The CHILDREN'S GARDEN YOGA and REIKI
  • YOGA
    • Yoga Classes Offered
    • School/Community Visits
    • Children's Garden Yoga Training
    • FALL SCHEDULE 2016
    • Winter 2016 Schedule
    • Fall Schedule 2015
    • Winter 2015 Schedule
  • Reiki
  • Metamorphosis
    • More about Metamoprhosis
  • Yoga Camps
    • SUMMER CAMP 2020
    • Summer Camp 2019
    • Summer Camp 2018
    • SUMMER 2018
    • Summer Camp 2017
    • Summer Camp 2016
    • March Break Camp
  • Mentoring and Classes
  • Specialty Programmes
    • Yoga for the Special Child
    • Reflexology
  • Volunteer Opportunities
  • Registration Form - Child
  • Registration Form - Adult
  • Contact Information
  • Blog

Polar Bear Pose 

1/17/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture

Child's Pose or POLAR BEAR:
Imagine you are a Polar Bear. Imagine you are surrounded by a vast amount of snow. You blend into the scenery. Your large white bear body lumbers on the frozen white north until your intuition (your inner knowing) tells you to lie down in the snow, breathing deeply, slowly and silently. Slow your breath and bring a quiet, relaxed stillness to your body.
BENEFITS: Child's Pose, Polar Bear, Egg, Seed, Curled Leaf, Rock brings a sense of peace and relaxation to the whole body. This pose helps you feel grounded, secure and safe. It massages the frontal organs and soothes the central nervous system as it gently lengthens and stretches the muscles along the spine and the hips. It is natural for children to go into this pose to relax, calm and to bring stillness to both the body and the mind.

Affirmation: I AM LIKE A POLAR BEAR, QUIET, STILL and RELAXED.

THE POSE:
Sit on your heels with spine long and tall, head floating upward. Make a "V" with your knees. Take a deep breath in and imagine you are a big, strong, white polar bear. As you breathe out, cover your black eye and nose and round your spine, folding forward so that your forehead touches the (snow). Your body will fold in between your legs when your knees are "V-ed" or will lie across your knees and thighs if your are legs are together. Continue to breathe very slowly and very deeply. You look like a large snowbank. Your breath is so deep and so slow, you don't appear to be moving at all. You are quiet, still and safe. The Inuit and other indigenous people have hunted polar bears for survival. There is a mutual respect between the bears and these people. But other people are not as well informed and some still hunt polar bears for sport which could bring the polar bear to possible extinction. Remember when you are doing this pose to be as still and quiet as possible. Feel brave, safe and relaxed.
Picture
Child's Pose (also seed, rock, curled leaf or by bringing hands over nose and making a v with your legs - POLAR BEAR)

BREATH PLAY: Breathe in deeply through your nose. Take your breath way down to your belly. Feel your belly expand slowly on the in breath. As you slowly breathe out, feel your belly begin to relax and become smaller. Imagine you are a polar bear in the snow. You feel warm with a big blanket of snow all around you. Breathe so slowly and deeply that you know anyone passing by will think you are just a great white snowbank. You feel quiet and still. You feel safe. This can be done either in Polar Bear Pose or just resting comfortably on your back.

RELAXATION VISUALIZATION: In your mind's eye, see a garden gate. It can look however you wish it to as it is your garden gate. Pass through the gate and once on the other side, see that you are in a winter wonderland of crisp blue sky and solid white land. You see a sliver of silvery blue in the white and realize it is the ocean. As you get nearer, you see there is a large ship on the water. You climb aboard the ship and set sail. You maneuver the boat between icebergs and ice flows. You see whales coming up out of the ocean for a big breath. They swim gracefully beside your ship. The spray from their blow holes makes a waterfall of mystery. There are seals and walruses easing their blubbery bodies up onto ice flows to sun themselves. You know you are in for a fine adventure. As you watch the scene unfolding all around you, you see a polar bear climbing out of the water onto the icy white land. You imagine you are that polar bear. You pick up your enormous paws and make huge foot prints in the snow. Then the cold arctic winds fill the prints in as fast as you can make them. You are in a blizzard in the Great White North, but your fur and your enormous body keep you so warm, so warm that you have an urge to lie down and rest. You cover your black eyes and nose with your big white paws and you put your head down into the snow while curling your knees up close to your chest underneath you. You feel your over sized body beginning to sink into the snow. You breathe deeply and slowly and feel your body relaxing and settling into the winter world of white. You stay ever so quiet, so still. You feel so relaxed. You feel safe. Everything is right in the world. You stay in your warm, soft, cozy winter bed for as long as you wish. Only begin to stretch and wiggle your bear toes and nose when you know you are ready to get back on your ship and sail back home.

