Of all the events that have occurred this spring, our weekend Yoga Lab trainings was my favorite.

It was such a delight to watch our teachers share their gifts, their joy and their understanding of this practice with a wide variety of students.

Yoga Lab is a special weekend in our training program where teachers-in-training who have attended at least three other weekend trainings come to teach “live” classes. It was exciting, and perhaps a bit nerve wracking, for our teachers to learn by watching each other.

I was very impressed with each teacher’s skills and understanding of the material they had been exploring. But even more, I was touched by their heartfelt presence with the children in their classes.  So sweet!

When we first began our teacher training program I felt a huge sense of responsibility in handing out certificates proclaiming to the world, “This person is qualified!”

After this Yoga Lab weekend, I feel very confident promoting the work of these eminently qualified teachers.

A great big thank you to so many who made this possible - everyone who brought children to our free yoga classes, the teachers who brought their own families and my own family - mom and sister - who kept it all flowing smoothly.

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“Wisdom says i’m nothing. Love says I’m everything. Between these two I live my life.” -Nisargadatta

April was a full month with a 10-day trip to The Sivananda Yoga Retreat in The Bahamas, our exciting Yoga Lab weekend and a 5-day advanced training in iRest with Richard Miller, PhD.

The quote that starts this entry is one of many gems Richard shared with us as he unpacked for us his contemporary practice of yoga nidra, called iRest. It is a powerful practice that can be used in any moment to bring us back to our true nature. The implications are vast. The manual and the recording of the talks contain enough material to study and practice for years. Yoga nidra is a practice I have been sharing with my young students and teaching to our teachers-in-training for a couple years now. Richard Miller’s iRest protocol takes it all to another level. It has already been integrated into my life over the week of practices. It will continue to unfold and blossom right along with our garden out back.

The internal shift that has taken place within me is not easily described. There is a sense of vastness and a quiet I have never known. The training just ended yesterday. This morning when I sat in meditation, quiet permeated my experience. There is much to explore and I am grateful for the maps and directions Richard has given us to work with.

Between our Yoga Lab and this iRest training, we visited family in New Jersey so I feel today, for the first time in a long time, I can take a deep breath and begin to slip back into the continuity of a routine I have not been able to keep over these last two months of training and travel.

Life is rich. I feel a deep sense of gratitude for all that has been and continues to unfold.

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The fourth yama, Brahmacharya, is open to wide interpretation from the modern day yogi. The intention behind it is simply to save energy. It traditionally refers to the practice of celibacy - what has more energy than that which creates life?

We can broaden this definition to include self-restraint and moderation. Too much chips, candy, TV and video games can drain energy. Using this concept of self-restraint in eating and choosing activities can help increase vital energy by not wasting it on depleting activities.

This is a simple enough way to introduce this concept to children.

Adults can begin to examine our cultivation and use of vital life force. It’s like trying to live more sustainably.

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I’ve just returned from a week long training in Florida with Integrative Yoga Therapy. It was an honor to be asked to co-facilitate their first children’s yoga teacher training. It was all around an exceptional experience. The other teachers and students were so inspiring and friendly. The retreat center we stayed at was draped with Spanish moss and filled with birds - we saw an owl perched in a tree that had to be at least four feet tall.

At the end of the week, I leave again to facilitate another week long training on teaching yoga to children. This time it will be at the Sivananda Retreat in The Bahamas. No complaints. It is my true joy to share the benefits of yoga with children and to share all I know with anyone who has this same passion. There is a whole lot of information and specific techniques to provide - and something more. It is simply creating and holding a space. In this space, what is true and beautiful in each individual is revealed and that is what they learn to share with the children.

All the games and art projects and sharing and breathing and moving certainly helps!

As soon as I return, it will be time for Yoga Lab. We are very excited about this community event. Our teachers will have a chance to gather and share what they have learned with our larger community of families. Everyone is welcome and it is sure to be a very fun weekend.

Two weeks into the month, I am still pondering just what to share about this third yama - asteya. It is a simple and beautiful principal. Take only what is needed. It is about not stealing, but is much more than not stealing gum at the quick shop or car stereos and TVs as a profession. Asteya looks at all levels of our being. It is to not steal someone else’s time by being late for an appointment, not stealing someone else’s attention by interrupting a conversation, not stealing someone’s recognition for an accomplishment - stealing the lime light.

