You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘environmental education’ tag.
Springtime again! And who can resist the call of the sun, leafing trees, beautifully blooming flowers? Our response is deep-seated. Rooted in our genetics is a love for nature, for the beauty of natural settings.
It came early this year, too, with record high temperatures across the country. In Denver, in March, we walked about in shorts. I couldn’t help but think, If it’s 80 degrees now, what’s it going to be like come August?
Of course, most climate scientists admonish that global warming isn’t just about rising temperatures but unpredictability. Extremes are becoming the norm. Think about it: Historically, there have been about four disastrous weather events per year; in 2011, there were 12, each causing more than a billion dollars in damage. (Talk about a way to balloon budget deficits!)
Yet a recent poll on Americans’ policy priorities, environmental issues ranked at or near the bottom of the list.
What’s going on here?
Back in the 1990s, while doing environmental education work for the National Science Foundation, I discovered a challenging paradox: If you educate people about the seriousness of this issues without showing them how to help or at least have a sense of control, they either dissociate or go into denial. Lynea has observed this, too, in the classroom, with students often reporting generalized anxiety and fear after typical environmental ed. units on endangered animals and the loss of rainforests. There’s a sense of hopelessness.
Bryan Welch’s book Beautiful and Abundant encapsulates the problem powerfully:
Too many environmental commandments begin “Thou shalt not…” Our negativity has prevented our ideas from catching on. Conservation, as an ethic, is not particularly contagious. So even when we’ve been right, we have not inspired Action.
If we want to involve people in the process of forming a collective vision, we need a different approach.
We will not engage the great engines of human creativity with a vision of pure frugality.
We need to plan for beauty and abundance.
And what does this have to do with yoga? Plenty!
Love, Knowledge & Action
At its root, yoga is a wellness system. The goal? To develop a healthy body, mind and heart. To achieve this, yoga develops awareness of how your thoughts, emotions and actions affect your life. Guided by the process of self study, yoga students typically notice that yoga makes them feel better and learn how to change their actions to promote greater health. These same processes of observation, feedback and change apply to the study of the environment and the body as a metaphor for the “living” earth.
Love is a key motivating factor, stemming from children’s inherent fondness for – and appreciation of – the beauty of animals and the natural world. We need to get them outside more so they have opportunities to connect with nature, even if just in the form of street trees, city birds or bugs in a schoolyard playground.
As we nurture children’s innate attraction to the environment, they undoubtedly ask about how things work. Curiosity and observation – the heart of the scientific method – become the springboard to science, and thus to Knowledge. With this as the foundation, stewardship – taking care of what you love – is a natural outcome. Love and Knowledge manifest Action.
Yoga provides a route to this learning. From the concrete to the abstract, with young and old alike, yoga practices are often inquiry-based. They’re about asking questions, observing, developing curiosity and exploring how things work. They’re also a means of opening the senses, helping us calm down and develop concentration, focus. These skills are particularly important in field science, where, for example, we must be still to observe wildlife. Only then can we observe nature under “her” terms. We’re also more tuned in to the feedback of our actions in the natural world.
For at its most basic level, yoga is about studying “relationship” and creating “beauty.” It’s about how we relate with ourselves, each other and our environment to create more joy and happiness. From ecology to physics, realizing that everything is related is also the scientist’s first step in a lifelong quest to understand how and why things work the way they do – the mysteries of life.
Finally, healthy individuals contribute to healthy communities. Yoga philosophy encourages nonviolence, compassion and a reverence for the natural balance of the world. Done in the context of community and the natural world, yoga enhances both individual and community health.
This attitude and approach is embodied in our newest course, Love, Knowledge & Action: Inspiring Environmental Stewardship. Through exploring techniques of physical yoga, observation and reflection, social/emotional skills-building, storytelling and simple school and backyard explorations and science lessons, teachers, counselors and environmental educators will learn how to cultivate children’s innate curiosity and appreciation of their bodies, animal life and other aspects of their natural, daily environment.
In addition to cultivating this sense of stewardship, of course, getting kids outdoors and moving supports both their physical and mental health. National studies have also shown that using environmental ed. as an integrating concept – both experientially and cognitively – improves student learning in math, science, social studies and language arts.
