3 Feb 2014
We are Divine Love~ A Poem
Spirituality
23 Jan 2014
Peace Begins Inside
In honor of Martin Luther King’s Birthday, this week’s theme in my classes was PEACE.
I have been meaning to try one on Todd Parr’s books in my classes and found this awesome one called The Peace Book.
The colorful, quirky illustrations really capture the spirit of diversity and each page has a positive message about the many ways we can create PEACE in the world.
We began with a discussion about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The children shared about his “dream” for all people to get along and be nice to each other. I explained that we could help this dream of peace come true by finding that peaceful place INSIDE through our yoga, OMs, breathing and meditation.
The book has lots of YOGA POSES:
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We swam like Sharks and Fish, splashed with our Elephant trunks, slithered around like Snakes, barked in Downward, Upward and 3 Legged Dog, turned into a Buttefly (caterpillar), stretched out while Painting the Sky, offered a HUG to a friend and more… It was so cute to see the children expressing their love for one another.
The message at the end is that each one of us can help make the world a better place!
After SAVASANA, I played Elizabeth Mitchell’s Peace Like a River, which is a catchy, beautiful song that can be done with actions for younger children (see video below). For the last verse, we all held hands and made a CIRCLE of PEACE. I let them know that we can share the PEACE we have insdie with everyone around us and create PEACE in the world.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU6N4E1tLLg
14 Dec 2013
Bhakti Yoga~ The Path to LOVE
BHAKTI mean “devotion” or “pure love”. YOGA means “union” or “to connect”.
Bhakti Yoga is a practice of connecting with God, reestablishing a relationship with him through devotional service, in essence…SURRENDER TO GOD. They say Bhakti Yoga is the quickest path to peace and bliss. When one achieves union with God, one can experience peace.
I have been exploring what it means to SURRENDER to the Divine, to GOD. Having grown up Catholic, I had rejected the idea of GOD in my late teens and it has taken me over 20 years to reclaim a new found relationship with GOD. It’s not that I did not believe in a higher power, but I preferred to objectify it as the UNIVERSE. While I was fully conscious of my power to create my life, I felt estranged from God, separate and alone.
Through yoga, meditation and being of service to others by teaching and writing, I began to develop a personal relationship with GOD. This has allowed me to open myself up to trusting that God is present in my life. I know that He is supporting me on my path. There is less struggle and burden on myself because I am now CO-CREATING with the Divine.
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Bhakti Yoga has allowed me to take that connection to a deeper level. I have always loved to sing, but when I am chanting, I can feel GOD’s presence in the room, in my heart, in the core of my being. It is like the entire room melts away and I am at ONE with GOD, at ONE with it ALL.
There is no separation…it is as if the energy that runs through our voices is the energy that runs through everyone and everything. Chanting the name of God in community at kirtan has brought me closer to the LOVE inside my own heart, GOD’s love which is always here.
Bhakti is a practice of LOVE…when all voices come together as ONE, the energy is electric, you can actually feel it vibrating through you and all around you. In that space, there is no choice but to SURRENDER to GOD.
12 Dec 2013
Winter Yoga Fun!
BRRRRRRR…it’s cold out there and now that we’ve had our first snowfall, I wanted to treat my students to some WINTER YOGA FUN!
I usually buy my books, but I decided to brave the cold, so I made it out to my local library and found the perfect book for this week’s lesson: WHEN WINTER COMES by Nancy Van Laan.
For CIRCLE TIME, each child shared what they love about WINTER and what they like to do in the wintertime. Then we did a cute warm-up that was a variation of the HOKEY POKEY, but instead we called it the WINTER POKEY!! (You can find the lyrics here or just have the kids make up what they want to put on.)
I told them that we needed to get dressed for the cold weather and asked “What could we wear?”
They all chimed in with their ideas and one by one we warmed up our body parts!
We put our gloves in
we take our gloves out
we put our gloves on (pretend to put gloves on hands)
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and we shake ’em (SHAKE HANDS) all about
We do the WINTER POKEY and we turn ourselves around
That’s what it’s all about!
After putting on our snow boots, coats, scarves, etc, some of my students even came up with silly ideas like being a REINDEER, putting antlers on, RUDOLPH (putting a red nose on) and SANTA (putting a beard on). I am always inspired by my kid’s imaginations, we laughed twirled around and had so much fun!
Then we had yoga story time. When Winter Comes is such a great book to teach kids about what happens to the natural world, the trees and flowers and animals too. After our Fun AUTUMN LEAVES LESSON last month, it was especially nice that the book started with the leaves falling to the ground…
It is full of poses: they pretended to be a TREE and the leaves falling to the ground, FLOWER wilting and then growing, crawling around like a CATERPILLAR going into its COCOON and turning into BUTTERFLY in Spring, Field MOUSE burrowing in a tunnel underground, FISH swimming to the bottom of a pond, DOG and ends with a child snuggled up warm in bed, which is the perfect prompt for Relaxation time.
I played a beautiful lullaby called If You Listen by Elizabeth Mitchell for the younger children and made up a guided visualization for the older ones. Maybe it’s because we tend to be more tired in the winter, but I was so happy to see my classes resting quietly and enjoying the stillness during SAVASANA.
21 Nov 2013
Teaching Kids about Being Thankful
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays.