It’s about not stealing resources from others for our own consumption and this is where I feel I begin to slide into a bit of a quagmire. Since the end of the second World War, our culture has been on what feels like a feeding frenzy of the world’s resources. Even a casual look into these “resources” reveals the suffering and death of children and families around the world as a result of our “American dream.” This dream encourages and rewards greed. It involves taking all you can - just because you can. It’s time to wake up.

Accounting for less than 5% of the world’s population, Americans consume 26% of the world’s energy. Each one of us, if we consider ourselves “average”, throws out three POUNDS of trash EVERY DAY. (now I’ve got my calculator out: 21 lbs a week, 90 lbs a month, 1, 095 lbs a year - yes, that is one ton from you and your loved one-every year!) This trash is often shipped elsewhere diminishing the quality of life for other people and animal life - stealing their well being. World Watch states on their website: “While the consumer class thrives, great disparities remain. The 12 percent of the world’s population that lives in North America and Western Europe accounts for 60 percent of private consumption spending, while the one-third living in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa accounts for only 3.2 percent.”

http://www.worldwatch.org/node/810

Again, I refer to The Story of Stuff for a lucid description of the work/spend/waste cycle and our contribution to it.

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

It is a slippery slope as we find the courage to begin to peek through the fingers of our hands pressed tightly over our eyes. A seemingly benign trip through the artfully stacked produce and endless isles of packaged goods at our local grocer becomes menacing to the world’s children and families -when we care enough or have the courage enough to relentlessly discover the source of our consumer goods.

When I begin to explore the concept of asteya, I realize we have a tremendous amount of work to do. It involves a restructuring of our daily habits as well as our belief system. No small task.

This is the can of worms I feel I have opened as I explore this yama. Fortunately, the tide is turning as more and more citizens are waking up and refusing to buy into the mass destruction our consumer habits wreak in the world. It’s like changing our diet. It happens over time. The junk food and the junk become a less prominent portion of our intake. Sustainability reigns. This practice involves refining or redefining our needs. We all need food, water and shelter, but how much food shipped from how far off and how big of a shelter? Another stat from World Watch: “New houses in the U.S. were 38 % bigger in 2002 than in 1975, despite having fewer people per household on average.”

The work resides precisely at the point of purchase and we as a consumer have tremendous power - exclusive power - at this point. A delightful example of this is the skinny pant. The Gap and other fashion giants must have spent millions of advertising dollars telling us everywhere we looked that we needed a pair of skinny jeans. Do you or anyone you know own a pair of these skinny pants? The American public - over the age of 14 - collectively said “NO!” and they virtually disappeared. Just think if we could apply the same staunch conviction about our image to matters of social justice. Junk will stop being produced as soon as we stop buying junk.

So, just for this month, let’s follow our dollars. Where do they go? Do we need this purchase and does it in any way take from others? On an encouraging note, Patanjali states clearly in The Yoga Sutras that, “To one established in non-stealing, all wealth comes.” (II.37) (from the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by Swami Satchidananda)

Nischala Joy Devi takes a heart-centered, feminine approach to interpreting the sutras and translates this one as, “Abiding in generosity and honesty (Astheya), material and spiritual prosperity is bestowed.” (from The Secret Power of Yoga by Nischala Joy Devi).

It is helpful to remember that the yamas are a personal practice. The aim is to still the fluctuations of the mind. Our mind cannot be peaceful when we have consumed more than we need at other’s expense. This science of consciousness is brilliant because cultivating these postive qualities in ourselves mirrors them out into the world.

Nischala Joy Devi advises, “For maximum benefit, do not even wait for someone to ask, be alert, and never miss an opportunity to give, give, give.”

My little bird walker from last week is just fine. She came into class reporting that she only got ice cream for dinner once and it still felt, “kinda funny”. This said while giving me a good shot of her inner upper lip. It seems to have been a bonding experience in some strange way and now the Bird Walk has a reputation among us.

I’m in the middle of our Planting Seeds training weekend. I do love this younger age - so much play.

Remember to set your clocks ahead (and remind me not to schedule trainings on daylight savings weekends!)

