If you have children, then you're probably aware of Cosmic Kids Yoga, and their blue jumpsuited guru Jaime Amor.
The online videos gets kids doing yoga by tying it in with a story, and Jaime has covered everything from Moana to Star Wars. There are also Yoga Disco Party videos to get kids moving, and Zen Den to help them relax.
Dubbed the 'modern-day Mary Poppins', Jaime's fans include everyone from Barack Obama to the Kardashians. Cosmic Kids is now used in over 250,000 schools across the globe and is watched by 3.5 million kids each week. Almost 50 million hours of Cosmic Kids videos have been watched in the past 10 years. 50 million!
For Children's Mental Health Awareness Week this week, Jaime is releasing a special series of five short videos to teach kids practical tools to boost resilience and emotional wellbeing.
I personally love showing my kids the Zen Den videos, because they are growing up in a never-not-busy world, where there is constantly something to distract them. Jaime encourages them to sit still, and focus on their breath or how they feel. My eight-year-old son and five-year-old daughter very rarely sit still for very long but, when Jaime is talking them through a mindfulness technique in her soothing voice, they are utterly mesmerised.
'Kids need space sometimes to process their emotions, build awareness, and get to know themselves,' says Jaime, explaining how her videos allow children to experience and learn from challenging situations.
'When we’re exploring a shipwreck and trying to open a locked treasure chest with Squish the Fish, and he decides to leave us to go find some help, we have the opportunity to notice the feelings when we’re suddenly alone in an unfamiliar place,' she says. 'Maybe we’re afraid, a bit worried, maybe we’re nervous. We take a moment to look at our feelings, name them, then we give some tools a go… rubbing our ear lobes helps us reduce stress. We close our eyes and anchor to our happy place. We take a few Darth Vader breaths to clear our mind and find calm!'
The benefits for our kids' mental and physical health are clear. But, more than anything, it's a fun mood-booster. Jaime’s sessions also boost concentration, reduce stress and improve self esteem.
'At Cosmic Kids, we package mental and physical development tools in a wrapper of fun and imagination,' explains Jaime, 'so they never feel like heavy, serious, laboured techniques. The point is to make them accessible to kids, and relevant, so they understand where they could be useful in their own lives. My motto has always been that the kids have to LOVE it - that’s the only way it will work.'
The joy of Cosmic Kids is that is requires very little effort on the parents' part, and you're giving your kids the gift of learning these tools for emotional wellbeing early on in life.
'When kids start using mental health tools early, they become second nature,' Jaime explains. 'They are just that little bit more aware when big feelings come along.'
And, importantly, it's easy. 'We’re not talking about big interventions here,' she says. 'It's just about learning to notice your thoughts sometimes. Taking a few deep breaths to clear your mind and find a bit of calm. Or closing your eyes to imagine the place where you feel amazing.'
Jaime will also be touring UK schools this week, which I suggest you don't mention to your child unless their school is one of the lucky ones. Otherwise you'll see the childhood version of that feeling when you've been in the online queue for Beyoncé tickets all morning and then they sell out.
Find the videos on YouTube and at CosmicKids.com
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