When you feel shallow and dull, deeply breath to get more full.
Settle your seat and settle your feet.
Close your eyes and visualize a cave in each armpit; dwell inside.
Breathe in waves from hips to caves.
Deepen each region of your pits, so a ball of wool could comfortably fit.
This transpires to the cave of your heart, embodying this depth is an art.
Serve others from this Chit, that all begins in your armpits.
Dare to roam this deep, no matter how intense get the sheep.
During a class at a metro Atlanta shelter, we opened hearts, softened with “heart-melting” poses, and repeated “Inhale I AM, exhale OK.” Sixteen children settled into Resting Pose and fell sound asleep. Here’s what that moment taught me about safety, breath, and the healing power of Savasana for kids.
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…
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.
What Research Says About Kids Yoga and Mindfulness Yoga and mindfulness practices for children are backed by a growing body of evidence showing benefits in emotional regulation, attention, behavior, and mental health. If you’ve felt the impact of these practices in your own classroom or home, you’re not alone. If you would like to begin…
Energy Love Energy is all around us, all the time. Imagine if you can access that energy to shift you when you need it the most with just one simple pose. Energy Circuit! That’s the way will go. To move from here and fro. With the feeling we like. That just feels right and shine…
Grounded Kids Yoga 115 Milton Park Court, Alpharetta, GA 30022
Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Grounded Kids Yoga provides in-person and online training, professional development workshops, and ongoing support for educators, parents, and clinicians. We specialize in kids yoga, mindfulness, social-emotional learning (SEL), trauma and pain management, emotional regulation, and impulse control for preschool through high school students. Each year, we serve thousands of children and teens through school programs, after-school enrichment yoga clubs, summer camps, Girl Scouts, 4-H conferences, and yoga studios across Atlanta, the Southeast, and nationwide.