How many ways can we sit in yoga?

This afternoon's youth yoga for grades 5-8 was so much fun. Really! I had the kids sitting still, focusing on their yoga, relaxing. The hubbub seemed to just come to an end!

We placed our five mats out in a ray pattern. One block per students. We began seated or lying down on our mats. Our voices were kept low and staying on the mat was a must. I asked everyone to sit. I did not specify how they should sit; they just needed to sit. Looking around, I noticed everyone was "sitting" a different way. So I posed the question..."How many ways can we think of to "sit" in yoga?" Look at yourself right now. One by one, we noticed how we were sitting and saw the yoga poses that they were.

We did:
1. Easy Pose (making sure our feet were under our knees)
2. Frog Pose (like a beginner turtle pose. Seated, knees bent, feet flat on floor, arms reaching to floor between legs)
3. Lotus (trying a quick lift and balance here)
4. Butterfly
5. Bharadvajavasana I (carefully twisting in both directions  but making sure our shoulders stayed in alignment and to not allow are arms to move without the shoulder girdle)
6. Squat/Garland Pose
7. Staff Pose

I then had them all lie down on their mats using a block, in low position, as a pillow. Chins dropped slightly. Focusing, their attention being drawn inward. Noticing sensations. And suddenly all the electricity went out. I don't mean in the building, but in their bodies. Shut down. Calm. Relaxed. Breathing. All of a sudden a deep sense of stillness entered the room and it settled down on us. We stayed here for a good five minutes. IN silence, listening to the ticking of the heaters.

To bring back sensation, we began noticing our breath in our nostrils and deciding which side was breathing more strongly. Notice if you are breathing through both nostrils? Mentally can you take your breath in through the right and out the left and then reverse?

Coming up to stand...Posing the question, "How many ways can we stand in yoga?"

We did:
1. Mountain Pose (feeling the triad of the big tow, little toe and center of heel)
2. Up-Mountain Pose
3. Chair Pose
4. Skiers Pose (belly on deeply bent legs, but they do not drop below the bottom)
5. Bent knee forward bend (hands on floor, let head drop, like a standing deep child's pose)
6. Bent knee chest lift (stay with legs bent, but lift collar bones and roll shoulders back)
7. Standing forward bend, legs bent enough to support the torso on the thighs (standing child's pose)
8. Airplane
9. Goddess Squat
10. Dancer's Pose
11. Tree Pose
12. Triangle Pose

Now a mini Savasana. Noticing which nostril was breathing more strongly, we rolled to that side and sat up.

Today we began our yoga journals. I brought B.K.S. Iyengar "Light on Yoga"; B.K.S. Inyengar "Yoga The Path To Holistic Health"; Baron Baptiste " My Daddy Is A Pretzel" book and card deck; Marsha Wenig "Yoga Kids". We looked for all the poses we had done today and started to draw them in our journals writing an English translation for the pose, plus the Sanskrit. I wanted to help the kids have a visual to help them understand their bodies in space in these poses.

I will keep the journals at the center ad every week we will add a new section. We will continue drawing and naming poses, but we will also collage, to make dream boards, work with affirmations, and delve into the Yamas (the restraints of yoga: Ahimsa (non-harming); Sateya (non-lying); Asteya (non-stealing); Bramacharya (of Brahma); Aparigraha (non-hoarding)) and ideas of how to practice yoga off the mat.

Girls Yoga Retreat: Day Two

Sunday morning, the mom's, daughters and I re-communed at Spirit Bear Power Yoga for the second day of our yoga retreat. I woke up that morning feeling very refreshed and totally focused on the morning's class. Where last night had been a calming , restorative practice, I planned for  a more energetci and uplifting class for today.

I began class with a wave breathing taught to me my Barbara Benagh. We lay on our backs, and held our knees with our hands. On the inhale, we let our knees out and on the exhale breath, we brought our knees towards our stomach, naturally causing the air to be dispelled from our body. After that a simple twist, using Eagle legs (causing our hips to be fixed so we could focus our twist in the middle and upper part of our backs). Standing, in time with our breath, we went up and down into Uttanasaa. I explained the use of Ujjayi breathing and that in this up and down time, we would want to make our in and out breaths even. Here I briefly discussed that some people are more prominently exhalers and others are more prominently inhalers. And that poses where were did more exhaling were calming and those that had more of an inhale where energizing.

We did a Sun A series of high lung, to low lunge, and then a rest in Child's Pose. Pressing back up into Uttanasana, we then stood for tree pose. Then taking a wide stance on our mat, we did a flow series of triangle to 1/2 Moon to standing split to Warrior II to Dancing Warrior and then repeated on the other side.

After another Child's Pose, we did Vishnu's Couch, Table Top Balance and then we all experienced Head Stand Prep. I also led the kid's in a simple tripod head stand.

Dropping back into Savasna, I lightly turned on "Chant From The Heart" BY Kitaro, an 8 minute piece and let everyone drfit off into a rleaxation state.

We finished class again with journaling. I read another selection from Buddha at Bedtime and the families and I talked about healthy eating, sharing with our kids, CSA's, and various other topics drfited in and out.

