A fifth grader practices yoga at a Men’s Night Shelter

Katie Bashor, Humanitarian, Director of Central Night Shelter (CNS), PE Teacher at Fernbank Elementary, and a Yogi told our yoga club all about the yoga program at the shelter. She told the children that the men are so much fun~they laugh and moan and sweat and laugh and LOVE partner poses. We explained that our dream is to make the yoga class a community event where everyone can practice together.

Read more  about yoga at the shelter

So, Isabelle, Certified Grounded Kid, (pictured here with Katie Bashor) told her family about shelter yoga and here’s how it went down…

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My Experience at the CNS by Isabelle

Last Sunday, I went to the CNS and took part in their Yoga night. It takes place every Sunday from 5:00pm to 6:00pm. It was started by Katie Bashor and Cheryl Crawford and is open to everyone. It is a nice way to start off your week and is a fun and challenging alternatative to sitting on your couch and watching TV.  It brings homeless men and women together and also pulls in members of the community. When I simply walked into the room, I could feel an aura of serenity between people. Our place in the community didn’t matter, we were all there for one reason: to do yoga. To me that was just so great, just a couple of handfuls of people there to do yoga. I think that this is an amazing thing, I hope you share my opinion. ” Isabelle

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Atlanta! Come practice yoga with this amazing, supportive, fun-loving community.The teachers are stellar.

More to Explore

  • The Royal Mind

    Monkey Mind

    Hmmm, Our Monkey Mind
    Our Mind Monkey~
    Is restless, and random,
    Rebellious, and junky?

    Silly, and scattered
    Like a toddler in its movement~
    Won’t settle down,
    And needs vast improvement?

    The mind is a problem,
    That we need to control.
    It’s random, and restless
    And a bit of a troll?

    That’s nonsense, we say!
    And quite derogatory!
    The nature of the mind
    Is going for glory!

    The mind is evolutionary,
    progressive, dynamic.
    Always seeking and moving
    toward that which is magic.

    holographic-mind-300x225

    So, think NOT monkey mind
    More like, mind is royalty~
    A King to Serve
    With Love and Loyalty.

    But, how can we Serve,
    The Great Intelligence of our minds?
    By meditation and mantras
    And movement refined.

    IMG 7136

    By exceptional quality
    Of the company we keep,
    What we see, what we hear,
    How well we do sleep.

    By lavish feasts of sutras,
    Of songs, and of silence,
    Of settling, and stillness
    And speech for your Highness.

    Much of your activity
    Will settle in bliss~
    Yet portions of Royal Mind
    Will continue to hiss.

    And that, my dear friend~
    Is the Great Intelligence~
    It wants more and more
    Of higher elegance.

    The Discipline of yoga,
    Now, you see,
    Is in permitting and inviting
    This process~ to BE.

  • Grounded….an Adjective, a Noun, a Verb…Redefining for Real

      Can getting grounded bring me back to balanced working order, the way nature intended me to be? Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) defines GROUNDED as mentally and emotionally stable: admirably sensible, realistic, and unpretentious grounded [?gra?nd?d] adj sensible and down-to-earth; having one’s feet on the ground I do aim to know where I belong…

  • Peace On Earth Puzzle

    earthday_1As Earth Day approaches this year, I am struck by what it means to truly foster Peace on this planet. I remember as a child, learning about anti-nuclear protestors who chained themselves to fences and were forcibly removed and jailed. These brave souls became my heroines and heroes in the late 1970’s and 1980’s. I was moved to tears singing Dylan’s “Blowing in the Wind” and hearing stories of civil disobedience and the message of non-violent resistance. Later in the 1990’s, when I danced barefoot on my very first Earth Day, a lump would form in my throat when I celebrated each small victory (and the Gigantic Hearts) of environmental protestors who sacrificed so much to save a single tree and worked to preserve open space for our children’s children. Peace.

  • Grounded Defined

    Through our programs, we endeavor to “ground” kids, teens, and adults via yoga, laughter, and elevation.  But what exactly does it mean to be grounded?  By formal definition courtesy of the Merriam-Webster on-line dictionary….

    grounded [ˈgraʊndɪd]

    adj

    sensible and down-to-earth; having one’s feet on the ground: mentally and emotionally stable : admirably sensible, realistic, and unpretentious <remains grounded despite all the praise and attention>

     

  • Roadmap to Lucidity

    Or
    The map to LUCIDITY
    Inspired by Yoga Sutra 1.33 which reads:

    maitri karuna mudita upeksanam sukha duhkha punya apunya
    visayanam bhavanatah cittaprasadanam

    The map to LUCIDITY?
    YES! Have you heard?
    Takes four states to get there~
    Not that absurd.

    The first is of FRIENDSHIP
    toward those who are happy.
    Even when you feel distant,
    resistance and slappy.

    The second is of COMPASSION
    toward those in distress.
    Tough when annoyed,
    imposed on and stressed.

    The third is of JOY
    toward those who are good
    through roadblocks of useless
    and misunderstood.

    The fourth is of EQUANIMITY
    toward those who are foul
    who are lacking in virtue,
    and react with a growl.

    Here in our mapping
    Four residents are mentioned.
    How we perceive them
    Is our fierce contention.

    Our attitudes we go for
    From composure to kind~
    Get us closer to LUCIDITY
    Where we STABILIZE our mind.

    Memorize these four~
    And observe in daily life.
    During times of quiet,
    Noise, and even strife.

    So buckle up~
    And prepare for a ride~
    To align your attitude,
    And try the untried.

    Close your eyes~
    Feel the state you are in~
    Soften your heart~
    your throat, and your skin.

    Drop your breath
    right into your heart~
    It’s made up of LOVE~
    And that’s where you start.

    Inhale with the thought~
    May I be friendly~
    Exhale with the thought~
    May I give friendship.
    .

    May I be COMPASSIONATE
    with your next inhale
    May I give COMPASSION
    with your next exhale.

    Inhale with the thought~
    May I have JOY~
    Exhale with the thought~
    May I give JOY.

    May I have EQUANIMITY
    with your inhale.
    May I give CALMNESS
    with your exhale.

    When someone comes to mind
    Offer these prayers
    No matter their issues,
    Their stains, or their stares.

    May you be LOVING~
    May you be LOVED ~
    May you be PEACEFUL~
    May you give PEACE~

    Your states of envy and mean
    Get smaller each time~
    Intolerance is removed
    You get closer to SUBLIME.

    Once your mind is CLEAR,
    And you’re CENTERED and FREE
    Skillfulness in ACTION
    Will be … Will be~

  • Going Grounded (not postal) at the Post Office

    bigstock_Local_Post_Office_61490We teach kids and teens how to find humor in every day life and how awareness leads to amusement in even the most mundane places. This event took place this morning and it’s what I taught in my Grounded class this afternoon. I shared the story, taught the poses and we had an awesome, authentic experience. The kids were inspired to write down their own personal stories and the poses that prepared them to handle real life with ease. They loved using the pose stickers to illustrate their writing. Find all the details about these poses and more in our box of 84 Grounded Elevator Series Pose Cards. Enjoy!