Yoga-Snack: The Rain Falls and The Sky Shudders

Today’s Yoga-Snack is soggy! I mean everyone and everything feels soaked through and through. I came to yoga today with this prevailing feeling for the need for a restorative yoga class and thought the kids would be droopy when they came in. Well I was wrong! They were bouncing off the walls, but I held fast to my idea for the need to internalize and to focus within.

I chose to play music today, so we started class with a meditation listening to Moby’s “The Rain Falls And The Sky Shudders" (on Moby Songs). It is such a beautiful piece of electronic music. You can feel the sky opening and the rain coming down; there is no thunder, no real storming effect to it, just rain. It is very purifying. From listening to the music, feeling our breath and feeling our bodies relax; we crept inside ourselves and just were.

Next on the track was “Raga Malika” by Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan (on Ragas). Although there was no sun, we decide to reach for the sun and stretch from our feet to our finger tips. I had the kids step into low lunge and we held our knees to balance ourselves. Then with arms out stretched, we reached for the sun again, brought our hands together and let our heads fall back.

From there, we moved onto our bellies. From locust to crocodile a few times and then some free form air swimming with bellies on the floor. Due to popular demand, we practiced bow pose too. After resting, we tried Peacock pose, but found it too hard to get our feet off the floor. I love how everyone really tried to figure it out and balance and although no one got up, we were all smiling from our efforts.
To keep the smiling going, I decide to do some heart opening bridges and wheels. We all did bridge together and then with my assisting some and others on their own, we did wheel. I taught everyone how to carefully come down so as not to put undue strain on their necks or knees.

Rock and roll, rock and roll, up into boat pose. Tons of laughing here.

For a final challenge, we all did head stand prep. I allowed no one to go into full head stand without me, but after trying the prep, I assisted each student into a head stand and helped them carefully to descend. While they waited their turn, some did more prep and others rolled themselves up into their mats. One girl told me how much she loved the mat rolling, so much so that the other day at home when she and her sister were feeling anxious, they rolled themselves up in mats and it helped to calm them and made them feel relaxed.

We did a rousing version of “Happy Jio” by Shakta Kaur Khalsa (on Happy Radiant Child Music) some in partners and some just dancing away solo! That is one winner of a fun song!

In Savasana, I had a request to play the Moby song from the beginning of class, so we listened and relaxed to music too.

At the end of class I played “She Dips Water” by Joanne Shenandoah (on Matriarch: Iroquois Women’s Songs). What a gorgeous song! What a gorgeous yoga practice!

Ole! Namaste!