Children are Beautiful Creatures

The title: "Children are Beautiful Creatures" was the second title I wrote when I started this blog a year ago. When I wrote the title didn't have the words to describe the super-gianormous amount of love and admiration I have for those little people. My original blogging attempt turned into: "Imagine the Love..." 

My latest inspiration is worthy of the title.

I've been teaching baby-momma classes for a friend and her mommy's group for donations. Our schedule isn't regular, but we've got together 3 times now. I love it. All the babies are 6-10 month boys, none of them can crawl yet. They sit or lay down at the front of their mum's mat and make funny faces. Some of them have a pretty sweet forward fold & happy baby pose, some like to grab their mom's hair in plank pose, or laugh. It's probably on my top 10 the cutest things in the world list. Each class the babies are more chilled out during the class and the mom's are able to get a better workout now. I watch these women & their babies with such complete admiration and forget myself.

I have a 'say yes' to everything once rule for subbing yoga classes. I trust that Leala would only suggest me to sub classes she believes I can handle. This week Wednesday and Thursday, I subbed 3 classes for Sara**. YogaKids: Ages 3 - 5 for 75 minutes. FitMomma Class - bring your children to yoga class. Unreal, awesome! I have never taught in a room with so much wild energy.  (Hey wait! Is that a mirror of me?) YogaKids: Ages 6-11 - Sara wrote me up a fantabulous lesson plan. We started the class off with the kids sharing their feelings on a themed topic for the day. I asked them a rhetorical question at the start of class, except they're kids. They don't know it's rhetorical - they answer you. They each told me what evoked the negative emotion I asked them about, when it has happened to them and what it feels like in their physical bodies when they feel it in their emotional body! Then, through Sara's brilliance, I taught them breath work to learn to not get that "yucky feeling" when confronted with their triggers. These kids kick my butt at yoga! They're so tuned in with it all.

What a beautiful gift, these kids teaching me yoga: uniting body, mind and spirit! They're already united, that's what I'm striving for in my practice! Trust. Joyfulness. Beginner's mind. Love. Interconnectedness. The most pure open mind. No past experience to relate anything to. No ideas how things are going to happen. Surrender. Connection to Source.

Blow my mind! I loved it! In an adult class, no one answers. We stay to ourselves. I had my 'ah Ha! moment' when I subbed for Leala's Gentle Yoga class tonight. When I asked a question, knowing it was a rhetorical question, I thought: "Could you imagine what kind of community we would build if we started answering these questions out loud in class on our mats? Learn to dissolve our differences by talking about things and working it out, rather than pushing things down." This is one of the things Seane Corn was talking about at the Detox Yoga Flow workshop last weekend. She said that to achieve optimal health, it has nothing to do with an optimal weight. It's about an balanced physical body, emotional body and spiritual body.

Let's talk about stuff. Let's create friendships built on trust and respect, open minds and love. What stresses you out? What does it feel like in your body? What is bliss? What would happen if we started talking about this on our mats?

In Anusara they use they use the word "Kula."

"The Anusara yoga community (kula) is inclusive, life-affirming, and evolving. Individuality and creative self-expression, which glorify the greatness of the kula, are encouraged and celebrated." ~Anusara Yoga Website

In Kula, everyone is welcome.

**Sara's a YogaKids Certified teacher and a Trinity Teacher. Gaiatri Teacher Training was born from Trinity Teacher Training.