FAVORITE PRACTICES BONUS CONTENT

We’re happy to welcome the new year by sharing five of our favorite practices. Try them yourself, and share with the children in your life.

Come back every week for a new offering!

Mountain Top Visualization

Explore this practice any time you need to take a break and rest, or use it as a safe, simple way to build up a sense of capacity and power.

Close your eyes if you’d like, or rest them on one spot that isn’t moving.

Imagine that you are sitting outside, looking up at a tall mountain. What do you see? How does looking up at the mountain make you feel?

Now imagine that you are getting ready to climb this mountain. Imagine standing and beginning to walk uphill. How are your legs feeling?

Take a full breath in and notice how the mountain air smells. Look around.

Are you in the woods? Or open space?

Are there flowers? Birds?

What else can you see?

As you continue to climb, the path gets steeper, and you have to work much harder. Soon you have to use your hands also, and your body is working very hard.

Imagine how your muscles are feeling. What is happening to your breathing?

Pause in your climb and look around. What can you see now?

As you get close to the top of the mountain, notice how you are feeling. Imagine reaching the very top.

You’ve done it!

Stand at the top of the mountain and appreciate the hard work you did to get here. Look out over the surrounding land.

If you’d like, lay down on your mat or wherever you happen to be. Imagine laying down on the earth at the top of the mountain.

Imagine how good this rest would feel after your long climb, your hard work.

Let your body sink into the ground. Notice the feeling of the mountain air on your body, and the steady support of the earth underneath you.

Rest here for as long as you’d like.

 

This practice and more like it can be found in our Yoga and Mindfulness Practices for Children Card Deck

 

Explore our School Wellness Program for access to 35 video and audio practices for children and adults.

Feeling My Feet

This is a simple but powerful practice to regain focus and get more grounded when you are distracted or overwhelmed. You can practice it sitting, standing, or even walking.

This is a focusing practice, where you will notice when your mind is distracted, catch it, and bring it back.

You can use any of your senses to practice focus, such as focusing on what you see or hear. In this practice, we will focus on something we can feel.

Practice this activity standing or sitting. If you are standing, stand in Mountain Pose. If you are sitting, put your feet on the ground.

If you can’t reach the ground, bring something under your feet such as blocks, a box, or a firm cushion.

Bring your attention to your feet. Notice the place where they connect with the ground. Do your feet feel heavy or light? Tense or relaxed?

If you put more weight into your toes how does the feeling change? What if you put more weight into your heels?

Explore the sensation in your feet for a few moments, and then get steady. Bring your awareness to the feeling of your feet connecting with the ground.

As you breath in and out does the sensation change at all?

When you notice your mind wander away or get distracted, catch it by saying to yourself “distracted mind” or “wandering mind” and then bring your attention back to the feeling of your feet on the ground.

This practice can be used quickly and without attracting attention anytime you become distracted or overwhelmed.

If you’re on the go, you can even focus on your feet while you’re walking.

 

This practice and more like it can be found in our Yoga and Mindfulness Practices for Children Card Deck. 

 

Explore our School Wellness Program for access to 35 video and audio practices for children and adults.

Wide Legged Forward Bend / Chair Yoga Break

Chair Yoga lets us bring the benefits of the practice to our every day life in a way that is simple, effective and sustainable. Try practicing a simple wide legged forward bend any time your body or brain needs a break. Want a bit more? Practice along with this 7 minute chair yoga video to release tension in your lower body.

Sit towards the front of a chair with your feet on the floor and your spine tall.

Separate your feet wide and turn your toes out slightly. Make sure your chair is firmly on the floor.

Take a full breath in. As you exhale, bend forward at your hips bringing your hands to rest on your knees.

If it feels comfortable you can slide your hands down toward the floor and let your head dangle.

For stability press the bottoms of your feet into the ground, and feel your hips connected to the chair.

Hold for a few breaths. If it feels good, imagine letting your body release a little bit more each time you breathe out.

When you’re ready to sit up, pull your belly button in a bit and slowly come back up to sitting.

You can use this practice any time you’ve been sitting for a while, and feel like your brain and body could use a break.

 

This practice and more like it can be found in our Mindful Chair Yoga Card Deck

 

Explore our School Wellness Program for access to 35 video and audio practices for children and adults.

Heart and Belly Breath

Heart and Belly Breath is a simple practice that helps us settle our nervous system, and connect to our own body in any moment.

We love using this practice as an opening ritual, as a reset after dealing with intense emotions, and also as a check in point after completing other activities. A great way to help students notice how a practice may change how they are feeling is to do Heart and Belly Breath both before and after, and notice any changes in their body, breath or mind.

You can do this practice with your eyes open or closed, and your body sitting, standing or laying down.

 

Bring one hand to your belly and one to your heart.
Let your hands be heavy on your body. How does it feel?

 

Can you feel your breath moving in your body? Pay attention to the sensation of your breathing, without trying to change it.

 

After a few moments, start to slow your breath down. Can you make your breath steady and even, so that your inhale and exhale are the same length? How does it feel if you breathe in and out through your nose?

 

Can you feel your breath moving through your belly? Can you feel it moving through your chest?

 

When you’re ready, bring your hands down and notice how you’re feeling. You can use this practice to help yourself slow down, and settle your body and mind any time throughout the day.

 

This practice and more like it can be found in our Mindful Chair Yoga Card Deck

 

Explore our School Wellness Program for access to 35 video and audio practices for children and adults.

HAND TO HEART PRACTICE

This variation of Heart and Belly Breath is a nice option for a quick check-in, especially if you’re around other people and don’t feel comfortable with a full Heart and Belly practice.

Excerpted from Yoga & Mindfulness Practices for Children Activity and Coloring Book

Layers of Sound

If you ever get overwhelmed throughout the day, this can be a nice way to reset, and orient yourself to the present moment. It can be done in as little as a minute or two, or you can experiment with a longer version of the practice and notice how you feel.

We also love using this for our students during transitions (both between spaces and subjects) and for a quick re-focusing if they get distracted. It’s an easy one to teach older children to do themselves, and a favorite tool for bringing attention back to the task at hand when needed.

Sit or stand for this activity. It can be helpful to close your eyes, but if that doesn’t feel right, try looking at one spot that isn’t moving.

This is a listening practice, and the first thing that we are going to listen for are the sounds that are far away from us.

Imagine opening your ears as wide as you can, and stretching your hearing way out beyond the room you’re in. Find the farthest away sounds that you can hear. Listen for as long as you like (5-10 seconds is great to start).

Now bring your sense of hearing closer. Find the sounds happening in the building or house you’re in. Listen for as long as you’d like.

Bring your sense of hearing closer.

Find the sounds just inside of the room. Finally, listen for the sounds happening inside of your own body for as long as you’d like. Notice how you’re feeling. If you get overwhelmed throughout the day, this is a great way to reset and orient yourself to the present moment.

 

This practice and more like it can be found in our Mindful Chair Yoga Card Deck

 

Explore our School Wellness Program for access to 35 video and audio practices for children and adults.