But perhaps most important, is the simple recognition that our humanity is linked with nature – that the natural world is a miraculous gift and blessing that benefits us every day, not just April 22. For while the environmental problems we currently face are big, they’re not insoluble – not when we harness the full power of human imagination and community to create a positive vision for our future and act on our love for Earth, our home.
The course handbook for Love, Knowledge & Action and related lesson plans will soon be available online through our store. Want a sneak preview? Email us at info@yogacalm.org for an excerpt and sample lesson plan.
To register for the May 12-13 session of Love, Knowledge & Action, click here.
Images by stefg74, theloushe & Linda Cronin, via Flickr
We’re blessed that our work lets us regularly meet so many wonderful school teachers, counselors, OTs, nurses and others who work with children. You inspire us with your stories of using Yoga Calm so successfully and your shared commitment to the health and well-being of our youth. You share ideas for new applications of Yoga Calm and adaptations for its activities. You make Yoga Calm a better, richer and more effective program through your dedication and generosity.
Many have asked for Yoga Calm applications and adaptations in book form. So, inspired by and with input from you, Lynea and I have been putting together a series of curriculum guides. Our goal: to give you more ideas for using Yoga Calm in specific situations than we could ever hope to cover in any single two-day workshop. Our last post gave you a sneak peek at one of these new guides: Creating a Sustainable Future: Yoga Calm Environmental Education Curriculum Guide.
In Creating a Sustainable Future, we are guided by the principles and tools of ecopsychology and Yoga Calm. The basic idea of ecopsych is that mental health – or unhealth – can’t be understood solely in terms of social relations; we must also include the relationship of humans to other species and ecosystems. So we group activities according to the four elements, which are used in many cultures as a way of connecting to the natural world. Each section includes sample activities for observation and reflection, physical movement, storytelling and stewardship, and includes resources for information, material and opportunities to support the environmental lessons you’re teaching.
Last time, we shared a group of three “Earth” activities for observing and beginning to form connections between the self and the natural world – especially appropriate for kids who may not be all that accustomed to spending much time outdoors. Now, we’d like to share some more physical activities from the guide – both to give you more ideas for getting kids moving and to show how academic and character concepts can be taught through the physical activity – in this case through activities that relate to the fire element.
4 Fire Poses
Click each title for pose instructions
- Woodchopper
As the children do the pose, ask them, “Can you feel a sense of strength and power inside of you? This energy is similar to fire. We’re going to feel that fiery part of ourselves and practice letting out just the right amount.” Ask them how they can tell what the right amount of energy is for Woodchopper pose. Have a student demonstrate too much, then too little. Then have the group practice just the right amount together. - Plank
Hold plank for 10 to 20 counts. Ask the kids, “Where are you feeling heat in the body? Now try lifting one leg a few inches off the floor. Does your body get warmer? Why do you think you get warm when the body is working hard?” - Volcano Breath
Tell the students that you are going to practice being volcanoes: “Deep inside the earth it is so hot that rocks melt and become a thick flowing substance called magma. Because the magma is lighter than the hard rock, it rises up, and sometimes it pushes to the surface and erupts into a volcano. Some volcanoes are explosive and others are not. It depends on how thick the magma is. If the magma is thick and sticky, the volcano is explosive. If the magma is thin and runny, the volcano creates a slower moving lava flow. Try being an explosive volcano and a slower moving lava flow. There are three main kinds of volcanoes. Can you find out what they are called?” - Warrior 1 & 2
Warriors learn to use their fierce fiery energy to help protect their families and their lands. Have the children stand in Warrior and think of ways in which they have used fiery words to express strong feelings. Ask: “Can you think of famous people who have used their fiery personalities to change something in the world?” or “Can you think of times when a person’s fiery personality got them into trouble?”
Adapted from the e-book Creating a Sustainable Future: Yoga Calm Environmental Education Curriculum Guide, available for download soon through the Yoga Calm Store.
Learn more about how Yoga Calm and environmental education activities can be used together to foster meaningful connections between personal and planetary health can be drawn, as well as a lifelong interest in science and increased environmental citizenry and stewardship. Join us for the next session of our Creating a Sustainable Future workshop, September 24 – 25 at Still Moving Yoga in Southwest Portland, Oregon.