ACTIVITY: draw a curved rainbow shape on a white piece of paper. Cut it out rounding the front and back bottom corners and making a little dip in the middle at the bottom of the paper. you could draw some paws on if you wish and even put a little cotton ball (stretched out) tail on if you want. Draw a polar bear head, separately on the white paper. Make black eyes and nose. With a brass fastener (a brad) with prongs that spread apart, attach the head to the body at about the middle of the front edge. Now the polar bear can look up or do polar bear pose, if you gently rotate his head under his paws.

BOOKS:
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

A week of yoga play 

1/3/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture

MOUNTAIN
:
Picture a mountain in your mind's eye.
When you imagine or see a mountain, consider its characteristics. When you stand or sit in mountain, don't just put your body into the pose, put the qualities of the mountain into your body, your mind and your heart, too. You could even imagine you are a mountain when you are lying down. Try mountain pose whenever you need to feel strong and confident, solid, magnificent or majestic.
Benefits:
Mountain is a pose of alignment and strength. It strengthens muscles throughout the body (and mind) and creates good posture. This helps build confidence, self-esteem, focus and concentration.
Affirmation:
I am like a mountain. I am solid, majestic, magnificent and confident.
To Do:
You could research mountains. Find pictures or draw pictures. You could discuss the qualities of a mountain and consider how you could embody those qualities.


POSE AT A GLANCE:
1. Place both feet solidly on the floor. Keep your arms at your side or place hands in Namaste (Prayer position) at your heart centre.
2. For Mountain with Peak, keep your feet solidly on the floor and take your arms above your head, hands parallel or together in Namaste.

Picture
Mountain
Picture
Mountain with Peak
IT'S IN THE DETAILS:
1. Stand with your feet placed side by side, solidly on the ground. Your arms may be at your side or your hands may be in Namaste (Prayer position) at your heart centre.
2. Breathe in, allowing your head to float towards the sky. Feel your spine lengthen. Breathe out and feel solid and stable. Soften your knees (don't bend, just loosen them).
3. Your spine, the bumpy part on your back, is made up of vertebrae. Each vertebra is like a building block. Breathe in and imagine you are placing each of your vertebra (building blocks) one on top of the other. Breathe out and feel them stacked carefully in a tall, strong line. Be careful not to zig zag your vertebrae blocks. To build the strongest tower, it is important to stack carefully.
4. Breathe in and raise your arms above your head, stretch up tall with your hands parallel or in Namaste to make Mountain with Peak. Breathe out and relax your shoulders down f
rom your ears.
5. Feel tall, strong, confident and magnificent. Feel like a mountain.


BREATH PLAY:
Think of your nostrils (nose) as a mountain. Breathe in taking your breath to the top of the mountain. Imagine there is a castle there and you pause to visit. Breathe out and imagine your breath is coming down the mountain. There's a lake at the bottom of your mountain. Pause to watch the ducks swim. Then repeat. Breathe in, taking your breath up, up, up. Pause at the castle. Breathe out, bringing your breath down, down, down. Pause at the lake again before you start up again. Be very mindful (aware) of your breath as it causes your belly to move UP (as you breathe in) and DOWN (as you breathe out).

