Love Bubble Meditation:

Love Bubble Meditation: 

Transcript:

Start lying down, arms relaxed by your sides or you can rest them gently on your belly. Notice the sounds around you (not a few) and then locate a place of silence in all the noise, so your mind can rest. Next, turn your focus to your body, and allow yourself to let go of any tension (here lead them through a foot-to-head “heaviness” exercise. At the belly, stop for a moment and feel the in and out breath and at the forehead, mention that they should feel their brows are cool as a warm forehead can cause headaches); the final focus goes to the breath, first as something to hear and then as something to feel.

“Love Bubble” meditation: Suggest to them to “feel joyful” to “feel peace” to “feel love”. First think of yourselves and send some love your way. Say to yourself on an in-breath, “I am thoughtful and understanding.”  On the in-breath feel yourself draw the energy from the earth and as you exhale, feel these positive compliments wash over and cover your whole body. Inhale “I am thoughtful and understanding, drawing the energy in, and on the exhale, allowing yourself to submerge in these affirmations. A few times on your own, noticing the cool breath entering and the breath out through your nose, is warmed. Now direct your thoughts to someone you want to send some love to, this person could be alive or passed on, a parent, a grandparent, a sibling, a friend…anyone. While thinking of this person, feel “peace, joyfulness, and friendship”. Breathe in pulling the energy of peace, joy and trust into you and on the out breath spreading these thoughts like a soft wind encompassing your body. Allow these thoughts, like a big pink bubble, to float up to the sky above and then drift into the air, heading towards “your loved one”. As the bubble floats away, once again, notice your breath in and your breath out, cool to warm, with each out breath your body sinks deeper into the supportive mat below.  

Send loving-kindness to yourself and allow it to radiate out from inside.

Be healthy, happy, and peaceful.

May all beings be well and happy.
May all beings be well and happy.
May all beings be well and happy.
May there be peace.
May there be peace.
May there be peace.

The “Love Bubble” Meditation

Today’s afterschool yoga class stared with a seated meditation. I have been so pleased with the progress of meditation in this class and like to start the class by calming and focusing all the minds. We sat in a comfortable, seated position, with hands in our laps, palms up, one hand cradled inside the other. I started by asking the students to listen for the sounds around them and then to locate a place of silence in all the noise, so our minds could rest. We then turned our focus to our bodies, paid attention to how we felt, and let go of any tension (here I led them through a foot-to-head “heaviness” exercise. At the belly we stopped for a moment and felt our breath and at the overhead, I mentioned that should feel their brows were cool); our final focus went to the breath, first as something to hear and then as something to feel. I started the “Love Bubble” meditation: I suggested to them to “feel happy” to “feel love” to “feel good”. I asked them to think of someone they wanted to send some love to, this person could be alive or passed on, a parent, a grandparent, a sibling, a friend…anyone alive or not. While thinking of this person, we felt “happy”, “love”, and “good”. We then imagined a large pink bubble surrounding our loved one. We allowed this bubble to float up to the sky above us and then drift into the air, heading towards “our loved one”. As the bubble floated away, I had them once again find their silence, relax their bodies and breathe.

Today’s classes theme was: “things that fly” and “things in the sky”

For warm-up we started seated: Fly Like A Butterfly, arm flap, Wind-Releasing Pose (Pavanamuktasana) and Caterpillar (which is what I called spinal warm up today). Then standing, feet firmly planted, swing arms and torso side to side loosely for Helicopter.
In the sky, we saluted the sun (Suryanamaskar); Triangle pose (Trikonasana) led us to ½ Moon (Ardha Chandrasana); Airplane; Eagle (Garudasana); Squat led us to Crane (Bakasana); Final power pose, Rainbow or commonly known as Wheel or Upward Facing Bow Pose (Urdhva Danhurasana). I of course gave spots to all during Crane & Wheel.
Down we went for ½ Pigeon stretch.

Savasana: Lying down, completely still, hands by your side, palms open to feed the birds we had just conjured up, I brought back the “Love Bubble” and had them imagine it was now en-wrapping them. It was filling them with happiness, love and goodness. We felt ourselves float up to the sky and let the air currents gently move us around, and then imagined gently floating back to the ground, with a warm body and cool forehead.
Seated in Easy Pose, we did acapella version of “We’re The Rockin’ Yogis & Yoginis”.

Namaste!