When Resting Pose Becomes Real: Safety, Breath, and Deep Rest for Kids

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  –

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…

Yoga is the stilling

of the changing states of mind~

The act and policy of

No chitta* left behind.

Yoga is the re-channeling

of habits of the mind~

Capacity for Contentment grows

And Vrittis* get declined.

Yoga is the resolution of

the agitations of the mind.

A uniting of consciousness in the

heart of all mankind.

Yoga is the settling of the

mind into silence.

Nirodha* the misconceptions,

And ignorant defiance.

Yoga is the deepness

In the lake of tranquility~

Out of the surface ripples~

And into heart’s reality.

Yoga is a gentle

Process of release~

A settling into the

Natural state of peace.

Each inhale think calm~

Each exhale think peace.

Favor these words~

Your distractions will decrease~

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.