Gratitude

Nine Families joined our MKC Free Kids Yoga class yesterday and I couldn't have been more joyous! We haven't had this class since November and it was a sublime pleasure to share the breathing ball with all those new little faces! We had children from 3 months to 6 years in the room and even though it's always a challenge to compete with the activities at the clubhouse we did a 40-minute class!

Here's how we practiced!

We started with the Tibetan singing bowl calling us to focus, learned a little pranayama (deep breathing) then raised our energy with the "Are you ready for yoga" song! After that we started moving our spines - all six directions! We continued our warm up movements by mixing up our fun yoga cookies complete with flour, sugar, hugs and eggs, then as they 'baked' we did some salutes to the sun. Our strong legs carried us through mountain pose, lunge pose, then snake pose, lunge pose and standing again, reaching HIGH to the sun. Then it was time to MOVE - we stomped around like dinosaurs (and did a little dinosaur ballet) to Laurie Berkner. To help our hearts and breathing slow down after that we moved on to being the wind through the trees, and then the trees themselves, learning balance and stillness! When we sat back down ..SURPRISE the cookies were ready so we had our yoga snack on our tummy picnic tables, and magically sipped milk SLLLLOOOOWWWLLLY through our noses (in and out - silly but effective for slowing our breathing). Since we had an active kids cooking class just over the partition, our traditional lay down and rest time wasn't going to work, so did our quiet time as a "reading savasana." We sat quietly snuggled close to our families and listened to a really sweet book about a little gosling that loves her bright red boots (and learns to share). Then we brought out the Hoberman Sphere (breathing ball) and all the little ones helped us breath in through our nose, out through our nose as we expanded and contracted the sphere.
After all our work, we rubbed our hands together, created a little heat and put it over our eyes...then held our hands to our heart and sang the namaste song "There's a light in me, there's a light in you, and together we are one; there's a light in me, there's a light in you, and together we are one" (that sort of follows the "peace like a river" tune).

I hope that some of your will be able to commit to coming out some of the Fridays in February to celebrate yoga a little bit more. Please just email/text me at least by the day before to reserve your spot -I'm so grateful to have been able to share a little bit of what I love to do with you!