Yoga Life Institute N.H.

What potential chaos would ensue, I thought, as I tossed and turned in bed imagining Kindergarten kids out of control on and off their yoga mats, fifth graders flailing around, laughing at the poses I modeled up front, refusing to follow my lead. As my nightmarish reverie continued on I felt the harsh glare of unhappy teachers as they whispered and wondered, "What in the world was this woman thinking?" And then as I lay in bed half-frozen in self-doubt, on the verge of looking up the PE teacher's phone number and calling him right then and there (around midnight) to cancel, something settled over me. And with the ease of a high-flying and carefree seagull soaring through the air on a sunny summer afternoon I thought, "I'll do it." "Move into the fear," I laughed at myself as I decided to just do it!

I asked one of my very first yoga students who had been in a Friday afternoon class with me for well over a year, what her favorite part of yoga was, "Meditation," was her quick answer. "Why is that?" I asked. "Because it helps me float away for the weekend."

Swinging like tall pine trees in a wild Noreaster, my six hyperactive yoga students began swaying their bodies back and forth in palm tree pose, "Try to move with your breath," I attempted to guide my eager young students, "and, slow down." Twenty minutes later each of these high energy students had settled into a quiet crocodile pose (bodies flat down on their mats) while I read a guided meditation about a wonderful imaginary world where they could ride a tall giraffe and search in the tree tops for a leafy snack or swim with giant humpback whales as they made their way in a wide, blue ocean. My young yoga students, all boys under the age of 8, had gone 100 miles an hour to zero. Only after moving their bodies in yoga pose after yoga pose while breathing slowly in and slowly out, had the stage been set for the peace of meditation.

 Meditation....whether I try candle gazing, mantra meditation, walking meditation or guided meditation, my young yoga students all seem to love how we end our yoga sessions.

I sat alone in the yoga room as 2:45 came and went. I wasn't too surprised. Sometimes my young yogis forget that we have yoga class on Friday if we don't meet every Friday and we hadn't met in 3 weeks. 5 and even 10 minutes later my yoga students finally bounced into the room; chatty and full of energy. As we "settled" into group, several girls were talking out, others were eagerly raising their hands, rolling around on their mats, even rolling up their mats. I was trying to figure out what was going on. Did they miss yoga and were just excited to be back? Was it the holiday crazies? Is it because when they entered the room the lights were on and two teachers were conferring? "Those annoying fluorescent lights," I thought to myself, not wanting to turn out the lights until the teachers chatting upfront finished their school business.

My yoga students clearly were not centered as I opened class on this odd December afternoon. "What does being thankful mean? Since we have just had Thanksgiving and Christmas is coming soon, let's talk about what we are thankful for. Let's go around the room and each tell just one thing." At the same time I advised myself, "Slowly breathe in....breathe out," feeling the surge of energy flooding the room, crashing against the walls, nearly knocking me over.