Meditation with Children

Out Of The Workshop And On To The Mat

Soleil Genera — Mom and Daughter Yoga – with Genera and Soleil

Today’s guest post is from Genera O’Reilly who attended the Young Yoga Masters Kids Yoga Teacher Training in February 2011. Genera’s been teaching adult yoga for years, but found she’s “a novice in the world of teaching yoga to children.” Find out what happens after the training, when she takes kids yoga out of the workshop and on to the mat. That’s her beautiful daughter Soleil in the pictures.

Out Of the Workshop And On To the Mat

childrens yoga - Tree Pose — Soleil in Tree Pose

I have been a yoga instructor for many years primarily teaching adults. However, recently I have changed my focus to teaching children’s yoga. I am also a mother of a four year little girl and so it is only natural progression that I would want to teach my daughter yoga being a yoga momma and all.

Over the past year I began by teaching my daughter simple asanas and breathing techniques that I thought she would find fun and playful. Teaching children is a much greater challenge than I had expected. While I consider myself to be an experienced yoga practitioner, I realized that I am a novice in the world of teaching yoga to children.

Feeling a Little Stuck with Kids Yoga Delivery

So, I thought it would be a great idea to get some formal training with someone who had some expertise in working with children. I was beginning to feel a little stuck with my yoga delivery. Then I found the lovely and enchanting Aruna from Young Yoga Masters and signed up for her children’s yoga workshop.

meditation for kids — Soleil Meditating – Children enjoy meditating and the games we play are teaching moments to help them learn how to do it.

I spent a full weekend learning many different meditation techniques, yoga games and various ways to deliver asanas to children. I had tons of fun. The group was very enthusiastic and had a wide range of experiences with children and yoga, everyone had something to offer.

My favourite component was the meditation games and chanting. I was so eager to get home and try them out on my daughter and her friends.

The following weekend that’s exactly what I did. I invited some of my daughter’s friends over to try out some of the new ideas I had learned from Aruna’s curriculum. The songs and games were a success. The kids really enjoyed the meditation game with the gremlins.

Even a Four Year Old will Challenge!

In fact my daughter won’t stop talking about how great the meditation game is. She did challenge me on whether or not it was meditation because the gremlins aren’t being quiet. LOL! You’ve got to love four years olds.

The beauty of that meditation game is that it’s an excellent way for them to begin training their mind to be still and develop their concentration while having fun. The kids were very receptive to the game and also enjoyed the popcorn game. For those of you who do not these games you should check out Aruna’s yoga workshop because she has endless ideas.

But the biggest thing to remember with kid’s yoga is to keep it fun, keep it open and keep it simple.

By Guest Writer: Genera O’Reilly,
[email protected]

Thank you Genera for giving an account of what it’s like after the Kids Yoga Teacher Training! Thanks also to Soleil for showing how much kids like yoga. If you’re looking for a kids yoga Teacher in Toronto please contact Genera at her e-mail. She’s got an expertise in yoga and a passion for teaching kids!

Upcoming Events: Don’t Miss Out!

People are registering for the Young Yoga Masters Kids Yoga Teacher Training from all over the world. Summer is a great time to visit Toronto, Canada and upgrade your skills. Please contact me for information on accommodations and options for shadowing me at a kids class while you are here. Upcoming courses:

June 18 – 19, 2011: Kids Yoga Teacher Training Weekend Course: Toronto, Ontario, Canada. This weekend is limited to 18 participants. Because the last course filled up I recommend registering early. Registration and information here.
Oakville, Ontario, Canada – Date to be Determined – Open House May 28 for more information. Click here for details.

You can bring Yoga Yoga Masters to your area – This training is like no other! Contact [email protected] to discover the delightful world of kids yoga.

Make a Difference in the Life of a Child

Let’s also remember that after parents, the biggest impact on a child’s success comes from the man or woman at the front of the classroom. In South Korea, teachers are known as “nation builders.” Here in America, it’s time we treated the people who educate our children with the same level of respect. We want to reward good teachers and stop making excuses for bad ones. And over the next ten years, with so many Baby Boomers retiring from our classrooms, we want to prepare 100,000 new teachers in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math.

In fact, to every young person listening tonight who’s contemplating their career choice: If you want to make a difference in the life of our nation; if you want to make a difference in the life of a child – become a teacher. Your country needs you.

Barak Obama
State of the Union Address (USA)
January 25, 2011

connect with kids — Connect with Kids through yoga and make a difference.

