. In your living room when everyone needs a reset. Even at the dentist’s reception, if you need to calm your nerves. Any one a moment can become a moment of practice.
Movement moves everything. It changes your physical state, which changes your mental state. Children learn this through play, and so do you. Sometimes the fastest way to get back to center is to move your body in a new way.
Movement moves everything. It changes your physical state, which changes your mental state. Children learn this through play, and so do you. Sometimes the fastest way to get back to center is to move your body in a new way.
5. Meditation before sleep
If you’ve ever tried to meditate while the kids are awake and busy working in your house, you know it’s nearly impossible. But time to sleep? This is your window.
After talking and engaging, try doing a simple body scan or visualization with them. “Close your eyes and imagine you’re a starfish swimming in warm water. Feel your arms getting heavy. Your feet getting soft.”
By putting them through relaxation, something happens to your own nervous system. It settles down. It softens. Your breathing slows down. Your shoulders sag. Your mind, which has been working all day, is finally allowed to rest.
What you already do every night becomes your meditation practice.
6. Days of travel and yoga in hotel rooms
Traveling with children often means limited space and restless energy. As it turned out, these are ideal conditions for practicing yoga. A hotel room becomes a studio. Waiting at the airport gate becomes an opportunity to twist your seat and twist your neck. The backseat of a car during a stop becomes a place for shrugging shoulders and gentle tugs.
When you reframe “practice” as something that can happen anywhere, you stop expecting ideal conditions that rarely occur.
Hotel rooms have become unexpected spaces for us to practice. We make it playful (animal poses are a favorite), but my body still gets the stretch it needs. My breathing is still deeper. My mind is still settling. When you reframe “practice” as something that can happen anywhere, you stop expecting ideal conditions that rarely occur.
7. Yoga through acts of service
The mat is just one place where yoga lives. It also depends on how we show up in the world and care for others. There are countless opportunities to weave ministry into your life with children. Volunteering at a food bank. Helped an elderly neighbor to work in the yard. Making postcards for people in nursing homes. Participation in the Saturday school.
For ten years, my family hosted pajama drives in our town, collecting new pajamas and delivering them to children at a less fortunate inner-city school. This practice c karma yoga-selfless service – became one of the most significant parts of our yoga practice together.
When kids see you model a yoga lifestyle that goes beyond poses and breath and includes compassion, generosity, and showing up to others, they learn that yoga is a way of being, not just something you “do.”
When kids see you model a yoga lifestyle that goes beyond poses and breath and includes compassion, generosity, and showing up to others, they learn that yoga is a way of being, not just something you “do.”
And you? You also practice. Not on the mat, but in the world where it matters most.
A practice that has always been there
What children really need from us is not perfection in our practice. They need ours the presence. And by teaching them simple presence practices through breath, movement, or mindfulness, you create your own practice without having to be anywhere but where you already are.
My practice looks different now than it did before I became a parent. It changed and adapted over the years as my daughter grew. But it stayed alive, embedded in our days together in a way I could never have imagined when I thought “real” practice only happened in the studio. The practice consists of slow breaths that we take together. We share gratitude during morning stretches. In our thoughtful moments waiting for the bus. We take on service projects as a whole family. In body scans that help her sleep.
Practice should never be separated from life. It always had to be woven through it. And children, with their natural presence and ability to find joy in the simplest moments, are some of our best teachers to remember this.