BOOKS:
A Boy and A Bear (Lori Lite)
Walk on the Wild Side (Nicholas Oldland)


Picture
Picture

SONG:
Teach your child the Bear Goes Over the Mountain song and have fun all day long!
The bear goes over the mountain,
The bear goes over the mountain,
The bear goes over the mountain
To see what he could see....
To see what he could see, to see what he could see,
The bear goes over the mountain, the bear goes over the mountain, the bear goes over the mountain, to see what he could see.

 A RELAXING JOURNEY INTO THE IMAGINATION: (speak slowly and softly, pausing to evoke calm)
Help your body get comfortable by lying down on your back with your arms and legs loose beside you. (If lying on your side or your tummy is better for you, then do that.) Close your eyes and pay attention to your breath. Feel it coming in and going out, in and out through your nose. Just relax. Let go of anything that might be bothering you, any thoughts, any tightness. Now in your mind's eye (your imagination) see a garden gate in front of you. This is your gate so it can look any way you wish it to. When you are ready, open the gate and walk into your imagination. There is a path before you and you begin to walk along it. There is a stream to one side and a meadow on the other. Your path is in between. Soon you are in a forest. Smell the scent of the pine trees. Listen to the sound of the water tripping over pebbles in the nearby stream. Leaves and sticks crunch under your feet. Woodland animals are scurrying about. Your body begins to feel warmer as a splash of sunlight shimmers along the path between the trees. Suddenly you realize you are walking up, up, up. The path is taking you higher. You are on a trail leading to the top of a mountain. There are no longer trees around you. Just clear, clean blue sky. The air is fresh and crisp. You feel it on your skin. You feel it going in an out of your nose. You hear a wind chime in the distance. You are so relaxed. When you come to a place that looks just right in your imagination, sit or lie down and feel the warmth of the sun on your body. Breathe in. Breathe out. R E L A X. Feel your breath going in and out. See your breath as a colour or anything that seems right to you. Listen to the sounds of the mountain. What do you hear, a waterfall, a wind chime, birds, whispering leaves? SILENCE. Feel the energy of the earth and the sky, the warmth of the sun, the rippling breeze, the soft grass or smooth rocks beneath you. R E L A X. Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out......Now it is time to continue your journey in your imagination. Slowly begin to walk down the path through the scented forest, down the path beside the bubbling brook, all the way back to the garden gate. When you are ready to leave this place of peace and relaxation you may open the gate, knowing when you do so you will be back in this room. But you can bring the feeling of peace and contentment with you. The mountain with its peace and contentment, strength and confidence live inside of you. You can go there anytime you want. Now slowly begin to wiggle your fingers and wiggle your toes. Wiggle your shoulders and wiggle your nose. Stretch and roll over to one side and rest there for another moment until you are ready to sit up tall feeling so calm, so peaceful, so relaxed.

MINDFUL MOMENTS:
Take a moment to listen to the sounds around you. List them, write them down or just bring them to each others attention. Make a practice of being aware of the sounds around you. Set a clock or your phone or other device to chime at random times or every hour or whatever you are able to do. When you and your child hear the sound, stop what you are doing and just breathe. Take 2 or 3 deep breaths through your nose and then resume your activity.
0 Comments

    In 2020, it is almost 20 years since, the Children's Garden began bringing yoga to children and their families. Jennifer and Barb (Yoga Barb) Westgate, were the first 2 in Ontario and the 4th and 5th in Canada to be certified children's yoga facilitators, through YogaKids. Since that time they have both studied under many other renown experts in the field of children's yoga, health and well-being. Jennifer, a speech and language pathologist, a certified reflexology and Reiki practitioner and a student of Sonia Sumar (Yoga for the Special Child), brings a well rounded experience to all children, but especially to those with different abilities. Yoga Barb offers Metamorphosis, Reiki and Emotional Support through her private yoga programmes and during group classes upon request. Her background in behavioural sciences, mother, child care provider, certified parent educator, and now "Gran" to 4, have enhanced her natural ability to provide a nurturing environment to all who seek her guidance.

    Archives

    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2016

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.