I was thrilled to hear teachers being acknowledged by President Obama in the State of the Union address last week. If you want to make a difference in the life of a child – become a teacher. As a kids yoga teacher and a trainer of new kids yoga teachers “making a difference” is a big part of what motivates me.

A Good Teacher Cares

Teaching can be a tough job. Teaching kids can be very repetitive, at times exhausting, and challenging to truly connect with every child. You’ve got to put your heart and soul into it to do it well.

Reflecting on the ways you make a difference in the life of a child can help teachers stay motivated. Here are a couple of things that have touched me as a teacher. I’d love you to leave a comment about how you’ve made a difference in the life of a child. Whether you are a parent or teacher, how do you know you’re making a difference? What helps you stay motivated? Let’s inspire each other today.

The First Time I Felt I Made a Difference

The first time I felt I was making a difference came in 1999 soon after I started teaching. One day a mom pulled me aside at the end of the kids yoga class at our local studio. Her six year old son was a regular in my class.

She had walked by her son’s bedroom and saw him sitting on the bed, eyes closed, hands by his heart. When she popped her head in, he explained he was doing a meditation to get rid of sad thoughts.

That’s when the tears welled up in her eyes and she thanked me for the yoga class, it was making a difference. She and her husband were getting divorced and things were rocky at her home. In fact, this was her second divorce; she had divorced her son’s father when he was two. This was not the family life she imagined for her son, but it was happening. She was so grateful that her son had a way to deal with the stress.

I knew yoga was powerful, but in that moment I was grateful to be a teacher and to pass on these gifts.

The next example is from yesterday.

Making a Difference Means The Kids Have Learned

We’re half way through the school year, and I’ve been doing weekly yoga classes for about five months. Usually after Christmas holidays the kids show they are ready for more real yoga and I begin to increase the silent breaks in the class. We trim down the music and pretending, and increase the time between the exercises, to experience the peace of sitting in silence, eyes closed, breathing relaxed. Yesterday half the kids in my pre-school class, ages two to six years old, were able to close their eyes for more than thirty seconds.

During one break I said to the kids, “When your eyes are open you can look outside, when your eyes are closed you can look inside.”

Then one four year piped up from the circle, as kids are prone to do, “You look inside with your Third Eye.”

This child demonstrated his growing yoga vocabulary. He can voice his understanding of the yoga tools which means he has internalized them, and like the other boy, can do them on his own.

Both these examples make a difference to me as a teacher because I know these children now have tools and a vocabulary to assist them to deal with stress and to find peace. When the President of the United States says that teachers build a nation, it is because good teachers equip children for a lifetime, not just for one class.

So if you want to make a difference in the life of a child, the nation, and your own life – become a teacher.

You’re invited to leave a comment and share what helps you stay motivated as a parent or teacher.

Barak Obama Special

The next Young Yoga Master’s Kids Yoga Teacher Training is next weekend in Toronto Canada. We’ve got about four spots left before the course is full. In honor of Barak Obama’s speach, I’m extending the early registration deadline until the end of Wednesday, February 2, 2010. You can get the full course details and register here: Young Yoga Masters – Kids Yoga Teacher Training. Join us for an inspiring weekend and bring the gift of yoga to children. Register today.

For When You Have a Few Extra Minutes at the End of a Kids Yoga Class

Have you ever been teaching kids yoga only to find yourself with 7 or 8 minutes at the end of the class, not sure what to do? It’s too little time for a big activity but too much time to finish early.

It’s those few minutes after you’ve already done the yoga, relaxation, a meditation, and a game.

It’s in a setting, like a school or daycare, where kids get story time and drawing – so you don’t want to repeat.

I’m referring to the places where you charge them for a full hour, which usually flies by, but on these days, the last few minutes seem like eternity.

This happened to me this week in a summer day care class with a group of 3-4 year old kids. The class was small (8 kids) so all the yoga and games went by fast (compared to when there are 15 kids). Yoga was right after nap time (3-4 pm), so the kids didn’t need a long relaxation. Plus an hour with this age group is already on the long side of the class length.

