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Posted on 18 August 2010.
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Posted in Blog Talk Radio, yoga in schoolComments (1)
Posted on 05 August 2010.
A teenager’s life can be filled with turmoil and stress. These are important transitional years as individuals move from childhood to adulthood. This episode will focus on how teens can take care of themselves in holistic and natural ways to ensure they live happy, healthy lives. Clinical Ayurvedic Specialist and Certified Anusara Yoga Instructor, Cate Stillman provides ideas on taking charge of your life and how you feel. Numerous suggestions for maximizing teens academic, creative and athletic performance including specifics in yoga, eating, sleeping, studying and meditation will be presented. And maybe even some ideas on how to get rid of those pesky pimples.
Original Air Date: August 5, 2010
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Some highlights from this episode include:
Cate Stillman can be found on Facebook and her website yogahealer.com.
Posted in Blog Talk Radio, athletes, benefits, teens, yoga basicsComments (1)
Posted on 30 July 2010.
We often get stuck on negative moments and enlarge their significance. This game teaches children and youth to pay attention to the events of each day and intentionally focus on the positives. It encourages paying close attention, living in the moment and appreciating all that life has to offer. Learning to pay attention to how different moments/events make us feel is an important skill leading to emotional intelligence, improved self understanding and greater compassion and empathy.
Suggest to your ‘Negative Nelly’ (my apologies to all the positive Nelly’s out there) that they pay attention today/this week to moments that make them feel good and try to find five different ones. The moment might be a thought that inspires, a view that is lovely and makes them pause, an interaction with someone, etc. What it is doesn’t matter. What matters is that for at least a moment it made them feel good. You do the same. When you get together at the end of the day/in class next week, share your five good things with one another.
We do this as a family each evening, each person saying one thing at a time in a circle, and call it “Thankful For.” Often at the end of a full day the responses are, “I’m thankful for bed, pillows, sleep, etc.” When the offerings get generic and often repeated (my family, my friends, my home) we remind the kids to think of something specific from today (a trip to the park, the colours of the clouds at sunset, the taste of fresh picked berries, etc). We also occasionally switch it up by saying “If I were so-and-so (the family member to their right or left) I would be thankful for…” This is always an interesting exercise and prompts some insightful observations. It also helps teach children to think about others and what happened of importance in someone else’s life that day.
Over the next while YIMS will be providing numerous mindfulness and compassionate living exercises and games so be sure to subscribe (RSS or e-mail) in order to get them delivered directly to your reader or in-box.
Posted in benefits, kids, mindfulness, teensComments (4)
Posted on 26 July 2010.
We just got home from vacation. Each year we head to my parent’s cabin on a beautiful lake in British Columbia, Canada. There are so many memories of my childhood there. I especially love picking up the well worn books off the shelf in the corner to read to my children. These are the books I read as a child. Illustrations, rhymes, tattered covers take me back to the innocence, joy, and simplicity of that time.
This year my six year old loved reading the Dr Seuss books. As I read Put Me in the Zooby Robert Lopshire for the umpteenth time I was struck by the fundamental life lessons found within those pages.
First the leopard is rejected and tossed out of the zoo, then he is asked by the young girl and boy “What good are you? What can you do?”
Don’t we all ask ourselves those same questions? Again and again at various times in our lives we search to define who we are, our worth, our contributions.
And so the leopard shows all he can do by turning his spots various colours, juggling them, changing their size, etc. He is one talented leopard!
You are too! It is vital to remember that we all have talents and abilities…divine worth. As we come to know ourselves, we can shine by being the genuine article: our best, truest self. Share it with the world. Do your thing!
However, the girl and boy regretfully inform a disappointed and discouraged leopard, “But you should not be in the zoo.” Only to show him his true calling, “…the circus is the place for you.”
We also need to find the place we truly belong, somewhere we can shine. We may need a guide, a teacher, a friend to show us the way. That place may also change as we grow and learn, progressing along life’s journey. However, once we are there, we, like the leopard, can bask in the joy of finding our place, of being our best selves.
So I thank Dr Seuss (and my sweet daughter) for making me reflect on these essential life questions.
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Posted on 12 July 2010.
Mindfulness means “the awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgementally to the unfolding of experiences moment by moment.” (Joh Kabat-Zinn) It is an active process involving staying aware of the external environment and the internal bodily sensations in the present moment without judgement, positive or negative.
Children live in a world of being told what to do: what time to wake up, what to eat, where and when they have various activities such as school, sports, music lessons, etc. This can lead to going through the motions of living without conscious awareness. For example, if you ask them what they ate for lunch they may not be able to tell you. This in not simply because of poor memory, but more likely because they were not paying attention at the time.
Children are often much closer to their experiences than adults. Watch an infant experience anything for the first time; they look at it, touch it, feel it on their face, taste it. Every experience is fresh and new. They live in the moment reacting emotionally and immediately to stimulus, then moving on to the next experience.
However, children also exists on auto-pilot, are easily distracted, are forgetful, lack concentration, have poor self-control and often do not understand themselves or the world. Mindfulness exercises address these concerns and can assist children in living with attention and awareness of themselves and their environment.
Keeping the needs and abilities of children in mind is key when adapting mindfulness exercises to various age groups. Children learn through concrete activities with clear, descriptive instructions. They also enjoy engaging their imaginations and creativity. And don’t forget the power of humour or the need for play.
Be sure to start with brief activities which will lead to success. Beginning with a five minute focus activity will be better than a 15 minute seated meditation.
Like all activities, mindfulness training improves with practice. As they learn mindful techniques, children can practice independently in everyday life: as they walk, as they eat, as they play. Purposefully engaging in their various activities will actively shape the mind helping children to live deeply each moment of daily life.
In the coming months we’ll be posting specific techniques and methods of teaching mindfulness to children and adolescents. Be sure to subscribe (RSS or e-mail) to receive these articles as they are published.
Posted in breathing, featured, kids, meditation, mindfulness, relaxation, teens, yoga basicsComments (4)
Posted on 26 June 2010.
Hooray! The long lazy days of summer have arrived. After having successfully completed another school year you can’t wait to spend time doing nothing. It is important to allow kids unstructured time to renew, refresh and come to know themselves. However, more often than not, sometime during the next few months children will utter the words, “I’m bored. There’s nothing to do!” (add whiny voice as appropriate). Here are some suggestions to keep kids active mentally and physically which also nurture them emotionally. Remember summer is a wonderful time to build relationships by spending time playing, doing, and growing together.
Posted in breathing, creative, fun, kids, meditation, poses, relaxationComments (6)
