Children today are faced with multiple stressors including high demands on their time, familial and social expectations, and media pressures. Children are experiencing mental health and behavioral disorders at alarming rates (Merikangas, He, Brody, Fisher, Bourdon, & Koretz, 2010). Many children come from families that do not have regular access to psychological care. Children are in need of coping tools and techniques that they can rely on to manage stress. The purpose of this study was to assess the lived experience of children who have adopted a yogic lifestyle through qualitative consensual methods and thematic analysis.

Yoga practice has proven to be an effective tool in managing stress in adult populations (Parashad, 2004; Smith, Hancock, Blake-Mortimer, & Eckert, 2007). Research has begun to emerge that offers promise that yoga may also be an effective intervention for managing stress in childhood populations (Bose, & Schorobenhauser-Clonan, 2014; White, 2012). Research on yoga practice with children has thus far focused on its ability to aid in self-regulatory processes including mental, behavioral, and emotional self-regulation. The body of research investigating the impact of yoga on children and adolescents' self-esteem, body image, and mental health has also expanded considerably (Bhardwaj & Agrawal, 2013; Felver et al., 2015; Malboeuf-Hurtbise et al., 2016; Scime, Cook-Cottone, & Watson, 2006; Sethi et al., 2013). Results have been promising but there is a lack of the child's voice in current literature. This research assessed the experiences of child yogis from their perspectives in order to add this important aspect to the body of research in the developing field of yoga therapy for children.