Body Confidence Yoga Series

Bibliography: https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=10912

Practice #1--3/6/14

Today we introduced ourselves and set our purpose: to explore feeling good about who we are through yoga. Our young yogis expressed what they already know about yoga--you stretch, relax, reduce stress, feel calm, etc.

Ms. Connie and I were pleasantly surprised the confidence kiddos expressed about being comfortable in their own skin. We described BEAUTIFUL as b-YOU-tiful! We'll continue to celebrate our uniqueness in all sessions.

The homework assignment was to decorate the paper boat and identify 5 "go to" people in your life. These are the grown ups the children would "go to" when needing to talk or otherwise keep their boat afloat!

I'm looking forward to exploring more with your children. Thank you for sharing them with us!

Please let us know if you have any questions. Thank you, again!

D'Etta Broam

P.S. Here's how to create another paper boat--I squeezed this in at the end of the session and kinda rushed the process: http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Paper-Boat

Practice #2--3/13/14

Today we reviewed who are the people "on our boat"--those go to people we can talk to when we need a listening ear, when we have a question about growing up. We began by breathing and expressing thankfulness for the folks in our personal support systems. We explored what is beautiful around the world today. We “traveled” places, checked out beauty there (people do some mighty crazy things in the name of beauty) and performed a yoga posture while visiting this place on the planet. We brainstormed inner beauty qualities, those characteristics people don’t know about us when they see us. The girls shared determination, willingness to learn, creativity, carefulness, and a sense of adventure. Our girls exhude lots of confidence, which is super cool. Our final relaxation included a story about a star, and we wrapped up with a modification to a Nancy Carlson book, Get Up and GO!

I’m looking forward to next week’s fun! Thank you to those who've sent payment, and thank you for sharing your kiddos with me. :-)

Practice #3--3/20/14

In today’s session we focused on the power of our words. We shared the acronym to THINK before we speak:

T=is it true?

H=is it helpful?

I=is it inspiring?

N=is it necessary?

K=is it kind?

We started and ended practice with the Sa Ta Na Ma meditation. Kiddos took a copy of this home. Sa Ta Na Ma are the seed sounds for “Sat Nam” or “truth name.” This is “truth is my name.” This reinforced the “T” in our THINK before we speak.

We went to the County Fair today and enjoyed the flags at the gate (triangle), climbing a rock wall (crossing the midline crawl), riding a roller coaster (seated wide legged fold & side stretch) and ferris wheel (ferris wheel breath), and sampling two scoops of ice cream (child’s pose stacked on child’s pose partner pose).

We also rode the carousel and tried “riding” these critters: raccoon, lion, happy baby/dead bug, rock the baby, owl and sheep.

We breathed like bees and flowers on the first day of spring, and our final relaxation was a visit to a magical forest and a chance to visit with the “Worry Woman.”

Our words are important when we speak to others AND to ourselves! We checked out conversations in the following books: The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig, Porcupining by Lisa Wheeler, The Sandwich Swap by Queen Rania Al Abdulah, and The Recess Queen by Alexis O'Neill. Be on the lookout for examples of positive and negative communication! Work for truth as you encourage (and practice yourself) THINKing before speaking.

Thank you for sharing your children with me! NAMASTE,

D’Etta Broam

Practice #4--3/27/14

We enjoyed our wrap session today! We reviewed the lessons we've learned during the past three weeks. We divied up the yoga practice and had yogis teach the final practice together.

breathing/centering--Gabi shared "pinch your nose breath" and Sa Ta Na Ma meditation

warm up--Olivia led cat/cow

Sun Salutations--Kaitlyn taught these!

work--Mrs. Broam shared "Freeze/Flow/Flop" and we took turns stopping the music. We also shared "opposite" postures to remind ourselves if we have "stinkin' thinking" we need to turn those negative thoughts around:

bow/wheel, warrior/reverse warrior, snowball/star, plank/slide, boat/down dog

balance--Caroline shared tree and 3 legged dog

floor--Kaitlyn shared "rock the baby" and Ashton taught "Superman"

We closed with a twist and final relaxation. Today's meditation was A Handful of Quiet by Thich Nhat Hanh. Kiddos took home some pebbles to give this one a try at home.

We made "promises" before leaving today. For example: I promise to remember the folks I can trust and talk to when I have questions. I will be honest with myself and others. I have confidence in my body and spirit. I am b--YOU--tiful. I will talk kindly to myself and others.

Thank you to Gabi for sharing her yoga ball. We used to modify some postures like warrior, rock the baby, wheel and plank.

I thoroughly enjoyed sharing these ideas with your young ladies! I hope we will meet on the mat again soon. Thank you, again, for participating in this series!

I'll be teaching Kids Yoga at Pink on Saturday, April 8, 12:00-12:45. During Spring Break, if you are in town, I'll be doing a series on prayer at Pisgah, 12:00-1:15 on Tuesday, 4/15, Wednesday, 4/16 and Thursday, 4/17. You can come to any or all of the fun! :-)

Namaste!