I want to thank Christy Carlson for hosting this wonderful event at Spirit Bear Power Yoga. It was a wonderful way to connect to the community and share my love of yoga. Thank you all for the wonderful welcome to Natick. I look forward to many more enjoyable times.

Namaste!

Yoga Retreatat Spirit Bear Power Yoga for Girls (ages 8-14)....Moms welcome too!

Yoga Retreat for Girls

(ages 8-14) ….and Moms too 

with Eve Agush at 

Spirit Bear Power Yoga

Saturday, November 13^th:  7:00 – 9:00pm  
RELAX with an incredible stretch, like a giant yawn for the body. We will spend one hour practicing breathing techniques, restorative yoga poses and meditation. The second hour, we will explore journaling, healthier lifestyles and creation of personal mandalas.

Sunday, November 14^th: 11:00am – 1:00pm 
Rise and Shine!  We will greet the sun with an energetic practice. Through warming poses, our bodies will breathe in new life and vitality. Students will learn poses, breath, and meditation that will help reduce and manage stress. Expect to leave feeling strong and balanced!

Register on-line or at the studio. Spirit Bear Power Yoga is located in Natick Center at 19 Main Street at the intersection of Route 27 and Route 135

1 student:  $20 for both, $15 single session

Mom:  $20 both, $15 single session

Second sibling:  $15 for both, $10 single session

(508)655-YOGA For more info

Summer camp alternative at B Yoga: Wrap Up

B Yoga is a peaceful space! The room is deeply set and I love all the free wall space. I was so happy when I walked in and I had a class of 15 kids, eagerly waiting for yoga. They came to a yoga studio, prepared for yoga...and it is yoga that we did.

Each day we started with breathing exercises (i.e. deep belly breaths, alternate nostril breathing). We then proceeded to poses (asanas). Each day we explored different poses and styles of yoga. We ended each yoga session with savasana (Corpse Pose).

Day One: Yoga and Journaling: I loved adding journaling to my classes. This age group was happier drawing pictures, rather than writing words, so I brought plenty of blank paper and folders for everyone. While they drew (I encouraged them to draw their feelings about yoga, poses they liked, how these poses made them feel in emotion and color...), I read to them the story of Hanuman, the Hindu monkey god.  Hanuman --2004 publication.


Day Two: Yoga and Meditation: Today's class was full of song and dance. We started the class with Shakta Khalsa's Radiant Child Yoga's "Yogini Went to Sea". That song never fails to bring smiles to our faces and leave us all laughing at the end. I played various tracks while we did our practice and at the end we did several forms of mediation. First. We just sat in easy pose, hands cupped in our laps and focused our minds on the noise around us, hen the quite, on our breath and then on how our bodies felt. We did this silent, still meditation for one minute. Next, we tired my version of "I Am Happy, I Am Good" (please note Blog Entry on January 30, 2010). We also did "The Rockin' Yogi's (Found on the album Radiant Child Music: Happy). To end class, we did a rousing version of "Happy Jio".

Day Three: Yoga and Healthy Eating: After our yoga session, I gave the kids more paper for their journals (they were sad we didn't get to journal on the second day) and then got to work preparing a healthy snack with them. We talked about not eating too much processed food and how making things from scratch was more satisfying and somehow just tasted better. I had brought in carrots and celery I had prepared at home and two containers of plain, fat free yogurt. I brought some fresh dill in one bowl and maple syrup form a  local farm in another. I had the kids add the yogurt to each container to make one sweet dip and one savory. I also made simple syrup at home and cut up a bunch of lemons. I gave each child a chance to squeeze a lemon on my awesome glass juicer that I got at a thrift store recently (my favorite purchase recently). Not sure the amount, but I would say we made a pitcher of lemonade with 16 lemons, a gallon of water and 1 1/2 cups of simple syrup (which you make with a 1:1 ration of water and sugar).

Day Four: Yoga and Mandalas:  I love how kids classes go. One moment I am explaining to them what a mandala is and the next we are running all around the studio finding mandalas..in the lamp designs, on the ceiling, on our own yoga mats, on the wheel of a car driving by...so much fun!  The meaning of mandala comes from Sanskrit meaning "circle". Mandalas are geometric designs, symbolic of the universe, that are used as an aid to meditation (please note Blog Entry on December 16, 2009). I brought in many different coloring book pages of mandalas and each child looked at them and chose which ones they felt most like coloring. We spent the rest of class coloring. Some children ended class with a head stand.

Day Five: Yoga and Everything Mixed In Together:  Today we all brought in a favorite stuffed animal to join us in our yoga practice. After a warm-up, each student had a chance to say their favorite pose and then all the stuffed animals had a go at it and then all the students. There were many hand stands, head stands and tree poses...I taught turtle...we also had requests for wheel, crow, downward facing dog pose and dancer's pose. I then pulled out the folders and everyone had a chance to draw or do mandalas. We also took some time to explore the props in the studio: blocks, straps, blankets, bolsters and prayer pillows. This class could have lasted for three hours easily!

This was such a successful yoga session. I loved exploring yoga with these children and hope they all can fit yoga into their lives...just a reminder: I will be offering a youth yoga class at B Yoga, Melrose, MA starting on Friday September 17, 2010 at 4:15PM.

Come on and join me so we can enjoy yoga together!

Ole Namaste!