Thank you Eight year old Marlie for presenting me with this yoga book you wrote and taught to classes in your school. I appreciate your interesting chapters~ Yoga that keeps me calm Yoga that keeps me Grounded Yoga with more than two people Yoga with two people Yoga that keeps me happy and your very helpful notes~ Remember you will not get it the first time Breathe slowly Remember to lean your beautifully detailed art~ and your permission to share your work on our blog~ I am grateful that you have been a grounded student for three years and you continue to serve your school with yoga. With love, Cheryl Crawford
Found: This Fear escaped from a very Grounded 9 year old’s first chakra. Her thighs were rooted and her connection to the earth was solid. She faced her fears, and actually whispered to herself, “I have the Right to be Here.” After the Fear escaped she felt even more Grounded and Elevated and aware of where she was in space.
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.
Last night felt surreal. I was standing in my kitchen with Lee, Amy & Cheryl when they handed me a single piece of cardstock with the words ‘Certified Grounded Teacher.’ I felt my throat clench and my heart skip a beat. Though I have been teaching Grounded Yoga for over a year, it was this small piece of recognition that let me know that I am now officially recognized as part of one of the greatest movements of my lifetime.
Once I received my 200hr teacher training in 2012, I had begun leading my daughter’s classes at school once a week and eventually took over the Tween class at my studio. I pulled resources from all around- other teachers, online sites, books, games…everything I could find to help create a well-rounded class. It was a year of growth and some things worked and some failed miserably. What I did know was that I loved teaching children- their honesty in their bodies and mouths and they way it was starting to create a shift in their perspective. My dear friend and teacher, Lee introduced me to Grounded in early 2013 when she came home lit UP from Level 1 training. I watched her do Go To Your Room and that’s literally ALL it took! I knew that something special was going on with Grounded…something that hadn’t been done before…something that was about to change how the world looks at kid’s yoga. We put a plan together to “sell” our yoga program to our school as a full-time yoga curriculum. And it WORKED! I decided to take the Level 1 training just after school started so we could teach the same material and use each other to bounce ideas and begin to try to understand the huge undertaking we’d just landed.
inspired by Dr. Seuss’s Sutra: the Zax and Patanjali’s Sutra: yatha abhimata dhyanadva (Chapter 1, v. 39)
One day, making Okeys In the mountain of Dokey, Posed a West-Going Yogi And an East-Going Yogi.
{See, an Okey is approval, An endorsement as such. Each yogi seeked okeys So very much.}
And it happened that both of them posed in a place Where they bumped. There they stood. Foot to foot. Face to face.
“Look here, now!” the West-Going Yogi said. “I say! You are blocking my mind. You are right in my way. I’m a West-Going Yogi and I always think west. Get out of my way, now, and let me do best!”
“Who’s in whose way?” snapped the East-Going Yogi. “I always think east, making east-going okeys. So you’re in MY way! And I ask you to move. And let me go east in my east-going groove.
Then the West-Going Yogi puffed his chest up with pride. “I never,” he said, “take a step to one side, And I’ll prove to you that I won’t change my ways If I have to keep posing here thirty-nine days!”
“And I’ll prove to YOU,” yelled the West-Going Yogi, “That I can pose here in the mountain of Dokey for thirty-nine years! For I live by a mantra that I learned way back in West-Going Tantra. “Still the mind! That’s my mantra. Still the mind is the best! I’ll pose here, quite still! I can and I will If it makes you and me and the whole world stand still.
Hey… said East-Going Yogi I learned that as well. Let’s check yoga sutras Won’t that be swell?
Chapter1, verse 39 to be quite exact. Focus on things that you won’t find distract.
There are numbers of ways For the mind to become still. Focus on what you please To Fulfill!
It is the process of focus Which makes us a yogi Not the specific practice You see, Okey-Dokey?
Patanjali says to practice Right from the heart Allow this to deepen, For that is the art.
Fix the mind! Any object you choose, As a focusing prop to Fully fix and bemuse.
Get absorbed in your focus, Without distraction. You can attain stillness And sweet satisfaction.
Want movement, sequence and rhyme at the same time?
Incorporate this Grounded Knick-Knack Alignment into your daily Solid Ground Flow.
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.
Thank you Eight year old Marlie for presenting me with this yoga book you wrote and taught to classes in your school. I appreciate your interesting chapters~ Yoga that keeps me calm Yoga that keeps me Grounded Yoga with more than two people Yoga with two people Yoga that keeps me happy and your very helpful notes~ Remember you will not get it the first time Breathe slowly Remember to lean your beautifully detailed art~ and your permission to share your work on our blog~ I am grateful that you have been a grounded student for three years and you continue to serve your school with yoga. With love, Cheryl Crawford
Found: This Fear escaped from a very Grounded 9 year old’s first chakra. Her thighs were rooted and her connection to the earth was solid. She faced her fears, and actually whispered to herself, “I have the Right to be Here.” After the Fear escaped she felt even more Grounded and Elevated and aware of where she was in space.
Want movement, sequence and rhyme at the same time?