Here are three things I go-to when I want to fill those last few minutes on days like these:

Reflection Time: Ask the children to list all the poses we did in class. Which were difficult to do? Which were easy? Which was the most fun?
Dancing: Free form dance or a Freeze Dance (like Move and Freeze) gives the kids some unstructured movement. Play many different styles and rhythms of music. End with a slow song and then a minute of sitting quietly to leave the class in a calm state.
A Goodbye Song: Have you ever heard of Lawrence Welk? He had a Goodnight song for the end of the show. I also have another song that uses kids names that involves a bathtub, a giraffe, and a plug.Make a slight adjustment to the words, but use the same tune and you have a sweet song to finish class (bubbles optional):

Lawrence Welk’s Good-Bye Song

Here’s one version I’ve used:

Good-bye Maya
So Long Maya (or change the name each time if you have a lot of kids)
Good-Bye Everyone
It’s time for me to go.

Hope you had a happy time, happy time, happy time.
Hope you had a happy time, I had a happy time too.

(repeat with another name)

When you have a few extra minutes at the end of a class do you end early or fill it? What do you do in those extra few minutes?

Kids Meditation – 7 Year Old Yoga Sensation on Fox News

KidsYogaFoxNews — 7 Year Old Teaches Yoga and Meditation

The Kundalini Kid!
Check out this News Story from Fox News: Seven Year Old Sensation

The seven year old boy in this news story has grown up around yoga. Obviously he’s watched many a yoga class over the years from his birth to “almost eight years old.” But the story also reveals what yoga has done for him. First, he’s creative enough to make up his own celestial communication meditation. Second, he accepted the invitation to lead the meditation at Peace Prayer Day in front of thousands of people. What confidence! Not bad given that public speaking is one of the biggest fears of many ADULTS.

This news story fits in beautifully with the topic in my Kids Yoga Teacher Training course – Teaching Yoga to kids 6 – 12 Years Old.

Seven, almost eight years old, is a wonderful age for kids yoga! These kids usually still like to imagine and play but they have to be encouraged not to shut this down. They love yoga games. And they’re NOT the age yet where they are totally absorbed in whispering to their friends throughout the class, they just do it occasionally.

The Meditations Kids Love
You may be surprised to hear that meditation with kids of this age is very popular. I include meditation at the end of EVERY class. When the kids are getting tired they’ll start asking if it’s time for the meditation yet. This Yogic “Are we there yet?” begins about three quarters of the way through the class.

I’ve even had kids come in and request different meditations at times when they have a big test or when their parents are having trouble getting along.

Give the Kids a Choice with Meditation
The way I do it is at the end of the yoga class I give kids the choice of either resting quietly or doing a meditation. One of the favorite forms of meditation is Movement Meditations, known in Kundalini Yoga as Celestial Communication. They are well liked by all ages (even adults) and kids can often do 6 minutes easily:

“Yogi Bhajan spoke often about the very powerful
transformation technology of Celestial Communication.
Everyone can practice this very simple meditation.
You can even make up your own Celestial Communication movements.
What is important is to choose music with uplifting words.”
3HO.org

The news story about this Kundalini Kid making up movements to Jack Johnson’s My Own Two Hands is Celestial Communication. I encourage you to try it if you haven’t before. Just pick a positive song and ask the kids to help you make up some movements. You can do it sitting with legs crossed or standing. See if you can find some moves that you all like to do together – but it’s also fine for everyone to do their own movements. Everyone is encouraged to sing along to the song too.

It is a very relaxing and creative form of expression. Plus, kids have helped me discover moves I never would have thought of on my own. Here’s an example of a Celestial Communication meditation:

I’d love to hear your comments: Have you ever tried Celestial Communication with your kids? What songs do you like? What meditations do you like to do with kids?

Aruna Humphrys
www.YoungYogaMasters.com

P.S. Please join me for my next weekend intensive Kids Yoga Teacher Training to for an intensive weekend to prepare you to bring the joy of yoga to kids. All the details are here.

Mother, Are We Poor?

Kids know joy is the true wealth.

I wrote this post about success earlier this week, and then this story appeared in my in-box in a newsletter from Touchstone Seminars. It’s a very short story from Tulshi Sen about understanding success:

There was a poor boy who went to his mother. She was a widow.

He said, “Mother are we poor?” His mother said to him,

“No son, we are very rich and someday we will have money.”

That is exactly what the mother wanted to tell the son,

you attract what you are, you never attract what you want.

I wish I could be in Vancouver for the upcoming Success seminar with Tulshi Sen on July 25-26. It’s called: The Master Key for Success for Today’s World. What we believe is the Master Key. But how do we increase our “Believe level?” If you are in or near Vancouver – click here for details of the seminar – from my experience with Tulshi Sen as a teacher/mentor the weekend will be life changing.

