Instructor: Margaret Askelsen
Community: Grades 6-8, School Setting, 30-40 minutes
Plan Creation Date: February 23, 2015
Yoga Calm Principle/Lesson Goal: Strength
Words: Emotional Strength – “I can change the channel when my thoughts tell me I am unhappy.”
Lesson Plan:
Calm
- Belly Breathing – Eliminate all sounds/ students focus on pulse or space in between the beats.
- One-Minute Vacation – Close your eyes and take a one minute vacation. ? Where are you when you feel emotionally strong? Who stands beside you? Where would you go with this person that would bring a peace to your life? The lake? The woods? A quiet place?
Activate
- Volcano Breath – Imagine your breath rising up deep from the earth, like a volcano
- Woodchopper –use a loud “huh” as you release tensions/ anxiety
- Changing Channels Walk – ask students to walk around the room as a “person with confidence” / a person who has been beaten at a game/ a person who has lost his best friend/ the star of the football team/ the Homecoming Queen, etc. Tell them to Change the Channel and begin to walk like an imaginary person in their head. Do we gain more confidence and emotional strength when we think of ourselves in a positive way?
- Conflicting Feelings Game – Put student in a chair and have 2 other students be the voices of good and bad thoughts that might go through a person’s head if they have lost a friend. How does it feel when you listen to the bad thoughts? The good thoughts?
Calm
- Individual Sharing – What things do you tell yourself that help you to feel better?
Ie.bad grade on a test, don’t get asked to a party, friend got invited and you did not, seems to be unnoticed by others… What does comparing yourself to another person do to you? What can you do for yourself that makes you emotionally stronger? Play the piano, draw, sing, run?