Little Flower Yoga in New Jersey!

In 2008, I walked into a yoga studio in NYC to attend a kid's yoga teacher training with Jennifer Cohen Harper and Kate Reil. Little did I know when I walked out, my life would be changed. As a yoga practitioner, I never saw myself as a yoga teacher. After the Level One training with Little Flower Yoga, I was absolutely sure I was on the right path...the one that would not only shape my life, but the lives of all the children that would one day cross that path. 

Bringing yoga to children has been nothing but a joy in my life. Every child that rolls out his or her mat in our studio, every child who sits down on the linoleum floors of the schools I visit, every child that curls up on their mom's lap at storytime has filled my heart.

I am happy to announce that Little Flower is coming to New Jersey February 1-2!!! I wholeheartedly recommend this training for anyone looking to share the gift of yoga with the children in their lives - parents, school teachers, yoga teachers, coaches, therapists, PTs, OTs - anyone who has an influence on the life of a child in any way. Fulfill their physical, emotional and social needs. Learn to incorporate yoga and mindfulness activities into a child's every day life so they can connect to themselves and those around them. So they can build body awareness and breathe deeper. So they can grow stronger through focus, concentration, and balance. So they can begin to fill their tool box with ways to regulate their own emotions and find an unbelievable confidence in themselves. 

Check out the site for more information on this Level One Intensive at 

the Princeton Center for Yoga and Health:

http://littlefloweryoga.com/events/level-one-intensive-nj-2-1-2-2014

Mindfulness and Meditation Activities for Children

Looking forward to a great workshop this weekend with my teacher, Jennifer Cohen Harper!

Mindfulness and Meditation Activities for Children:
Every day children are told to pay attention, yet we never actually teach them how to do this! This course offers you ways to introduce children to a mindfulness practice that both engages them, and gives them space to listen to their own thoughts and feelings. Includes both still and moving meditations. Help children tune in, focus better, make sense of their emotions, make good decisions, and experience a richer and more fulfilling day to day experience of life.

If you're in the area, I highly recommend you attend! Register here!

We All Have a Story

We all have a story...and believe it or not, so do our children. Our stories start from the moment we are born and are forever developing as we move down this path called life. The article below is from one of my teachers, Jennifer Cohen Harper - founder of Little Flower Yoga, who so eloquently reminds us to embrace the child you are teaching no matter what story the child comes with and how doing so can make a world of a difference to that child.

"As we come to the end of Autism awareness month, I am very aware of all the information and advice that has been swirling around the children’s yoga world talking about how to support students on the spectrum. There has been some really wonderful sharing happening, but I want to take a moment to remind us as a community of how important it is to embrace every child as an individual. See the soul and not the story, as Seane Corn often says.

In my work with many different children, I have seen how easy it can be to start thinking “this kid has such and such disorder so I’m going to do this with him” or “I can’t do that with this child since she has a developmental delay”. We do, of course, have to be aware of the challenges our students face, and adjust our plans and our expectations accordingly, but often I think we can fall into a trap of habitually teaching to the disorder. This limits our creativity and our ability to show the child all that is possible.

In my teaching I always try to remember that all children have special needs, not just the one’s whose needs are most visible. Children’s challenges, whether they are physical, mental or emotional, are part of what make them who they are, but they are not the only part..."

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