Individually, music and yoga are powerful tools for enhancing wellbeing. Together, they are unstoppable!
We were excited to learn that Sunday 21 June is the International Day of Yoga AND World Music Day! It almost feels as though it’s a special Bonkers Beat day!
At Bonkers Beat, our mantra is ‘Music and Wellbeing Practices for Life’. Our team believes in embedding music and yoga, as well as meditation and other wellness practices, into every day. This is an achievable goal for most people, as music and yoga can be enjoyed at home, in early childhood services, at school – just about anywhere! Seeing the benefits of music and yoga for children over so many years has been awe-inspiring and continues to drive us to share the message year after year.
Yoga matters
While yoga has increased in popularity over the last few years, the practice itself dates back thousands of years. In fact, no one really knows how long yoga has been around! From increasing strength and fitness, helping us to breathe better and its profound effect on mental health, it doesn’t get much better than yoga when it comes to enhancing overall wellbeing.
Yoga practice for children offers countless benefits, including:
- Improved strength and flexibility
- Confidence and self-esteem
- Relaxation and stress management
- Better focus
- Enhancing and supporting wellbeing
Introducing yoga to children is a gift for life. To help you get started, here are some yoga poses for you to download. To access videos with ‘Yoga with Bonkers the Monkey’ routines run by Bonkers Beat educators, head to ‘Music Kinder at Home’ Facebook group.
Music matters
Everything’s better with music, and there is something about it that just makes us all smile and connect. It’s no surprise then that there is a day to celebrate it! World Music Day originated in Paris, France in 1982 – there it is known as Fête de la Musique. The creators wanted to expand the culture across the country, and the day was planned to encourage musicians to take to the streets and play their music together to share with the people. It was so successful that it has been adopted in many countries across the world and continues even now in 2020!
Music has so many benefits for children across many areas of their development and wellbeing. Adding more music through playing it, singing it and listening to it for outcomes such as:
- Building children’s confidence
- Enhancing children’s communication
- Improving concentration
- Working on motor skills and coordination
- Enhancing memory
- Tapping into creativity
To embed more spontaneous singing into your daily practices, we have some transitional songs for you to download as well!
Make yoga and music your best friends
While yoga and music make the best of friends for one another, make them your best friends too! And pass on this powerful gift to children to enhance their wellbeing – for life!
Keep an eye on what we are up to as well, because we have some free resources coming out soon to help support children’s wellbeing and health. Announcement coming soon!
In the meantime, our Bonkers Beat programs for early childhood services are specifically focused on harnessing the power of music and yoga for optimising children’s wellbeing and development. Learn more about them here.
