Grounding your Child’s Potentials

HAR is the power of manifestation.  It means the creative aspect of infinity.  It also means earth, prosperity, and be here now. It can be combined with different movements e.g. simple clapping for 2 or 3 minutes and this stimulates the 5 elements and the nervous system.

This mantra (sound current) is repeated in a monotone.  When pronouncing the R, the tongue should hit the back of the teeth.  Remember this part of the palette has 80 nerve endings so you are stimulating your whole brain with this mantra.

Here is a sample of 5 different ways to play with this mantra.

1. Clap your hands and say HAR

2. Put your right foot on the floor and say HAR

3. Put your left foot on the floor and say HAR

4. Put your hands on the floor and say HAR

5. Every time you jump up and down think or say HAR.

Balancing Your Child’s Mind & Mood

Sa Ta Na Ma is a favorite of children.  It balances the 4-elements (see nutrition) and helps communication.  It clears out of your mind angry feelings about something that happened to you at school or at home or your hurt feelings about an event with your best friend. It is like giving your mind a shower.

Sa = Infinity, universe

Ta = Life

Na = Death

Ma = Rebirth

Sit in easy pose with your spine straight and rest your hands on your knees with palms facing up.

As you say:

Sa – press your thumb and index finger together

Ta – press your thumb and middle finger together

Na - press your thumb and ring finger together

Ma – press your thumb and baby finger together

First chant out loud for 1 minute, whisper for 1 minute, silently for 2 minutes, whisper for 1 minute and then out loud for 1 minute.

How do you feel? Calm, energized and relaxed.  Make sure you celebrate your achievement.  It is a perfect meditation to do just before bed or before rising. Doing it for 40 consecutive days will make you happy, calm and balanced.

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Children and Community – theme of October

  Three “C”s – Children Create Community

Yoga means  “union,” to join together, to be in union with our selves and to be in community with others.  Children naturally model community to us and are already tuned up to yoga. Have you noticed how children do yoga poses spontaneously in whatever activity they are engaged in?  At the same time they are totally absorbed in an activity – present and peaceful.  They have the natural innocence, wonder and ability to be in the moment with themselves, other children, family and friends. Children bring calmness, creativity and joy to every moment whether they are doing a yoga class, playing with friends or just quietly reading a book.

Children are like sponges and absorb whatever is happening in their environment. They naturally create a sense of community. For example, children love to share their accomplishments with others e.g. showing their artwork and then giving the picture to the teacher.  Children have big hearts and are natural helpers too.  They do not ask what is in it for me.  They are still in touch with their stillness and with their own unique consciousness.

Children bring lightness and joy to the world and remind us to tap into our own inner child.  They love to play games with friends and with adults and naturally want to connect with others.  It is a beautiful exchange of energy.  Have you noticed how light and fresh you feel after being with children?  They tell us not to take life so seriously and to have fun.  They teach us that life is a playground where we can experiment and use our capacities.

Young children (3 to 6 years of age) become more adventurous and start to feel comfortable with new people and places.  They begin to cooperate with each other, and are able to work in groups. Children love to play games where they can cooperate or be competitive with themselves e.g. Grandma’s footsteps. (see below)

Being part of a community gives children the forum to express their creativity and tap into their own intuition that will give them a strong secure foundation in life.  They are like a canvas absorbing all the paint colors, learning from all the influences they are exposes to i.e. from each other, parents, teachers and other significant people in their life.  Children help build community. For example, they love to celebrate and help others with community events, special occasions etc. At community fairs they show their creativity by dressing up in costumes, doing face painting, joining in with dancing, yoga or whatever activity is being offered.

Children also need time alone too to be creative.  This helps them to establish a better relationship with themselves and to be innocent and fresh. So observe your child in quiet time without making any demands on them or correcting them.  Be in community with your child by honoring the silence.

Grandma’s Footsteps

Here is a group game called “Grandma’s Footsteps” that families love. Children & parents creep up on “grandma” who has her back to them as they do yoga poses. When grandma turns around, the parents & children who are inching their way forward, freeze in a yoga posture. Anyone that moves is “out” of the game.  Grandma can also call out a posture as an alternative. Everyone needs to do this posture quickly.  Yoga games develop self-awareness, coordination of both mind and body and place a specific challenge, which brings people together.

A simple meditation for parents/educators to manage stressful events

It helps you have a clear mind with life changes, stress and negative emotions.

Sit comfortably with your spine straight.  Relax your face and have a gentle smile.  Place your hands facing up over your lap.  Breath naturally through your nose, exhale through your mouth with a heavy breath.  Inhale through your mouth as if you are inhaling honey through a straw, exhale through your nose in a short and heavy breath.

Do it every day for 3-7 minutes for 40 days

What is meditation?

Meditation for Children

What is meditation?

Meditation is the adventure to relax deeply into what you truly are. It is just to be, not looking for any actions, results or objectives. It is a time off , a time with no time, just a deep sense of what we are.

Is meditation for children?
If you read the definition of meditation, you will find that children are born already in that state. They do not need to do anything, they do not expect anything, they are just there, absorbing life and responding to the external stimulus.
They have no mind, they are not aware of their physical body, they are only guided by a powerful sensibility that allow them to connect to the subtlest aspects of their life. They are living sponges accumulating information thought the senses. This process, eventually create a perception and progress to form concepts and ideas.

As children grow older they forget that natural state of “emptiness”, the senses move them out of that quiet center and they start exploring the world they had choose to live in.

In these moments we need to supply to the child some tools to maintain connection with that natural state of being. To be aware of themselves as they perform earthly activities.

Contemplation, concentration and motor coordination in the meditation process are just steps to allow the mind to go inward and to observe the natural state of being. When the child is utterly relaxed in that inner center, this is meditation.
The reason we suggest meditation for children is to establish a habit of inner connection that will make the entire mental, physical and mental system of the child strong to endure the constant seduction of their senses to go out of themselves to find happiness and well being.

In other words, as we knowledge that the child is already in a state of natural meditation, we are also aware that the journey in the world will require tools to endure it as well as to remember the natural state of repose in oneself.