We have officially landed in February and with Valentines Day coming up love is in the air! Around this holiday, it is important to mention all the different ways we can express our love and kindness for others as well as ourselves. February is also Heart Health Awareness month. Yoga builds cardiovascular health, increases lung capacity, and improves respiratory function and heart rate. It also boosts blood circulation, builds muscle, and decreases inflammation. We also use our hearts to share happy and loving feelings with lots of different people in our lives, including ourselves. Valentine’s Day can be a great time to celebrate friendships, self-care, and family.

Yoga and mindfulness have a lot of benefits for kids to help them bring awareness to their bodies and emotions.

With focused awareness of our movement, muscles, and breath, we start to notice the different feelings and emotions held in our bodies. Today I am exited to share a breathing exercise, yoga poses and a mindfulness activity to help cultivate love and kindness in our children!


 Heart-full Breathing

Sit up tall with a long spine, and shoulders am . Bring your hands together in front of you, with your palms pressing together. Rub your hands gently to create a little warmth and energy. 

Then form the shape of a heart with your hands, with your thumbs pointed down like the tip of the heart and the tops of your fingers curled together. 

Hold that warm energy in front of your heart. Take a breath in, and reach your heart-shaped hands out away from you. As you breathe out, bring your hands back to your chest. Do this for several breaths, imagining sending your love out to others.

Heart Opening Yoga Poses

Heart opening poses offer a whole host of benefits. And there’s no better time than February to pay a little more attention to them. But what makes them so great? By the very nature of most of our lives, we end up holding so much of our stress and emotions in the tissues of our body. Through these heart opening poses, that extend, expand, lift, and add more space to the chest area, we help to remove some of the tension in the tissues in that area and thus encourage more circulation of blood, oxygen, and prana (our life force energy) through that area. With heart-openers, we may feel a release of all kinds of emotions.

It’s a good idea to follow backbends with forward folds, but only if you are going slowly and taking deep breaths. If you go from one to the other too quickly you can comprise your core and hurt your lower back.

Hold each pose for 3-4 deep breaths for the best benefits.

Standing Back Bend →  Forward Fold


Baby Cobra → Child’s Pose

Cow Pose → Cat Pose

Camel → Child’s Pose

 Bridge Pose → Legs Up the Wall Pose

Hearts of Love Activity

Materials Needed:

  • Construction Paper

  • Scissors

  • Glue Stick

  • Black Permanent Marker

  • Ruler

  • Markers or Crayons

  • Stickers and/or Magazines to Cut From

Start by cutting out large hearts from construction paper. Then use a black permanent marker to divide each heart into sections.  I used a ruler and made nice straight lines to divide our hearts into lots of sections. For younger children you may want to make fewer sections.  Older children can divide the heart on their own in as many spaces as they’d like. After that, it is time to get crafty! Have your child decorate each section of the heart with something they love. They can use stickers, markers, or pictures from magazines. Older kids may chose to write words in some of the spaces. Each heart is a beautiful reflection of the individual who creates it.

I hope you are able to try some of these activities to celebrate Valentines Day and Heart Health Awareness with your families! My kids really enjoyed it! Until next time…. Namaste - Cassy