A new session began today and along with the regulars, a new student enrolled. Although it was her first yoga class, she said she knew some poses her friends had shown her (she is 7).

As we moved into our standing poses; Triangle, Warrior II, Warrior I, this new student exclaimed, “It’s like we’re magic!” I’m not sure if it was the effect of shouting, “I am powerful!” in the Warrior poses or just the flow of the class but I was completely tickled by her comment. The other students offered her helpful suggestions in the poses as we wandered our way through the garden; Butterfly, Turtle and an assortment of flowers. We then practiced some bird poses, including Bird Walk. This is something I learned from Thia Luby’s Yoga for Children. It’s a classic. I’ve taught it many times before but today was the last time. I turned toward one of my students, who’s been in my class for more than a year now, just in time to see her fall forward and split her lip on the gleaming wood floor of the yoga studio.

Bird Walk involves squatting down and wrapping your arms around your legs from the inside out. It is fun and challenging to try to walk like this but what I hadn’t foreseen in all this time - and became so clear this afternoon - is that your arms are basically bound and should you take a spill as this girl did today, there is no time to get your arms free to catch the fall. This particular student is a real fire ball and tends to propel herself with a little higher octane fuel than others so I imagine she was really going for it and hand plenty of momentum with her as she toppled forward.

It was gut wrenching to see the pain in her face and hear the agony in her cry. Her dad was just outside to provide comfort. An ice pack from the mini ‘fridge behind the desk helped reduce the swelling. Fortunately, no knocked teeth or need for stitches, just a flap of lip hanging loose for a few days - and the pain. She sat out with her dad for the rest of the class until it was time for final rest. She took up the invitation to join us at the end and we did a special crystal healing magic carpet ride for her.

She was still a bit choked up as she told me that her dad said she might not be able to eat much and she would have to have ice cream for dinner. I’m exceptionally grateful for her father’s good humor through out the incident.

During this class, I was keenly aware of the wide swing of the pendulum. It started out so sublime with our new student feeling magical in Warrior pose, the other students welcoming her with their sage advice, and then the whole class tumbling into what I always hoped would never happen as one of my dear students split her lip.

This young girl’s dad (she will be 8 in April, “which is really soon” she had just announced earlier in class) said all the injuries he knew of in yoga had to do with pulled muscles - not bloody lips.

By the time they were walking out the door, about a half hour after her spill, she was talking rapid fire as usual through a big ball of ice-filled paper towel. Bless her heart.

I don’t have any profound insights or sage advice (you’ll have to consult my 8 and 10 year old students for that), just recording events as they unfold. I think what both my dear student and I have learned from this is the value of awareness in the present moment along with a great measure of humility for the forces the propel us -both up and down.

4-year-olds love to run around. Why not? They are full of energy and live with the perspective of limitless time. This is the natural exuberance of pre-school children.

Age 8 is traditionally the age to begin a yoga practice. It makes sense developmentally. Our teacher training program, however, does offer a course in teaching yoga to ages 5-7. I like to call this “pre-yoga” or, Planting Seeds.

So what about children ages 2-4? What does yoga practice look like for them? Is it even a yoga practice at all? It’s a good question. Children in this age range can and do benefit from becoming more aware of their natural breath, developing motor coordination, following directions and all the socialization that goes on in class. They are not holding yoga poses but they are learning coordination and body awareness.

For my class of mostly 4 year olds, I have developed a pictograph that guides the children through class. This came about after a class one day that largely consisted of running around. Whoo hoo! Very age appropriate AND, some structure is a good thing in any learning environment. I recalled this chart I had used as a developmental therapist working with children who have interaction and communication disorders. I thought I would try it with these little pre-pre-yogis. It is simple - and effective.

It allows them to see, graphically, what the structure of the class is. The running around part is in there - “Games”, just after asanas. When one of the kids takes off on the impetus of their own exuberant joy, I simply refer to the pictograph and show them where we are in the class and they tune back in.