Another way to counter the problem of childhood obesity is by encouraging kids to get outdoors and moving.
It’s not uncommon for the average American youth to spend up to 90% of waking hours indoors – and to spend much of that plugged in to computers, video games, smartphones, TV and other electronic gadgets. Not only does this take a toll on their health, but it ensures their disconnect from the natural world – a state that, most agree, is prerequisite for the kind of apathetic stewardship that has brought our world to the ecological brink. Time spent connecting with nature also gives kids opportunities to become more self-aware and mindful – key to developing self-regulation, empathy and other prosocial skills.
We connect to nature through our feeling states. When using Yoga Calm teachings, children can begin to recognize the effects that natural environments have on their bodies and minds.
Each element – earth, air, fire and water – has characteristics that correspond to certain feelings in the body. This understanding is expressed in our language about people, such as when we describe one person as airy or lighthearted and another as earthy or grounded. Kids can learn to develop and strengthen feeling states through activities and connection with the elements. For instance, trudging through a muddy mountain trail with a pack on gives a feeling of being grounded, while flying a kite gives a feeling of freedom and flight. By understanding, exploring and expressing these feelings, students can begin to develop a deeper relationship with nature, and they can begin to notice that nature can help teach us to be more grounded, free or fluid.
A great place to begin building a relationship with the natural world is through activities that open the senses and build trust, like observations or silent walking in nature. Once the foundation is laid, activities that encourage belonging and stewardship become both more practicable and powerful.
Good observation requires the ability to be still, patient and curious. The activities below can be used to help children develop these skills. Particularly important are times for the students to get outside and connect to the nature that is available to them. Street trees, vacant lots and school playgrounds all provide opportunities for kids to develop a sense of stewardship to the land where they live and play, as well as provide education about their native plants and habitat. Just make sure you scout these areas first for any hazards.
Following each activity or experiment, you can give the students time to journal about their experiences. They can record what happened (the original meaning of “journal”), their feelings about the experience, their thoughts or anything else they would like to explore and record. Some may choose to write a poem or draw a picture. Some may decide to write a list of things they can do to help the environment. You can offer specific ideas for journaling or you can leave it open-ended.
3 Earth Activities
- Outdoor Observation (Silent Walking)
For this activity, have the children walk silently in nearby nature, observing and using multiple senses – looking, listening, smelling, touching. The intention is for them to wander at a fairly slow pace and find a “special” spot or place they can begin to “bond” or connect with. They learn to observe the Earth in particular – to feel or smell the soil in different areas, for instance, or touch different trees or plants, or just close their eyes and listen to the tree branches rustling in the wind. It’s important to give them a time limit, though, and to specify appropriate areas and boundaries. They should be close enough to hear your cue for them to return. - Sensory Walk/Trust Walk
In this activity, children guide each other to various natural objects. Those who are being guided have their eyes closed or covered by a cloth or bandana, which lets them experience the natural objects with non-visual senses such as feeling and smelling. This activity is most effective when done outside, where students have a chance to discover natural objects in a natural setting. If weather isn’t permitting, though, natural objects collected ahead of time can be placed around a room. Be sure to set ground rules about which objects are appropriate to touch and pick up and which ones are not. It’s also probably best to rule out the sense of taste as an option and to discuss the reasons with the group. (A classroom version of this activity is in our book, Yoga Calm for Children.) - Nature Gallery
Let the kids designate a specific place in the room (e.g., a shelf or table) where chosen natural objects can be placed at any point throughout the sessions. These can be objects discovered during walks or objects they bring from their homes and neighborhoods. Eventually, the space becomes the children’s own beautiful nature gallery, helping to cultivate a connection to nature – particularly nearby nature. This also helps give students a sense of place, which can become a springboard for stewardship of the local environment. The nature gallery can also be used for science lessons.
Be sure to check back for our next post, which will have even more activities to get kids moving and connecting with the natural world!
Adapted from the e-book Creating a Sustainable Future: Yoga Calm Environmental Education Curriculum Guide, available for download soon through the Yoga Calm Store.
