Therapeutic Yoga

Students will be instructed in a variety of yoga poses and encouraged to hold each pose for up to 3 minutes. Focus will be placed on breath control and support, balance and flexibility.

Day One:
Begin by cross leg sitting, encourage straight backs, introduce breath control: Count to 4 breathing in, Hold for a count of 4, exhale for a count of 8. Practice 3 times.
Demonstrate the cat poses:
Happy Cat - 4 point position on floor or mat, "sink" spine, head up, hold...
Mad Cat - 4 point position on floor or mat, arch spine, hed down between shoulders. hold...
Practice transition - repeat happy cat, hold momentarily and then move fluidly into mad cat.
Downward Dog - ask children to move from Mad Cat into downward dog by simply straightening their legs and then gently walking their feet forward toward their heads. hold...
Child Pose - sitting on knees, relax and bend trunk forward with head to floor or mat and hands out streched in front or behind. hold...
Practice transition between downward dog and child pose - ask children to assume downward dog again and then instruct them as they move fluidly into child pose.
Tall Knee Sitting - come up from child pose into tall sitting on knees, pay attention to posture and breath control. Children should be reminded through out the lesson to breath as they are holding the poses, one's ntural tendency when doing something new or hard is to hold the breath in.
Butterfly pose - from tall knee sitting bring legs out from under the body to cross leg sitting, hold momentarily, then place bottoms of feet together, forming a diamond shape with lega and feet. Tightened leg extensors may make this more difficult for some children. Encourage them to do as much as possible - there is no right or wrong, only effort. Ask children to breathe and relax their knees into the floor, letting gravity pull the knees down. hold... then ask them to "flap the wings" on their butterfly by moving their knees up and down several times. Stop. Rest. Breathe.
Reveiw breathing pattern from beginning of lesson by taking 3 breaths according to pattern, enourage quiet and concentration, then end group with thanks in a quiet voice.