Instructor: Tracy Cohen
Community: High School Special Education
Plan Creation Date: April 25, 2012
Yoga Calm Principle/Lesson Goal: Strength
Lesson Plan:
Calm
- Review of ground rules: Emphasis upon positive self-talk, “I am strong”
- Belly breathing with the Hoberman sphere (8 breaths). Feel how each breath makes you feel the strength inside of you.
Activate
- Rock and roll: Awareness of spine; massage for back.
- Boat: Feel your core, abs, how they work together with your back to give you strength.
- Stand up like a queen or king (strength and dignity).
- Mountain to Upward mountain: Grand, gorgeous mountain; its shining strength reaching toward the sky.
- Sun salutation: Twice through; teacher leads the first one, student volunteer for second. Feel how your core muscles and spine work together to give you strength in all these poses. Hold planks to feel strength; offer child’s pose or corpse pose as alternatives.
- Cat/cow: Focus on how spine can flex and bend. Does being flexible make us stronger?
- Stand up once more like a queen or king (strength and dignity).
- Tree Pose: A tree’s trunk connects to the earth and gives strength to the rest of the tree. Feel how your “trunk” — legs, core, spine — support your branches. Grow your branches from your inner strength.
Calm
- Rest on your back as you picture your spine straight and strong on the mat. Bend your knees to feel the curve in your low back nestle into the floor.
- Guided relaxation story imagining flying in the sky with soft clouds, landing in a tree, birds with mother bird enfolding them in her wings.