Yoga For Any Room!

Description

Before beginning:

• When you first start learning yoga and the poses keep your eyes open. As you get more comfortable with the poses, you may want to close your eyes and focus on how your body is feeling.
• Focus on your breathing. Breathe in through your nose. Breathe out through your mouth.
• All poses can be done sitting in a chair or on the floor (if you have enough space). Make sure each student or child has enough space around them to fully stretch their arms and legs.
• Each pose should last for at least three full breaths. (One full breath is breathing in and breathing out.)
• Always end yoga with a short relaxation exercise of just breathing, at least five full breaths.
• Encourage the students to focus on their breaths and how their body feels.
  • Mindful Breathing
    Breathing is an automatic reflex. You don’t even have to think about it – it just happens! But being aware of your breath can help you feel more relaxed. An easy way to be more mindful is thinking about when you smell your favorite scent. Smelling is actually taking in a deep breath on purpose.
  • Birthday Balloons and Candles
    Sit with your legs crossed (feet flat on the floor if you are sitting in a chair) and your back straight. Breathe in deeply through your nose, filling your lungs like a balloon. Imagine seeing your birthday cake with all its bright candles. Blow them out by breathing out strongly through your mouth.

Depending on how much time you have, you can take your students just through the mindful breathing and add in the Moon Walk Yoga activity to engage right and left brain thinking.

Optional: Do eight of our Power Charger yoga poses/movements in order:

• Sun Breath
• Space Float
• Shooting Star
• Moon Walk
• Cobra
• Elephant
• Relaxed Monkey Pose
• Sea Turtle-Deep Relaxation

Take time for each, doing at least five full breaths each. You can also time each pose/movement for one minute. Allow two to five minutes for the Sea Turtle: Deep Relaxation pose at the end.