It’s back to school time and the perfect time to practice relaxation techniques with your kids! Recently, the first graders and I created a “Forest of Calm” through the Vrksasana yoga pose, or “tree pose.” All of the kids gathered together to assume the tree poses and linked arms to create our forest.
Your Forest of Calm
I love it when all the kids are collaborating together to share responsibility for the energy in the classroom! They had a sense of connection and felt so proud to be able to successfully create a calm, focused, quiet, environment within their room. Their teacher joined us and has also reported creating more forests of calm in the days since.
You can create one too! Whether it is in your classroom, or your living room, share this idea with your child and create it together.
We use the help of Meddy Teddy, the meditating teddy bear, (https://www.meddyteddy.com/ ), in teaching tree pose. Kids absolutely LOVE Meddy Teddy and so do I
Here’s your tree pose instructions:
Make sure you demonstrate for the kids before you ask them to do it or you may have a pile of lumber instead of a strong forest. Use Meddy Teddy to demonstrate the pose first. And ask each student to assume tree pose before you create your forest together. Ideally move through these instructions for the students to complete on their own. Then, create your forest together as a variation.
Step 1
Stand in with you feet together, imagining that there are roots growing down into the earth. Breathe in and breathe out. Relaxed but standing strong.
Step 2
Shifting your weight slightly to your left foot, link your arm with your neighbor. Now very slowly lift your right foot to make a triangle with your other foot.
Step 3
Imagine your strong roots as you link with your friends to form a forest. Breathing in and breathing out, pause once everyone has formed the modified tree pose. Now select a point on the wall in front to gaze at while they listen to the silence in the trees.
Step 4
Stay in your pose for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Afterwards return both feet to the floor to feel your roots strong and present in the soil. Tune in to the energy in the room and ask students if they can feel the difference from before. Make sure you emphasize how THEY created this together and that it is possible to create it again and again and again whenever you want to visit the calm forest.
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