Group of smiling women posing together after a training, some kneeling in front

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Reflections after teaching Step 1 Training – See It From My Side

Written by Amy Haysman

It’s Monday after 3 days of grounding 17 grown ups in the art and design of teaching kids yoga Grounded style. I lean back in my chair at lunch, unable to carry on a conversation, and say to Sedef “I’m drained.” Instantly, my body recognized this as untrue.

Pose image for See It From My Side

I realize that, while feeling a bit sore and empty of words, I was oh so very full.

You see, our kids yoga teacher trainings are a culmination of decades of being alive, most of which have been spent by either being kids, acting like kids, listening to kids, teaching kids in the classroom or raising (outstanding) kids. We offer experience. You’ll be generously set up with tried and true original techniques and materials rooted in ancient yoga traditions.

Because of ALL the work and creative energy, love and purpose driven intention that we have poured into Grounded Kids Yoga since 2007, we’ve carved a space in this industry that attracts THE most whole-heartedly eager people on the planet.

This brings me back to feeling full… More like overflowing with enthusiasm for this work of teaching yoga to children.

Being with step 1ers has a special way of bringing me back to the beginning when words like chakra and Namaste were scary like having a crush and sounds of Crystal bowls and mantras were as unfamiliar as my own inner landscape.

I hear their questions and remember the urgency to make a difference and the wide-open possibilities because nothing was certain. I look into their eyes and remember when I too wasn’t sure that yoga worked and the utter amazement I felt each time, and time again, when it did.

It’s hard to say goodbye when it’s over. I’ve been whispered to in a hug or through tears more than a few times that this training was more informative and spiritually awakening than their 200 hour. And how profound it is to have the craving for a supportive, forward acting community finally satisfied. We stay in touch to put it mildly.

I share at the start of each step 1 that it is by no mistake that we are together; that this training would not be the same without them. While our training curriculum is down to a fine science, the main ingredient is Authenticity. We teach you to be yourself. Not an entertaining yoga teachy version of yourself, but your true self.

AND we teach you how to be a very skillful and successful children’s yoga teacher.

This is what fills me up. What about you?

A large group of adults and children sitting on yoga mats along a studio wall
Just Breath. Teacher leading the students and practicing what she teaches.
A teacher sitting cross legged with arms raised leading a class, pose cards propped against the wall
Lotus Breath reminds us that even in the darkest, muddiest times – we can rise up!

Adults and a child standing on yoga mats holding hands in a row

Thinking about your own Step 1? The full pathway and how to take it from anywhere: children’s yoga certification online.

More to Explore

  • Yes To Higher Aim…No To Lame

    Say Yes to Brightness,
    To Certainty, To Health
    Say no to dullness,
    To doubt, to filth.
    Say Yes to Careful,
    To Enthusiasm, to Aim
    Say no to Careless,
    To Backsliding, to Lame.
    Say yes to activity,
    To Attention, To humility.
    Say no to Heedless,
    Inertia, Instability.
    How to say NO
    To such 9 Disturbances?
    Create a “no” prop
    To play interference.
    A block will work wonders
    To impede interruptions.
    Place between your hands
    To help with deductions.
    Press your hands in
    To fire your inner shoulders.
    Breathe your arms up
    And become a beholder.
    Keep pressing in
    To activate what’s dull.
    Reach the block up high
    As well as your skull.
    Hold a block in one hand
    Lift up your opposite knee
    Tilt to block side
    Finding freedom is key.
    Place the “no” block
    Right between your thighs.
    I know it is awkward
    May your enthusiasm rise!
    Press your thighs back
    Keep your shins fixed.
    Fold Forward, touch the floor
    Breathe steady while betwixt.
    Step back into Downward Dog,
    Bend your knees a lot.
    Press your block up and back
    Notice your train of thought!
    Shift forward into plank
    Lower down flat like a pancake.
    Keep shins pressing down
    Lift thighs up with a mandate.
    Stretch your belly and heart forward,
    Hips back toward your toes
    Open your shoulders
    Like a polyphonic prose.
    Press back to Down Dog
    Come down to table.
    Remove your block
    Keep hands and shins stable.
    Prepare to find freedom
    With boundaries no less.
    In this grounded pose
    We call “No Table Yes”.
    As you stretch right leg back
    Exhale Yes to Higher Aim.
    As you bring knee to forehead
    Inhale No to Lame.
    Your spine arches and curves
    As you continue 5 times
    Try it fast, Try it slow
    Switch sides
    Cause it’s prime.
    Sit is easy pose
    Tune into your frame.
    Each inhale in
    Think Yes to high aim.
    Each exhale out
    Think No to Lame
    May this help you
    Up your game.

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    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>

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