Images by Jos van Wunnik and lori05871, via Flickr
Learn more about how Yoga Calm and environmental education activities can be used together to foster meaningful connections between personal and planetary health, a lifelong interest in science and increased environmental citizenry and stewardship. Join us for the next session of our Creating a Sustainable Future workshop, September 24 – 25 at Still Moving Yoga in Portland, Oregon.
The average American child now spends over 8 hours in front of a screen each day. She emails, texts, and updates her status incessantly. He can name hundreds of corporate logos, but less than ten native plants. She aspires to have hundreds of online friends, most she may never meet in person. He masters complicated situations presented in game after game, but often avoids simple person-to-person conversation. They are almost entirely out of contact with the world that, over millions of years of evolution, shaped human beings — the natural world.
Play Again is a remarkable documentary on the impact of our screen-dominated culture on kids and their relationship to the natural world. In it, filmmakers follow 6 teenagers as they unplug and embark on “a wilderness adventure – no electricity, no cell phone coverage, no virtual reality.” Balanced by expert commentary from the likes of sociologist Juliet Schor, environmental writer Bill McKibben and others, the film “investigates the consequences of a childhood removed from nature and encourages action for a sustainable future.”
As we mentioned in our previous post about this film, Yoga Calm is committed to providing tools and resources to counter trends like those in the opening quote above – including, this year, our first ever Yoga Calm Summer Camp. One of our newest Certified Instructors, Dr. Nadia Delshad, was at Still Moving Yoga here in Portland, Oregon, for our inaugural camp and recently sent us her reflections on the experience:
The Beauty of Yoga Calm Summer Camp
With smiling hearts, new friendships and beautiful memories created, 13 children said goodbye to one another after spending a very special week at Yoga Calm Summer Camp. Together, they had developed wellness habits, environmental awareness, social skills and creative expression amongst the idyllic strawberry-lined paths, lush trees and gardens of Lynea and Jim Gillen’s tranquil studios in Southwest Portland.
In addition to her many years of counseling and yoga practice, Lynea also has had substantial experience in facilitating summer art camps. Tapping into this for Yoga Calm Summer Camp, she created – in her wonderfully unique style – a peaceful, creative and meaningful experience for both children and staff. Richly significant connections between personal and planetary health were fostered, and creative ways of continuing to respect this relationship, encouraged.
Lynea’s and Leah Schuyler’s good work in both developing this comprehensive environmental education program (Leah has a degree in Ecopsychology) and leading the sessions was complemented by that of Lynea’s husband Jim, a former environmental educator with the National Science Foundation who also created and tends to the beautiful gardens that served as setting for the camp.
If we want children to flourish, to become truly empowered, then let us allow them to love the earth before we ask them to save it. Perhaps this is what Thoreau had in mind when he said, “the more slowly trees grow at first, the sounder they are at the core, and I think the same is true of human beings.” – David Sobel, Beyond Ecophobia
I was privileged to share this week with wonderful young human beings and observe how each day the children became physically and emotionally stronger, kinder to one another, more connected to their environment and more empowered through a deeper knowledge of nature’s wonders. Consistently, I thought of how strongly I wanted every person on this planet – children and adults alike – to be able to have this same experience, which I will certainly treasure for a lifetime. For as the mother of two toddler boys, I often wonder at the environment they will find themselves in through their journey into adulthood. I deeply hope that we, collectively, are able to preserve the beautiful blessings of nature that we have been so fortunate to have inherited. Nature has given us so much – provides us with so many gifts. I want us to pass these blessings on to following generations. We eat and breathe and drink only because of nature. We are all a part of nature, and teaching our children gratitude will ensure our survival on this planet.
To trace the history of a river or a raindrop, as John Muir would have done, is also to trace the history of the soul, the history of the mind descending and arising in the body. In both, we constantly seek and stumble on divinity…. – Gretel Ehrlich
At the end of camp week, the children shared how they had enjoyed creating their personal bonding experience on the land and connecting to that special place for quiet reflection each day. They had fun picking berries and planting herbs. They loved learning to drum and challenged themselves in yoga poses and sequences. One young boy said that he loved “everything” about yoga camp – that it was the best camp he had ever been to.
It was certainly the best camp I had ever been to!
Thank you to all those good human beings who were involved in making this wonderful week possible, and may many children be as fortunate to experience this beauty in their lives and hearts in the future.