I took a piece of paper and made six squares (very easy to do with a table in a word document). I then inserted an image in each square for the six main aspects of our class.

square 1 - OM symbol (to begin class)

square 2 - flower (to reperesent focus on breath)

square 3- sun (for sun salutations)

square 4 - different images of asanas (yoga poses)

square 5 - a silly, moving person (to represent games-and all that running around)

Square 6 - a person resting (for final rest)

I made two pictographs and cut one up into squares. These squares are placed on the matching image and turned over when that activity is complete. I keep the pictograph in a file where the classes are held and use it in each class. The kids love it and seem to appreciate knowing what to expect. Now they are free and focused to develop their own little pre-yoga practice.

A few weeks ago I was asked to sub a mommy and baby class. I watched as bundled moms carried another big bundle into the studio on this bright and snowy day, one after another. They kept coming - and coming. About 15 minutes into the class (by the time all the moms had arrived) there were 33 moms - and 33 babies!

This is a very interesting and unique class to teach. Each one of these 33 babies has their own way in the world. One is nursing, another is crying, another’s diaper is being changed and one is sleeping peacefully. Another is actively engaged in mom’s yoga practice, cooing gleefully as mom’s ponytail brushes his face on her way through a vinyasa.

It’s a free for all. Each mom in the class is practicing to whatever degree the baby allows. Total surrender. The moms with peacefully sleeping ones luxuriate in their own practice, relishing the sacred moment to themselves. Those with engaged ones, flow in and out of the practice. Sometimes they follow along, sometimes they are absorbed in an interaction with their new love. Nursing moms lean up against the wall and watch. Those with fussy babies walk around the room or sit on an exercise ball and bounce their bundles of joy, who aren’t feeling so joyful at the moment.

The youngest in the class was 5 weeks old. The oldest baby was 10 months. Moms are in various stages of recovery from the earthquake the body goes through giving birth. They are there to get out of the house, facilitate recovery, get some exercise (relishing the chest openers that counteract all the hunching involved in caring for a newborn), connect with their babies and share with others who all find themselves in this uncharted territory. One of the happy babies lying on his back giggling at his mom’s Sun Salutations sports a shirt that reads, “doesn’t come with instructions.”

After this class, I was asked to teach weekly. 33 is a big number, especially when it is really 66. So now, each week we gather together (in smaller numbers) and breathe. I give suggestions, show some practices and the moms take it in to whatever extent they can in the moment. I just ordered three new books from Amazon. I’ll list them on our recommended resources and review them (I’ll be studying). What I already know is that the practice of yoga suits anyone in any condition. The principals of breathing, movement, alignment and relaxation are universal.

The second yama (basic principals of yoga) is satya, or truthfulness. Swami Satchidananda says, “…first follow truth, and then truth will follow you.”

These yamas are personal practices that help us to still the fluctuations of the mind - the goal of yoga.

Patanjali clearly states in the Yoga Sutras that practicing truthfulness makes our word very powerful. The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz says something similar. The first agreement is to be impeccable with your word. In his book he writes, “Being impeccable with your word is the correct use of your energy; it means to use your energy in the direction of truth and love for yourself. If you make an agreement with yourself to be impeccable with your word, just with that intention, the truth will manifest through you and clean all the emotional poison that exists within you. But making this agreement is difficult because we have learned to do precisely the opposite. We have learned to lie as a habit of our communication with others and more importantly with ourselves. We are not impeccable with the word.”

Nischala Joy Devi translates Patanjali’s Sutra on Satya as, “Dedicated to truth and integrity (Satya), our thoughts, words, and actions gain the power to manifest.” (from her book, The Secret Power of Yoga)

Although we may not be in the habit of outright lying about significant factors in our lives, careful examination of just one day of speech reveals thousands of little white lies we tell ourselves and others. Maybe we want to impress someone, or not let someone see us in an unfavorable light. This is a powerful practice. You may notice quickly how being truthful is challanging while at the same time creating tremendous power and freedom.

We will work with truthfulness in the month of February. Be gentle with yourself. Pay attention to your speech. Keep a journal and write down what you’ve said when you catch yourself saying something untruthful. Then, take a moment to explore why you said it and journal about that. Even a response to that pat question, “How are you?” Can you tell the truth? Awareness leads to transformation.

Keep track of internal speech as well. We have a constant dialog going on in our heads. What are we saying to ourselves? Why?

Being truthful does not mean being hurtful. If saying the truth will hurt someone, we are practicing ahimsa to not say it. It is all laid out in the Sutras and we are instructed to use discernment (viveka) in these cases.