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It’s a little astonishing, how quickly a year passes! Yet here we are, Lynea and I, getting ready for our annual Summer Intensive at beautiful Still Meadow Retreat in Damascus, Oregon – the first of two Intensives we’re offering this summer. (The second will be held in Wisconsin this August.)
These workshops, combining all three of our basic Integrated Approach to Wellness courses, offer more than just the opportunity to learn the complete Yoga Calm Wellness System in a single week. They also provide time to rest and rejuvenate in a peaceful, natural setting and to meet, share and network with colleagues from around the world. (Last year, one student traveled all the way from Turkey to attend!)
Community is crucial to what we do. More than just a Yoga Calm principle, it’s how we stay informed and inspired in our teaching, counseling or other work. Gathering together to learn, network and socialize matters. It keeps us going.
It’s why professional associations hold conferences, such as the upcoming American School Counselor Association (ASCA) conference – of likely interest to many Yoga Calm users. Scheduled for June 25 – 28 in Seattle, it’s a great opportunity to “Perk up your Program,” as this year’s theme puts it – an event “jam-packed with hard-hitting, informative sessions; engaging, entertaining keynote speakers; and networking opportunities galore.”
And Yoga Calm will be there with special info, products and freebies at our booth (#1032). If you’ll be at the conference, do drop by, say hi and see what’s new with Yoga Calm.
Wish you could attend both our workshop and ASCA? You can! The introductory component of our Integrated Approach course will be held June 23 – 24, and Seattle is just a short drive or flight away. To register for just this component, click here.
To learn more about and register for the complete Still Meadow Summer Intensive, June 23 – 29, click here. Group discounts are available.
Whether in Seattle or at Still Meadow – or later in Wisconsin – we hope to see you this summer to learn, share and grow in the important work we’re doing to help children lead happy, healthy and successful lives.
Italy and food: two words that are synonymous for anyone who has been here. The Italians love their food – not just the act of eating but food as a metaphor for life. We see it everywhere here in Casperia, where we are conducting our first international Yoga Calm workshop. We see it in the connection with growing their food, the markets, the time spent preparing meals, and hours (yes, hours!) spent eating casually with friends and family.
The first time I recognized this was thirty years ago in Venice, visiting a friend who had married an Italian goldsmith. Our long, leisurely meal, eating course after course of delicious food with ten friends in a beautiful setting – and in the middle of the day, no less! – struck me profoundly as a testament to community and the importance of appreciating life. It was timeless and seemingly indulgent departure from my usual “productive” American life.
Now here I am again in Italy. It’s kind of a time warp, really, sitting here now in a 500 year old village high in the Sabine mountains, once again enjoying leisurely and carefully prepared meals. Even two hours away, there amidst rush and madness of Rome, people still relax and thoroughly enjoy their food. It feels as though nothing has changed.
And yet, as I just discovered from our Italian host, things are changing, particularly for children. They, too are under the same pressures as American kids, with modern media, video games, fast food and the like. The Italians are trying to hang on to humane and mindful ways of living, just as we are.
This is one of the reasons why we created activities such as “Mindful Snack” in our book, Yoga Calm for Children. This one centers on conscious eating: enjoying and appreciating our food, the people who grow and bring it to us, and the art of polite conversation. It is about community, the connections among us, our need for each other.
And in this way, it’s also about hope for the next generation, as Lynea recently saw after using the activity with a group of 7th graders. At the end, they spoke at length about how much they “liked having a quiet party with their friends.” For all the distractions rivaling for kids’ attention today, they still appreciate the experience of being appreciative, of being mindful, of feeling connected.
- Jim Gillen
Upon completing our Integrated Approach to Wellness 1 workshop, Debi Doyle, a school counselor in Mukilteo, Washington, wrote to us about how she’s been applying Yoga Calm in her work with kids:
Lately, I have been focusing on breath work with my students, trying to decide how to fuse this with the social skills lessons we already do. Recently, I discovered one way.
On Mondays, I see six classes, and on this particular day, a second grade class was the first to come. As they did, I remained seated, quietly moving a Hoberman sphere in rhythm with my breath. It was my first time using this tool, and I was very curious to see how effective it could be with the variety of classes that I see.
Without a word, the students entered in their normal fashion and sat in a circle on the floor. In less than a minute, the room was filled with 25 peacefully breathing second graders.
I asked if the students knew what their bodies were doing as they watched the “breathing ball.” One of the boys answered, “I’m breathing along with it.”
At this, I gave him a turn to sit in my spot and use the sphere. As he did, I got a small drum out and drummed in rhythm to his movement.
After a while, I asked another student if she would like a turn and asked the first student if he would like to take a turn on the drum. I briefly explained the drum’s purpose to him, and with that, the pair of students began, with the class silently following for a bit of time.
I then asked the class if they had any compliments for the pair. Without question, they received some of the most heartfelt and sincere compliments I have heard a group of students give.
All this activity was a perfect transition to talk about our breath at play, rest and while learning. Using the Hoberman sphere, I showed them their recess breath, running to line up, a few big sighs and then how each of them could calm their minds and bodies just by using their breath.
In another class, I gave the sphere to some kids on the Autistic spectrum. One who rarely has a successful time in my room was able to enter my class and join us quietly that day. Without a word, he watched what was going on and followed what he saw. I gave him a turn with the sphere, which he did really well. When it was his turn to drum, he worked very hard to figure out how to find a quiet rhythm. At first, he banged loudly. Then he adjusted to a quieter strike but took the stick back with great force. I noticed many of his classmates cringing at this, then relaxing when they saw how gently he struck the drum. We saw that he was just using an arcing motion to beat the drum – the best way he found to make the sound soft.
As I watched, I noticed how I had to bite my tongue a couple times to allow him to find his way. I became aware of how often we jump in to correct those who learn in an unconventional manner. Instead of him getting the message, “You can’t; let me show you,” he was able to experience, “You will figure it out; you are capable.”
I love learning from kids.
During the following Compliments activity, many of this boy’s peers were able to express to him how they liked how he had adjusted his drumming. They told him how they saw how hard he was concentrating. No wonder he came in the next week all excited for more! This kid had rarely gotten any communication from his peers, let alone positive words. Now he was being noticed for his teamwork and perseverance.
I am really beginning to see how beneficial it is to use what I have learned in Yoga Calm and integrate it into the Second Step lessons in the classroom. At this point, I am not sure the kids would let me go back to the way we did things without Yoga Calm.
Used by permission