Man’s heart, away from nature, becomes hard; [the Lakota] knew that lack of respect for growing, living things soon led to lack of respect for humans too. – Luther Standing Bear
Just as a child has that magical capacity to move among the earth, I am reminded that if we allow ourselves as adults we too can “see the land as an animal does; experience the sky from the perspective of a flower or a bee; feel the earth quiver and breathe beneath us; know a hundred different smells of mud and listen unselfconsciously to the soughing of the trees.” – Valerie Andrews, A Passion for this Earth
Nadia Delshad, PsyD, is a Certified Yoga Calm Instructor, clinical psychologist and hypnotherapist who has worked with children and families for over 17 years. She has an MS in developmental child psychology and a PsyD in clinical psychology. She is currently teaching Yoga Calm and social-emotional skills training to children from preschool through 5th Grade with a family coaching method component for parents. You can find her at Young Yogis on Facebook.
“Serendipity” – the idea of the happy or fortuitous accident – is a wonderful word, inspired by a Persian fairy tale in which three princes from Serendip (the old name for Ceylon, now Sri Lanka) who “were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of.” It’s also a wonderful concept, sometimes bound up with the notion of synchronicity, or simultaneous events that seem to be meaningfully connected.
Both terms came to mind the other day when we received information about a new documentary coming here to Portland that taps into some of our ongoing concerns about children’s health and well-being and new tools we’ve created to address them.
Play Again explores the impact of our screen-dominated culture on kids and their relationship to the natural world. Media overload is an issue we’ve covered here before – one which the film’s synopsis describes powerfully:
The average American child now spends over 8 hours in front of a screen each day. She emails, texts, and updates her status incessantly. He can name hundreds of corporate logos, but less than ten native plants. She aspires to have hundreds of online friends, most she may never meet in person. He masters complicated situations presented in game after game, but often avoids simple person-to-person conversation. They are almost entirely out of contact with the world that, over millions of years of evolution, shaped human beings — the natural world.
The long-term consequences of this experiment on human development remain to be seen, but the stakes couldn’t be higher. By most accounts, this generation will face multiple crises — environmental, economic and social. Will this screen world — and its bevy of virtual experiences — have adequately prepared these “digital natives” to address the problems they’ll face, problems on whose resolution their own survival may depend?
In their quest to find out, the filmmakers followed 6 teenagers leading screen-dominated lives as they unplug and embark on “a wilderness adventure – no electricity, no cell phone coverage, no virtual reality.” Balanced by expert commentary from the likes of sociologist Juliet Schor, environmental writer Bill McKibben and others, the film “investigates the consequences of a childhood removed from nature and encourages action for a sustainable future.”
The consequences are exactly why we strive to develop even more tools and resources to help you help children reconnect with nature. For instance, there’s our Sustainable Future workshop – which shows how Yoga Calm and environmental education activities can be integrated to develop high-interest, interdisciplinary lessons that meet and support K-8 health, science and physical education standards and curricula. Through exploring techniques of physical yoga, observation, self-reflection, social/emotional skills development, storytelling and simple schoolyard explorations, participants learn how to cultivate children’s innate curiosity and appreciation of their bodies, each other, animal life and other aspects of their natural, daily environment.
What’s more, children can experience these activities for themselves at a Yoga Calm Summer Camp – a new program we’re rolling out this summer. Combining yoga, environmental education, music and social skills games over the course of a week, the camp gives kids the opportunity to sink into the experience and have time to dream and explore nature while learning wellness habits and essential personal and social skills — learning to live and work together in a peaceful, mindful way. The first of this year’s camps are listed on our Kids’ Workshop Schedule. (Certified Yoga Calm Instructors can host these camps, as well. Contact our business office for further information.)
Last, our new Yoga Calm Environmental Education Handbook will be out soon, demonstrating ways of adapting the Yoga Calm for Children curriculum to teach children about the natural world and help them get in touch with natural environments. We’ll have more news about this and our other new titles as we get closer to their publication dates.
Play Again will be shown on Saturday, June 11 at Lewis & Clark College here in Portland. Details are available on the film’s website, along with info about other upcoming screenings around the country and how to host a screening in your own geographic area.