What’s better than expressing our gratitude for all that we have in our lives and sharing time with our family and loved ones?
This week, we explored the theme of Gratitude and Being Thankful in my yoga classes. We began with a discussion of what Thanksgiving means and each child got to share one thing that they are thankful for. I let the children know that we don’t have to wait until Thanksgiving to be thankful, we can be Thankful every day!
P.K. Hallinan’s book I’m Thankful Each Day was the perfect book to engage my little yogis in the many things we can be thankful for. In the book, a boy describes all the blessings in his life, from the sun to the rain, to the trees and the love of his family and friends.
There are so many great YOGA POSES in this book:
The book begins with the boy looking up at the clouds and then the night sky and being thankful for the STARS in the sky. For Star Pose, we all stood up stretching out our “star points” and sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
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SUN (Sun Saluatations), TREE, FLOWER, RABBIT, TABLE, RAINBOW, DOG, MOUNTAIN.
We also had fun making the sound of RAIN with our fingertips and then making it louder and even making thunder by clapping our hands and slowing down to tiny raindrops again. Creative movement is a great way to keep children’s attention and allows them to use their imagination!
At the end of class, we colored some Turkey Mandalas. I explained that a MANDALA is a special kind of art that is used by people from all around the world and that it helps us to focus and connect when we are coloring just like MEDITATION.
I brought in a book of Native American Mandalas. I explained how the Native American mandalas show how much they respected Nature and how much they were thankful for all that the Earth provided for them. I told them that mandalas are shaped like a circle which is like the circle of life and how we are all connected in life.
Then I handed out the mandalas and some crayons and asked them to color quietly and think about what they are thankful for. I played some soothing flute music and the children spent some time very focused on coloring, some even drew their own Mandalas on the back of the their paper. For SAVASANA, they were all lying down and looking at their Mandalas, it was adorable!
It’s never to early to teach a child to BE THANKFUL and recognize all the gifts their lives!
11 Nov 2013
Soul Sketches and Poetic MUSEings
It’s been a while since I shared my MUSEings.
from my journal to you…
DIZZY ON DIVINITY
I am HOLY,
a sacred INCARNATION of love
inhaling only love
exhaling only love
exuding only love
emBODYing only love
Love is my RELIGION.
ONE
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I am the sun and the shadows that it casts,
the moon and the darkness it illuminates,
the raging waves and the tiny ripples in the ocean
I am every paradox, parallel,
polar opposite, twin flame,
every reflection
all wrapped into ONE,
ONE me which is you
which is ONE…
the ONEness of it all.
~ Betty Larrea © October 2013
10 Oct 2013
Peaceful Piggy Meditation
PEACEFUL PIGGY sits on his meditation cushion and BREATHES…
One of my favorite yoga books is called PEACEFUL PIGGY MEDITATION!
Continuing with the theme of Meditation and Mindfulness, last week I brought in my PIGGY puppet and he read the book Peaceful Piggy Meditation by Kerry MacLean to the children! We started with a discussion about all the ways we had been learning about how to calm our “busy” minds. These are some of the responses I received when I asked them “So, what can we do to quiet our busy, busy minds?”:
“We can do our Balloon Breath”
“We can chant OMs”
We can be QUIET and listen”
“We can do yoga”
It was amazing to hear all the great responses they came up with and to see that they really made the connection between yoga and breathing and being quiet and peaceful inside.
I also brought in a meditation jar I had made with some glitter, water and a bit of blue food coloring. I had the children gather around in a circle on their bellies to watch, then I shook the jar vigorously and placed it on the floor. I explained that the glitter in the jar was like all the thoughts going around in our head. I asked them to watch was happening to the pieces of glitter in the jar. They told me they were falling and down down and how they stopped moving. I told them that as the pieces were settling down, the water was becoming clear and still, just like our minds when we do our meditation and quiet time.
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The kids LOVED it and wanted me to shake it again and again and were so focused on watching the glitter swirling around then settling down. It really helped them to understand the idea of how our thoughts can become STILL like the water in the jar when we do our breathing and meditation. To make your own meditation jar, click HERE.
Then we did some yoga poses of animals and objects we found in the book. In the book, Piggy says: “it can be hard not to lose your temper when you’re angry” so I passed the PIGGY puppet around and asked each child to share what makes them angry and upset. Children are not often given a safe place to express what makes the upset or angry, so I wanted to give them a place to be heard in this way with acceptance and love.
After they shared their frustrations, I let them know it was ok to get angry and a good thing to do when we are feeling angry or upset is BREATHE! I taught them the LION’s BREATH, where they make an angry scrunched up face and then take a deep breath in and stick their tongues out and say “AHHHH” when they breath out! They all loved it and started laughing.
Peaceful Piggy Meditation helps teach kids that they can find their own PEACEFUL PLACE INSIDE through meditation.
For more Yoga Lesson Ideas on Meditation, see my previous posts:
Teaching Children About Meditation
4 Oct 2013
Falling in Love
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!
14 Feb 2014
Surrender to Love Yoga Playlist
My Valentine’s Gift to you:
May you SURRENDER to LOVE…and let it FLOW.
This flowing yoga playlist is sure to open your heart and soul to LOVE…
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or follow this link to itunes music playlist
https://www.beyogabelove.com/resources/music-playlists/