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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 2008, 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 Chrystal 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

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  • Namaste

    Said my young friend who wants a connection:
    “I wave. I shake hands, with no objection.
    No pain, no remorse, no one intervening
    a choice I make without much thought or meaning~”

    “…Is there a gesture that honors each other?
    That celebrates greeting sisters and brothers?
    Can you show me HOW to express happiness
    with social and spiritual significance?”

    YES, my dear friend, I can show you a mudra~
    a gesture of sorts, for kings, friends and sudras.
    Place hands together from fingers to wrists~
    like a knife, cut through difference that may exist.

    This immediately gets you to the shared ground~
    of ALL people, of all cultures, of all sound.
    It’s a recognition, a united force~
    that honors equality of all from the Source.

    Close your eyes and tune into your own inner light;
    your divine spark that forever burns bright.
    That’s the key, my dear friend, you must see your OWN
    in order to recognize others’ light shown.

    BLEND your five fingers of action on the left~
    with five fingers of knowledge on the right~
    to achieve the symbol of perfection
    the union of opposites; interconnection.
    FInd the Connection of your brain and your heart;
    your sun and your moon; your stop and your start.
    Marry together reason and emotion~
    unite thoughts and feelings, stillness and motion.

    Join positive and negative; hot and cold~
    theory with practice, silver with gold~
    Wisdom with Method, intellect with instinct~
    talent with genius, and feelings with think!

    Exhalation and inhalation, ,brain and heart~
    Align in harmony, right from the start!
    There is indeed no sphere of our existence
    untouched by the symbolic significance~

    of Namaste~

    Namaste

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