How yoga helps make 11 year old certified grounded Clare feel like a better person

IMG_8911How Yoga Makes Me Feel Like a Better Person

Yoga makes me feel like I’m fearless, more important to this world than I thought I was. It teaches me to be proud and positive, to respect others and understand what they may be going through.  It tells me to do what I need to do instead of holding it in~such as crying.

Because of yoga, I know now not to let people judge me, to listen when someone is speaking to me. Instead of hiding in my own world I should shine but with confidence.

I don’t know what my life would be like if I haven’t done yoga, but I know I have become respectful, thankful, loving, friendly, and fearless.

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My name is Clare. I am in the 5th grade. I work hard in school thinking about my future. I have a learning disorder that makes it hard for me to learn fast, but I only study harder because I’m not going to let a little devil saying, ” I can’t do it.” hold me back.

Next year for middle school I’m going to Druid Hills. My best subject is math. I’m interested in animals and nature. I want the earth creatures to be respected.

My favorite color is red. Some people  say that red shouldn’t be my favorite color because it means stop, but I think of it as stop disrepect.

My name is Clare. I am 11 years old, and I do yoga.

Editor/Teacher note: Clare has been in yoga club since she was 5 and has had all these heart virtues all along. She just didn’t see it. Her perseverance, her loving family, and her open-hearted school environment, and of course her mindful breathing have helped clear the dust covering up the real Clare.

More will be revealed, I’m sure.

I feel so lucky to have witnessed her transformation and am delighted she wanted to share her journey with you.

Sat Nam

More to Explore

  • Seuss Sutra 1-1: Big Picture Play of Consciousness

    Look at me!
    Look at me!
    Look at me NOW!
    It is fun to have fun
    But you have to know how.

    The enlightened sage, Dr. Seuss, in the revered text The Cat and The Hat, teaches us how to tune into our Highest Self, listen to our small, limited, fears and even invite them out to play with each other. My intention and desire is for us to value and understand this text in the highest spiritual sense. May this process lead us to a higher capacity for insight, for revelation, for learning at a deeper level, so clarity about our Self become possible.

    Cat in the Hat begins on a cold and wet day at the house of two sad children stuck inside with nothing to do, until the Cat in a Hat shows up, transforming the dull day into an adventure. As he steps in on the mat, we can relate the action metaphorically to Yoga Sutra 1.1. Now, the teachings of yoga. As he begins to express his philosophy to the children, their pet fish begins to express his hesitation and fears. The Cat reassures him with a simple “Now! Now!” That answer is an important teaching in the whole text, because it teaches us to let go of our old social order, and enter the present, which is new. “Now” in Sanskrit is “atha”, signaling the value of what you are about to dive into. “Atha” is also the first spoken word of Yoga Sutra 1.1, its entirety being~

    1.1 Ātha Yogānuśāsanam The teachings of yoga, have been presented. You don’t need to wait until the sun comes out, an authority figure is watching, or your fear is gone. All that it (Yoga) requires of you is a YES. In essence, then, The Cat in the Hat, just like Patanjali ,is telling his students to get ready to receive the knowledge on the subject of “yoga”.

    The fish in the tiny bowl represents our limited, concealed self, and our karma mala. He is fear, limiting our ability to act. The cat is a wise trickster. He questions authority, encourages enthusiasm, seeks new experiences, while destroying our old way of thinking. He is our Big-Picture Play of Consciousness. He is our Highest Self.  Your higher self is consciousness. Your higher self is the real you. Your higher self is the more complete you.

    Shiva Sutra 1-1 Chaitanyam ātmā. Consciousness is the self.

    The children were still able to recognize, the fish’s concern. Fear is natural; it’s an adaptive instinct. Don’t try to squelch it down or ignore it. Without fear, we wouldn’t have courage. Without courage we wouldn’t be brave. The Cat in the Hat was able to listen to the fish, listen to his fears, and playfully act upon them.
    “Have no fear!” said the cat
    “I will not let you fall
    I will hold you up high…”

    Introducing three Tricks to greet your Higher Consciousness (HC)…ie Cat in the Hat  and Small Fish (SF)  i.e Karma Mala, Fear.

