Yoga for Toddler Moms: 6 Meltdown-Proof Tricks

If I had to describe the last four and a half years of my life—which include pregnancy, postpartum, and exclusively breastfeeding twins—with raw honesty, I would use three words: overstimulated, overexhausted, and overwhelmed. Of course, I’d also use words like joyful, abundant, and miraculous. It all depends on the day.

After completing my 200-hour trauma-informed teacher trainingI never relied on yoga as a source of income, but rather as a form of spiritual payment or metta (loving kindness) in action. I’ve always said, “If you can breathe and move, you can do yoga.” So, when I became a twin mama at age 38, more than a decade after I started practicing yoga, it was both a personal mission and an urgent need to approach parenting through a yogic lens.

Leveraging the tools and tricks I accumulated through my work as a yoga student, teacher, and pre-K-12 educator came naturally. But there is nothing about birthing or raising two humans at once that comes easily. Even as twin births rise, no sutra, asana, or breathwork technique can prepare you for mothering multiples.

Adapting elements of yoga for kids’ needs has helped immensely.

Yoga for Kids: 6 Tricks to Avoid Toddler Meltdowns

As I navigate the toddler years with a mix of attempted grace and inevitable chaos, these yoga-inspired hacks have helped me keep the peace in our home.

1. Legs Up The Wall

To maintain a semblance of sanity as twin parents, my husband and I practice “relay parenting,” passing each other the baton in daily tasks like bedtime stories or breakfast. On the nights when it’s Papi’s turn to read books, I slide up to the wall in the prone position, close my eyes, soak in the cheerful laughter of my littles and their Mexican father’s adorable pronunciations of English words, and audibly exhale. My children love to join me, usually one at a time, and will copy my calm. This offers a dual benefit to my nervous system and theirs.

Do they wiggle and have to be adjusted multiple times? Of course. But they also make sweet attempts at momentary stillness. As I ease out of Legs Up the Wall (Viparita Karani), they’ll give me a massage by walking on my back or laying the full weight of their tiny bodies on mine, sprinkling in kisses and cuddles like soft summer rain on my skin.

2. Lion’s Breath

My use of Simhasana, or Lion’s Breathwith my children is as much for me as it is for them. I never hesitate to use it in high-stress situations where one or more family members are on the verge of losing it.

Because my twins are especially passionate about animals these days, the roaring, tongue-sticking-out play is an easy ask, distracting them from their emotional urge to dysregulate. The long, intentional inhalation and forceful, oxygen-releasing exhalation drop them back into a more grounded mind-body-breath connection. Their chests, brows, and jaws relax as the collective mood shifts, offering us all near-instant relief—if only for one precious moment.

3. Blow Out The Candles

Most days, toddler parents just need a few slow breaths to tap into their creative problem-solving skills. Sometimes called “Smell the Rose, Blow Out the Candle,” this technique can also be done as an emotion-equilibrium exercise, for kids, known as “Star Breath.” When the tantrum is winding down, or you feel your child is ready to be soothed, slowly trace the contours of your or their fingers, traveling up the side of the finger on the inhalation and then exhaling as you trace down into the dip between the digits.

This saved the day recently when Twin A wanted to sit on my lap for the bedtime story and Twin B insisted on sitting on the floor, which made it impossible for them both to see the illustrations at the same time. I was able to “blow out the candles” with one of them while the other “read” the book on his own until we could reach a mutual agreement. This exercise gave me that crucial 30-second buffer to pivot the trajectory and prevented a full-on meltdown.

4. Go Upside Down

While they may not look alike in practice, Headstand (Soursasasa), Handstand (Adho Mukha Vrksasana), and Legs Up the Wall are inversions, or upside-down poses. The same benefits of enhanced circulation, stress reduction, and mood-enhancement apply to each.

Since most toddlers can’t stay balanced in a headstand or handstand unassisted, I encourage them to go through as many of the steps to get into the posture on their own as they can—hands and head in a tripod setup, knees on the backs of forearms, or raise one leg at a time—before I actively offer hands-on support. Once they’re upside down, I try to stay silent, paying attention to their physical cues, such as quick or labored breathing or wobbling, rather than rushing them back to the upright position. If we want our kids to trust their bodies, we have to model that we trust them, too.

This is also an active bonding exercise in which your child receives your undivided attention, builds self-confidence and concentration, and practices full presence.

5. Shake Out the Anger

Some may find this framing controversial, although I consider spontaneous movement in adults to be an invitation to return to our childlike essence. What Kundalini Yoga calls kriyas—or a set of actions that work on your body, mind, and spirit—we call “shake out the anger” in my house.

When I’m all out of mindfulness ideas, I’ll say, “Come on, Spaghetti, let’s shake out the anger!” (Spaghetti refers to the inexplicable ability of all toddlers to suddenly convert their entire physical being into a limp noodle when they’re refusing to do something.) If I can get them onto their backs on a soft surface, I’ll firmly grip their ankles or wrists and ask them something like, “Okay, are you ready to shake the anger out? Let’s say, ‘Get out of here, anger! I don’t want you in my body anymore.’” Then we ripple, shake, scream, laugh, and/or cry, with both of our bodies involved in silly, spontaneous, kid-friendly kriyas.

If your child shows signs of not wanting to be touched in the moment, you can suggest that they do it alone or that they shake and you shake but without any physical touch. There’s no right or wrong way to shake, as unstructured shaking to release anger is a cathartic action on its own. And, like everything else in your yogi parent toolkit, if it doesn’t work for them, it might still do wonders for you.

Feeling victorious after a shake-it-out session earlier this week, I asked my son, “Do you feel better now that we shook out the anger?” Unintentionally humbling me, he replied, “Yes, Mama, I feel better. But it’s because you hugged me.” So was the quiet resolution thanks to the shaking or the tenderness? Was it an energetic transformation or merely an after-quake effect? Or both?

6. Bedtime Mantras

In the twins’ infancy, my husband and I started playing “Om Shanti Om” by Deva Premal before bed as a gentle chanting ritual to signal their transition to sleep. This consistency has brought them comfort. On the days they’re laser-focused on a task ahead of bedtime, they’ll just ask to repeat the mantra music to extend the time rather than panicking (and potential tantrums) about the sand slipping through the hourglass too quickly.

When the collective energy is exceptionally high before bedtime, I pull out From Head to Toe by Eric Carle so they can act out different animals’ movements and postures with me. Admittedly, these are not traditional “yoga asanas,” although the book is an excellent resource to round out a mindful evening routine.