yoga for children
is looking for facilitators to
join their team, teaching this
incredible programme rooted
in Seasonal Yoga!☯ Feel passionately about the
health and well-being of
children?☯ Would you like a job that you
can work around your family?☯ Would you like to work as part
of a supportive team?Club Morgan is one of the most unique
holistic health programmesfor
children running today. It is supported
by a brand new and cutting-edge
seasonal-based curriculumdesigned
by one of the country’s leading trainers
in Seasonal Yoga and Tai-chi Sue Woodd
and her team of specialists.You don’t have to be a Yoga teacher to
apply to be a Club Morgan facilitator.
Full and on-going training
and support is
provided.Please get in touch
or visit our website
if you would just like
to know more!Please call Laura Wills:
Tel: 07909 851992
Email: [email protected]ClubMorgan (advert)_Layout 1 29/03/2015 14:51 Page 1lives. This will be different for each age group
but try and find ways that directly connect
mindfulness to their everyday experience.
Working with the breath
One of the simplest ways to introduce
children to mindfulness is by bringing an
awareness to the breath. It is accepted
wisdom that our breath can calm us down
but this is often a difficult concept for
children (and many adults) to grasp.
Simple techniques that work with children
are using breathing buddies and breath
detectives.
When you feel young children need a
breathing break ask them to lie down with a
small soft toy. This is their breathing buddy
and you are both going to relax for a few
minutes together. Place your breathing
buddy on your tummy and see if you can
notice it going up and down as you breathe
in and out; as if it is floating along on a little
boat in the sea. Notice each in breath and
each out breath and see if you can count up
to three as you breath in, and count to three
as you breath out. When you have finished
you can give your buddy a hug and put him
away until the next breathing break.
For older children, you can ask them to
feel the sensations and movement of their
breath in their body. It may be in your chest,
your tummy, your nose, mouth or throat. You
can play breath detective, putting your hands
on your tummy, chest or the tip of your nose.
See where you can feel the body move under
your hands. Maybe you can’t feel it at all and
that’s okay too. Perhaps you feel it in more
than one place, noticing how the breath feels
and moves in your body with each in breath
and each out breath.
Ask teenagers to place their hands in the
concentrating pose, hakini mudra, as they
notice the breath coming in and out of their
bodies. At the end of each out breath, ask
them to press the fingertips together which
can be an additional anchor if the mind starts
wondering away from noticing the breath.
Not only can mindfulness practice help
academic learning but it can also give
children skills to relate better to themselves
and to the world around them. Given the
increasingly hectic pace of life facing our
children and our young people, teaching
them mindfulness is a gift that we must
give them.Christiane Kerr is course director at Calm For
Kids (calmforkids.com)“Mindfulness is deliberately
paying attention to things we
normally would not even notice,
and becoming aware of our
present moment experience as it
arises, non-judgmentally, and with
kindness and compassion.”
(Anna Black, 2015)