Meantime, if you want to learn more about children’s relationship to the natural environment and how Yoga Calm can help facilitate a better, more meaningful relationship, do read our earlier post, “Healthy Children = Healthy Planet, or ‘No Child Left Inside.’”.
What are some of your favorite ways of helping kids get outside and reconnecting with nature? Let us know in the comments!
Health care and climate change dominate the headlines these days, but how are they related?
Well, for one, through our children. In fact, no two issues will affect them more in their lifetimes – from supporting Medicare costs for us baby boomers to dealing with the effects of major changes in weather patterns. And solutions to those issues are also interrelated, starting with the need to get children outside in nature and moving more.
just sof/Flickr
In addition to creating opportunities for much needed exercise, reconnecting children with nature is a prerequisite to their understanding and dealing with environmental issues. As Robert Pyle writes in The Thundertree, “What is the extinction of the condor to a child who has never known a wren?”
From the air we breathe to the food we eat to the exercise and solace we find in nature, our personal wellness is inextricably linked to the health of our environment. In fact, Richard Louv notes in Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, children’s alienation from nature is linked to ADHD, stress, depression and anxiety disorders, not to mention childhood obesity.
And yet its not just kids’ physical and mental health that improve when they’re more connected to the natural world. National studies have shown that the experiential and conceptual use of environmental education as an integrating concept also improves learning in math, science, social studies and language arts.
There’s no question to these benefits. The great challenge is how to get our students – and ourselves – reconnected with the natural world; how to stay engaged and hopeful in the face of overwhelming environmental issues; how to work together to creatively respond to our changing world.
That’s why we created our newest course, Creating a Sustainable Future – Integrating Wellness & Environmental Education.
This course demonstrates how Yoga Calm and environmental education activities can be integrated to develop high-interest, interdisciplinary lessons that meet and support K-8 health, science and physical education standards and curricula. Through exploring techniques of physical yoga, observation, self-reflection, social/emotional skills development, storytelling and simple schoolyard explorations, teachers, counselors and environmental educators will learn how to cultivate children’s innate curiosity and appreciation of their bodies, each other, animal life and other aspects of their natural, daily environment. This foundation provides the motivation and a powerful thematic basis for integrating more cognitive environmental education and natural science curricula.
With this creative, highly experiential and integrated approach to environmental education, meaningful connections between personal and planetary health can be drawn, fostering a lifelong interest in science and increased environmental citizenry and stewardship.
Our inaugural workshop is scheduled for April 10-11, 2010. Register now.
We’ve just been updating our schedule of upcoming Yoga Calm workshops, and wanted to let you know about a couple new offerings in particular: Listening to the Body: Yoga Calm for Trauma and A Sustainable Future: Wellness and Environmental Education.
Taught by Lynea Gillen, Listening to the Body participants willlearn how to combine simple yoga with effective counseling techniques for children and adults in one-on-one therapy sessions or small groups. Counselors and health providers will experience and learn innovative practices that include social/emotional skill building, breathing techniques and yoga poses.
This whole-client approach supports the development of wellness habits and directly addresses some of the most persistent physical symptoms of trauma such as dissociation, powerlessness, anxiety and sorrow. Participants will also learn self-care techniques, recognizing that by developing and presenting a calm presence, a safe and trusting relationship is more attainable, and counseling work is less stress inducing.
Taught by myself, Lynea and Kim Wilson, MEd, A Sustainable Future demonstrates how Yoga Calm and environmental education activities can be used to develop high interest, interdisciplinary lessons that meet and support K-8 health, science and physical education standards and curricula. Through exploring techniques of physical yoga, observation, self-reflection, social/emotional skills development, storytelling and simple schoolyard explorations, teachers, counselors and environmental educators will learn how to cultivate children’s innate curiosity and appreciation of their bodies, each other, animal life and other aspects of their natural, daily environment. This foundation provides the motivation and a powerful thematic basis for integrating more cognitive environmental education and natural science curricula.
With this creative, highly experiential and integrated approach to environmental education, meaningful connections between personal and planetary health can be drawn, fostering a lifelong interest in science and increased environmental citizenry and stewardship.
Both workshops will be offered for the first time this spring. CEUs are available for both, and registration is required.
As ever, more info is available at yogacalm.org.
- Jim Gillen
Child image by timheyer, via Flickr
