9am Highland Yoga, Butler, NJ
www.highlandyoga.com
Wednesdays
6am Parisi Sports Club, Midland Park, NJ
1pm Naturally Yoga, Glen Rock, NJ
www.naturallyyoga.com
7:30pm Ananta Yoga, Wayne, NJ
www.wayneyoga.com
Saturdays
10am Highland Yoga, Butler, NJ
www.highlandyoga.com
This week I will be completing a series of yoga classes for first to fifth graders I taught on Friday afternoons at my daughter's school. It has been such a wonderful and inspiring experience. Below is my closing letter to their parents and teachers about it:
Dear Parents and Teachers,
I have been so inspired by sharing the practice of yoga with
your children. I have been delighted by
their bright smiles, innate wisdom, and eagerness to learn and soak up the teachings. They have shared many awesome insights about
the stories and themes which were highlighted over our time together with
books, songs, asanas (physical postures), pranayama (breathing practices), and
mudras (hand positions). Yoga is a
wonderful practice that includes not only strengthening and stretching the
muscles but also tools to deal with life’s challenges and to more fully
appreciate the joys in this life.
We used the following books to deepen our learning of
certain practices: Each Breath a
Smile based on teachings by Thich Nhat Hanh which invited us to become
fully aware of our breathing and how all of life is breathing with us; Moody
Cow Meditates by Kerry Lee MacLean which ignited a discussion on how we
deal with a really bad day and calm our angry feelings; The Carrot Seed
by Ruth Krauss that reminded us to stay true to what we believe in; When
Sophie Gets Angry by Molly Bang which illustrated how the wide world can
comfort us if we allow ourselves to take in the beauty and expansiveness of
nature; and The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle where we had fun
acting out the story and learning how to tune into ourselves and wait for the
right time to do or say something (to come out of the cocoon and be transformed).
We used the following songs from Thich Nhat Hanhn’s
Mindfulness Meditation Practice to outline the themes of identifying with and
being calmed by nature:
-----------------------------------------------------------
Breathing In,
Breathing Out
Breathing In,
Breathing Out
I am Blooming as a Flower
I am Fresh as the Dew
I am Solid as a
Mountain
I am Firm as the Earth
I am Free
Breathing In,
Breathing Out
Breathing In,
Breathing Out
I am water reflecting
what is real, what is true
And I feel there is
space deep inside of me
I am Free, I am Free, I
am Free
------------------------------------------------------------
Breathing in, I go
back to the island within myself
There are beautiful
trees within the island
There are clear
streams of water
There are birds,
sunshine, and fresh air
Breathing out, I feel
safe
I enjoy going back to
my island
------------------------------------------------------------
The children were very interested in the mudras (hand
positions) we learned and continued to ask about them each week. We would begin each class by playing a
game. Each child chooses a mudra: connecting thumb and first finger is for knowledge,
thumb and middle finger is for patience, thumb and ring finger is
for creativity,
and thumb and pinky is for communication or deep
listening. (We used this last
one when in the cocoon and listening for the right time to come out -The Very Hungry Catepillar.) To begin class, I invite the bell and model
sitting with eyes closed, hands in a mudra, listening to the bell and aware of
my breathing. The game is to listen very closely until you can’t hear the bell anymore and then quietly change your hands to
Anjali mudra where you connect the palms of the hands together over the
heart. We do this three times to quiet
our minds, become aware of our body and breath.
They do this so beautifully to begin class.
They learned the importance of warming up the six directions
of the spine. Ask them to show you: cat and cow (they like to do the sound
effects – meow and moo), side stretches, and twisting. Some of their favorite activities included
hopping around the circle like frogs in squat pose, walking in and out of the
center of the circle like crabs, and for some of them doing a backbend. They like to make requests for the postures
(asanas) we do. This shows me how much
they enjoy it. Each class included sun
salutations, standing poses and balancing poses as well as a closing relaxation
called svasana where they lie still with their eyes closed to relax and I get
to sing them a beautiful song (like the ones listed above).
Thank you for the opportunity to share this time with your
children, to learn so much from them, and to share the practice of yoga. We close each class by chanting the universal
sound of OM to send out wishes of peace and joy, love and light to our
classmates, our teachers, our friends, family, and all beings. Then we bring our hands in front of our
hearts in Anjali mudra and say “Namaste” to each other. I tell them (and now you): “ Inside each one
of you there is a spark, a light, that shines through your eyes, through your
smile, through all the wonderful things you do everyday. The light in me honors the light in you. Namaste.”
Sincerely,
Angela Cays, MS, LPC, RYT-500
Kripalu Certified Yoga Teacher
No comments:
Post a Comment