The Benefits of Family and Friends Yoga

Doing yoga with family and friends makes the practice much more enjoyable for many reasons. It is fun to spend time with family and friends. If you are new to yoga, you will have a bunch of supportive people with you to start your very own yoga practice together. If you are an experienced yogi, you can help your friends or family on their own journey to establishing a yoga practice in a group setting. Just for a moment, imagine you took a yoga class with your family or friend group. Envision yourself rolling up your mat and looking around you. Who is with you? How did the yoga class feel? What did you talk about after the class with your family or friends? Perhaps you discussed the aspects of the class that were the most challenging or fun. It is doubtful that anyone in your family or friend group would say, “I regret taking that yoga class.” Very few individuals regret doing something that is good for them. Most just need help to get over the hurdle of starting the activity. Getting your family or friend group to practice yoga together might be tough at first, but with some patience and perseverance, you can help your family and friends become healthier and more connected to one another. It is time to learn about some of the benefits of a family or friends yoga practice!

There are three primary benefits, according to this article, that explain why practicing yoga with your loved ones is a good habit to develop. The first benefit is that practicing yoga together with family or friends will reinforce and establish the importance of healthy lifestyle choices for your family or friends. Practicing yoga as a family or with friends is an effective way to model this behavior for children. Read more about the overall benefits of healthy lifestyles and yoga.

The second benefit is family and friend bonding. The importance of social bonds in families and friend groups cannot be understated. Positive bonding occurs when your family or friends spend meaningful time together participating in enjoyable activities. What better way to bond than to spend time doing yoga together on a regular basis? If yoga is something you love, share it with your family and your friends. You may also want to brush up on your knowledge of how to create stronger bonds with your family and friends even when off the yoga mat. There are some easy to implement suggestions here.

The third benefit to family and friends yoga is to create overall healthy development. Researchers at Harvard Medical School have studied centenarians, people who live to or beyond 100 years of age. From this study, they were able to formulate a list of the top ten things you can do to increase your own health. This advice is good for families and friends of all ages!

Of course, an obvious reason why many individuals begin a yoga practice is to increase overall health and fitness by achieving more flexibility, improving posture, and building muscular strength. While these initial fitness goals are a wonderful starting point for a family or friends yoga practice, an added benefit is that with regular practice, your family and friends will experience increased overall well-being or mental benefits, too. Yoga nourishes the body and the mind. What better gift to give to your family and friends? According to the history of why yoga came into existence over 5,000 years ago, postural yoga practice strengthened meditation practices. Another way to look at it is that yoga was designed to keep the entire person (body and mind), healthy and happy. By doing yoga poses or asanas, participants incorporate relaxation of the body combined with mental calmness and alertness. These two elements, a tension free body, and a calm, awake mind, lead to a more successful meditation practice. Swami Satchidananda, the founder of Integral Yoga, as well as the inspiration for Kidding Around Yoga, repeated this message many times, check it out for yourself here.  

With all these wonderful benefits, the only question to pose is, what are you waiting for? Arrange to do yoga together at home or find a family and friends yoga class, invite your loved ones, and start your practice together!

Like what you read here? There’s so much MORE to explore and learn with Kidding Around Yoga. Check out our website for our live and online teacher trainings, Yoga Alliance-approved 95-hour RCYT trainings, specialty online courses, original music, merchandise, and SO MUCH MORE!