    1.Listen

    Close your eyes. Breathe in through your heart and out through your third eye. Continue to follow your breath. Listen to your heart. Sometimes HC sounds like the whisper of a wise old man. Sometimes HC sounds like a voice you recognize that is playful, friendly, and compassionate.
    The voice of your SF is usually scared or angry. It’s probably much louder.

    2. Look

    Invite C to sit with you and have a conversation. Ask questions. When the answers sound wiser or more knowledgeable than usual, you’re probably talking to your C. Just keep talking to this manifestation of your higher self until it feels like you’re talking to someone else and the answers you’re getting don’t seem like they’re coming from your own head. What does C look like? Invite F to the table as well. What do you see?

    3. Feel

    The cat in the hat starts at your spine and goes up to the crown of your head and beyond! Feel your cat getting taller with each breath.

    Sit!
    Sit!
    Sit!
    Sit!

    Root your left sitting bone to your left heel and your right sitting bone to your right heel. Thing 1 begins in the lowest part of your left belly. Thing two resides in the lowest part of your right belly. Lift Thing one and Thing Two, both lowest bellies, up like a kite. Most everything conspires to drop low abs. The trick is to keep lifting thing one and thing two) The game is don’t spill energy, must be a conscious effort to Feel!

    A Thing is defined as some entity, object, or creature that is not or cannot be specifically designated or precisely described: anything that is or may become an object of thought: things of the spirit.
    things, matters; affairs: a fact, circumstance, or state of affairs so the trick is to LIFT Your Things! Lift your entity, being, matter, act, deed, event, material object, body, being, assembly, council, suit, matter, suit, plea, concern while keeping your sitting bones rooted to your heels. Try this in different shapes~standing, forward folds, backbends, twists, supine..Notice the difference.

    Reponses received from kids~
    “Thing 1 and Thing 2 teach me I can do it!” Ella, age 7
    “My little baby tiny weeny self is in my head. My Huge, humungous ,, big giant Self is in my heart and body.” Claire, age 9
    “My High Cat knows I can do big things” Madeline, age 5
    “My Highest Self stands up for the world. My small Fish gets angry at myself and others.” Lauren, age 6
    “My High Self is beautiful and colorful.” Emily, age 6
    “My Highest Self tells me my gift is seeing the future in my sleep.” Hunter, age 7
    “My Fear is in my foot. My Highest Self is upside down now. It’s telling me to pay attention.” Dodge, age 9
    “Higher Self is standing up for myself. My Little Self is always looking around at others.” Amelia, age 8
    “My Fear is sliding down a pole. I see that picture (of the pole) any time I get scared.” Sarah, age 9
    Once you’ve tuned in to your C, you’ll be able to get some key information about why you’re here and where you should go, and who you should go with. Your C is watching over you and helping to steer you in the highest direction. This playful practice is for each one of us to embody the deep empowerment, the authenticity, and the fullness of who we are.
    Please share how it goes. Now~ You’ve got to have fun, but you have to know HOW!

  • Inspired by the Velveteen Rabbit…How Teachers Become Real.

    horse

    The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. He was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces. He was wise, for he had seen a long succession of mechanical toys arrive to boast and swagger, and by-and-by break their mainsprings and pass away, and he knew that they were only toys, and would never turn into anything else. For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about it.

    “What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”

    “Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”

    “Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.

    “Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”

    “Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?”

    “It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

    “I suppose you are real?” said the Rabbit. And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive.

    But the Skin Horse only smiled

    –  From the Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams  –

  • Grounded? Yes! Restricted? No!

    blank-slate_copyFor many of us, a new year represents a blank slate, a Tabula Rasa. Imagine being able to “refresh” any or all areas of your life. Now visualize this table with two columns, Yes and No. You create your truest life by thoughtfully choosing what goes in the No column and what is a Yes. Everything you say YES to and everything you say NO to matters.  What if your yes’s and no’s were tabulated and at the end of a day, week, year, lifetime, you could see how the data, otherwise known as your life, balanced out?