This was another part of the inspiration for my two afternoon workshops coming up in Toronto. Are we conscious about what we teach kids about success? This is why we will deeply examine True success in this workshop. The details are here. We can teach kids a greater understanding of success but only if we first understand it ourselves.

Let’s consciously teach kids what it means to be rich and poor. This story helps us contemplate what being poor and being rich is, and how we talk to kids about it.

Yours truly,

Aruna Humphrys
www.YoungYogaMasters.com

P.S. There will be a weekend with Tulshi Sen in Toronto in October on The Master Key to Success in Today’s World. I’ll let you know when as soon as the dates are announced.

Did the Hare Bully the Tortoise?

Unwitting Wisdom: An Anthology Of Aesop’s Fables
(click on this link to look inside the book)

Last week in my kids yoga class, I read the story Steady and Slow from this book of Aesop’s Fables. The story has been told many ways, but a few things remain consistent no matter where you hear it:

The hare is chock full of confidence to the point of bragging all the time and annoying not only the tortoise, for being slow, but also getting on the nerves of all the bystanders.
It is the tortoise who challenges the hare to a race.
The race begins and the tortoise does not waver from his course, slow and steady, while the hair zips back and forth and even stops to take a nap – which eventually leads to….
The tortoise wins the race!

We’ve all probably heard this story before but I remember my meditation teacher, Tulshi Sen, talking about this story describing some of the more subtle points in it.

The Audacity of the Tortoise
For instance, how crazy is it for the tortoise to challenge the hare to the race?

All the tortoise’s friends were probably winking behind his back saying, “Oh yea…. sure, you can beat that hare… after all you’re …. errr…..likely the slowest moving animal on the planet! But yes, give it a try.”

Before the race started do you think anyone believed the tortoise would really win?

Standing Up for What You Believe
This story was told by Aesop likely somewhere around 600 BC. This was well before “bullying” had been invented. But I think that hare actually fits the criteria of a bully – showing off in front of others and making fun of the tortoise because he’s slower – there was definitely bullying going on there.

That tortoise had to really believe in himself to break free from the tormenting hare. What if he didn’t win? What would he be in for then? But he took the leap of faith and believed in himself.

How to Build Kids’ Confidence
I told the story of the Tortoise and the Hare in this class because one of the mom’s told me her son had trouble with a bully at school. She had talked to the school about it and they were also working on it there. But she also wanted to help her son build his self-esteem, confidence, and feel better about himself.

Meditations and Stories Build Our Understanding of Who We Are
Stories, meditation, and yoga can help kids understand that true power comes from the Spirit, which is Consciousness. If we feel in our heart what we want and believe we can have it, we will not waver. The hare may zip ahead of us, come back and run circles around us, and even taunt us – but when we are sure of ourselves we can stay on our course, we will not waver.

The hare is a lot like all the worries and conditions that come to play in our lives and cause us to waver:

“That is the secret of the power of detachment. Just hold the vision.
Be still and know that it is already accomplished and hurtling down to you
to be experienced by your five senses. Your heart has already experienced it.
If your heart has not experienced it, it will not manifest and be experienced
by your five senses. Do not waver. “

Ancient Secrets of Success for Today’s World by Tulshi Sen, p. 34

What’s In Your Heart?
For a seven year old boy being bullied, this means finding the courage in his heart to vision happiness and believe he deserves it. Believing it even if he feels like everyone else thinks he’s crazy and is against him.

It’s difficult to tell a child this is true, but when they hear it in a story, that the tortoise believed in himself, did not waver, and won the race, it touches something within.

Using Stories To Go Straight to the Heart
Stories are powerful tools for all ages. Those like the Aesop’s fables, the seven stories in Ancient Secrets of Success for Today’s World, and other uplifting stories bypass the intellect and touch the heart.

Stories like the Tortoise and the Hare help kids believe that they can win the race too.

After all, if a tortoise can do it, why can’t we?

Aruna Humphrys
www.YoungYogaMasters.com

P.S. Congratulations to the winner of the Yoga DVD by Hemalayaa, Yoga for Everybody: Bryan from At Home With Dad.

P.S.S. Kids Yoga Teacher Training: Two of the stories from Ancient Secrets of Success for Today’s World are covered in my Kids Yoga Teacher training. There’s a complete class theme and yoga poses for each story. The early registration deadline has been extended for the course, I would love to see you there so you can see how easy it can be to use stories in yoga class. Click here for details.