First Children's Class :)

Had a wonderful experience last night teaching my first childrens (six- 10-12 year olds) class. I started with a brief definition and history of yoga on a handout I had prepared. We discussed using yoga as an additional coping skill, focusing on breathing, meditation and visualization to help with their grieving process. Followed the discussion with a seated pose, with varied kinds of breathing, stretching to the front and each side. Next we stretched each arm from side to side, while concentrating on our breathing and posture.

We then spoke about the legs up the wall guna, doing it for 25min is equal to 2 (yes 2) hours of sleep on the lymphatic and nervous systems. I gave a short demonstration of how to get in the pose and they all followed. I knew there wasn't enough time to do the entire 25 min pose, but felt probably 15-20 minutes would be fine for their attention span and ages. During the guna, I helped to talk them through deep flowing breathing through their nose, trying to have it come deep down from the abdomen. We also did a bit of visualization; picturing a walk through the woods; sounds, smells, etc... After about 15 min, we scooted off the wall to a lying flat position, and relaxed for appx another 5 min.

Following the guna, we came back to a seated circle and talked about chanting. We decided to use the word shanti (peace) as our chant word, and did that for a couple of minutes, concentrating on our deep breathing and posture while seated.

We ended with a discussion on what they liked/disliked about the experience. I was surprised, even those that had been a bit skeptical going into the yoga, ended up liking it very much and said they were able to really relax.

Overall, it was a fun experience. I had someone send me a post on Facebook telling me that their 11 year old son told them they loved the class. I have another class scheduled for next week with the teen group (13-18 year olds)