Instructor: Jeff Albin

Plan Creation Date: February 2, 2009

Community: Classroom, Grades 3-4

Yoga Calm Principle/Lesson Goal: Grounding

Stillness: Mountain pose with hands at heart center. You are an ancient mountain anchored deep in the earth. Your breath moves like the pulse and heartbeat of the earth. Long deep and slow like someone sleeping. There is no hurry, no worry. You have been here a long time. You are the mountain that endures the passage of time. Whether it’s sunny or stormy you stand strong. Winds can swirl and blow around you but you stand strong and unfazed. You are the mountain,

Listening: Moving slowly like the ancient mountain find your pulse.

Strength: Chair/Forward bend alternate x5, hands to ground, left leg back, right leg back, into child.

Grounding: Imagine you are a stone on that mountain. Feel what it’s like to be a stone on a mountain. Imagine what it’s like to be a boulder on a river. The water rushes around you but you stay still and strong. The seasons come and go. In winter, ice forms around you and you stay still and strong. In the fall when the salmon are running, eagles perch on you and wait for a meal. In the spring when the waters rush by you faster and the river swells, you stay still and strong. You offer refuge to a family of ducks. When summer finally comes, you soak up the warmth of the sun. Tubers and rafters come by and relax in the shelter you offer. Adventurous children climb to the top of your warm stillness and jump with joy and glee into the river. You stay still and strong have a gift for every season.

Take a big full belly breath and on the exhale rise to sitting on your knees. Place your hands on the floor, curl your toes under and balance just on your toes. Bring your hands together to heart center.

Stand tall reaching for the sky. Lower your heels to the ground. Feel the difference between having to balance and being stable like a mountain. Try this several times, moving with the rhythm of your breath. Stand still and strong like a mountain. Watch time pass and many seasons come and go. As the seasons pass part of you courses down the mountain and washes into the valley.

You become a tree. Part of you is rooted deep in the earth. Your roots reach deep down and anchor on the stones. Your roots reach deeper still and seek the water. You remember where you started on the mountain and feel grateful for the water that flows beneath the earth and feeds your roots. Another part of you reaches for the sky. Your deep roots allow you to expand and grow.

Back to mountain. Reach high with both hands, Bend left and then right. Fold forward. Hands to ground. Ease yourself to the mat and find a comfortable seated position.

Query: Think about a time when you were angry or upset. What did you do? Did that make the situation better or worse? What did you do that worked? What did you do that you really wouldn’t like to do again? What can you take from yoga calm that will help you in those situations in the future?

Explain the principle of grounding and how it differs from being grounded when you are in trouble.

Query: Are there similarities between what you do that causes your parents to ground you and what we do here? Can you learn to ground yourself?

Rock and roll x7, slowing down each time until you come to resting flat on the ground. Think of a place where you feel safe and grounded. Anchor that memory by pinching your thumb and pointer finger together. Relax in that safe and grounded place. Back to sitting. Close eyes again. Pinch your thumb and pointer finger together and practice going to your safe and grounded place.