12 Sep 2013
Taming the Monkey Mind
Ever feel like this? How do we calm our MONKEY MIND?
Back to school…my favorite time of year! New Students and new lessons to explore together!
I wanted to begin the school year with a lesson about the many ways we can quiet our “monkey minds”.
After chanting OMs at the beginning of class, I brought out one of my favorite stuffed animals CURIOUS GEORGE and explained to the children that our minds can be all over the place. We call this a monkey mind because like monkeys are always playing and jumping and swinging around, sometimes we have so many busy, busy thoughts and ideas going around in our minds.
“Today, we are going to learn some ways to help us calm and quiet our busy minds…are you ready?”
As a warmup, I used Sara Marlowe’s wonderful mindfulness song called “Busy Minds”, which are available for download on her site. The children did a “busy mind dance” when she was singing and when the music stopped, they had to freeze and listen, as they practiced some ways of keeping our busy minds still. From all the laughter and smiling faces, it was easy to see that the children absolutely LOVED this activity and song!
After we discussed some of the ways (mentioned in the song) that we can calm our busy minds…breathing, listening, visualization…I told them that of course yoga is one of the best ways to do this too!
Next I read the book I LOVE MONKEY by Suzanne Kaufmann. The book is about a monkey who wants to be special and tries to be all kinds of animals and objects, which were great prompts for yoga poses and movement: BUNNY (Rabbit Pose), ELEPHANT (Elephant BREATH) SQUIRREL, CHICKEN, ROBOT, BEE (Bumble Bee BREATH) and many other silly things, like Monster, Corn, Cucumber, Sushi, etc.!
While there are not many traditional yoga poses in the book, they children really enjoyed the book and making up movements for the animals, creatures and objects in the story.
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At the end of the book, the monkey decides that there is ONE thing that he is really good at being and that is… HIMSELF! The children had fun pretending to be a MONKEY, jumping and making monkey sounds!!
I really LOVE the message in this book, that everyone is special and you can just BE WHO YOU ARE because that is what makes YOU special! Then I passed Curious George around the room and asked them to share one thing that makes them special, something they like to do or are good at…they shared so many great responses, from baseball to swimming to playing the drums to gardening to yoga even!
For RELAXATION, I told them “Now we are going to put our busy monkey minds to sleep and enjoy some quiet time.
In a soothing voice, I read them the last few lyrics from a song called Playing Monkey’s Lullaby by Caroline Cotter
Monkeys playing have more fun
They’re fancy free and tra la la
but even playing monkeys see
the light that shines inside of me
so close your eyes and clear your mind
and find the peace you have inside
and let those monkeys go to sleep
19 Sep 2013
Teaching Children about Meditation
This month’s theme in my yoga classes is Mindfulness and Meditation.
Since I work mostly with preschoolers, ages 2 to 5, the idea of calming the mind can be a lofty and challenging concept to teach. Young children may not really understand how the mind is always going, but they DO understand that sometimes it can be hard to LISTEN or to FOCUS on learning or SIT STILL in school.
Last week, I taught the children about the many ways to QUIET their BUSY MINDS by having the experience in their bodies of moving and dancing and then standing STILL…using their BREATH, LISTENING and VISUALIZATION to help their minds become CALM. The Busy Minds Song I used helped show the contrast between the constant movement and “busyness” of the mind and the peace and quiet that we can learn to cultivate through these simple techniques of BREATHING, MEDITATION and YOGA.
This week, I explored MINDFULNESS and what it means to be mindful in our THOUGHTS, WORDS and ACTIONS.
I used the book Mindful Movements by Thich Nhat Hanh to explain how yoga is about the connection of our BREATH with MOVEMENT. There are 10 mindful movements in the book and many of them are similar to some of the yoga poses that the children are familiar with, so we practiced taking deep breaths in and out as we did each mindful movement 3 times.
I cued them before each breath…
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Take a deep breath in and lift your arms up, breath out as you bring your arms back to your side.
BREATHE IN….BREATHE OUT.
I explained that the movements were slow, which helps us bring our attention to our breath and our body, so we can be CALM inside.
The children really enjoyed breathing and following me, as we did the movements together. I also added in some of their favorite yoga songs during class to mix it up a bit.
We ended class with a quiet guided visualization and the children were able to rest in Savasana, using their breath to send a calm, feeling from the top of their heads all the way down to their tip toes.
I just started an amazing CHILD MEDITATION FACILITATORS TRAINING and CERTIFICATION PROGRAM led by Sarah Wood Vallely to teach meditation to children and look forward to learning some new, creative ways to integrate meditation techniques into my classes!