Santa’s jolly belly breathing

A fun Christmassy belly breath to find calm in all the excitement. Try my Santa’s Jolly Belly Breath together as a family.

If you’re looking for fun ways to get your children to start practising yoga at home, why not practise a Christmas yoga pose every day?

Choose what time of day suits best. Make it a habit. You will notice a difference in behaviour, sleep, how you connect as a family.

Make it a time that’s easy and achievable for you.

Do you want it to be something that will invigorate you to get your day going?

Or to break up the day after school and before dinner?

Perhaps an alternative to screen-time before bed? Here’s a fun example of a Christmas yoga breathing exercise.

Let’s try Santa’s Jolly Belly Breath.

Pretend you are Santa Clause and you have a big wobbly belly.

Take a deep inhale through your nose and let a long exhale out through the nose.

On each inhale, fill your Santa belly up with your breath.

Expand the belly with air like a balloon. On each exhale, expel all the air out from the belly through your nose.

Draw your tummy button back towards your spine to make sure that the belly is empty of air. (do this three times with your child)

On the next inhale, fill the belly up with air so it feels soft like Santa’s jolly belly.

Pretend you are making Santa’s belly even bigger and softer.

Then when the belly is full, draw in a little more breath and let that air expand into the rib cage causing the ribs to widen apart.

On the exhale, let the air go first from the rib cage, letting the ribs slide closer together, and then from the belly, drawing the tummy button back towards the spine. (Repeat this deep breathing into the belly and rib cage three times with your child)

On the next inhale, fill the belly and rib cage up with air. Making your Santa belly even bigger.

Then sip in just a little more air and let it fill the upper chest, all the way up to the collarbone, causing the area around the heart to expand and rise.

On the exhale, let the breath go first from the upper chest, allowing the chest to sink back down, then from the rib cage, letting the ribs slide closer together.

Finally, let the air go from the belly, drawing the navel back towards the spine.

Bring your hand to your chest, and the other to your belly.Use your hands to notice how each part of your body rises and falls as you breath slowly in and out.

Continue to breath at your own pace, eventually coming to let the three parts of the breath happen smoothly without pausing.

Now close your eyes and go inside for the final Santa belly breath.And when you’re ready we’ll open our eyes and roll our shoulders.

Then we’ll have a jolly Santa laugh and shake out our legs, arms and wrists.