Instructor: Tracy Cohen
Community: High School Special Education
Plan Creation Date: April 25, 2012
Yoga Calm Principle/Lesson Goal: Grounding
Lesson Plan:
Calm
- Belly breathing with the Hoberman sphere for 10 breaths. Sit on your sit bones, feel the floor and ground beneath us supporting each deep breath
Activate
- Bridge: Feel your feet and shoulders grounded into the mat, while your back and torso form a strong bridge.
- Dolphin: Turn over onto arms and toes and feel the ground through your forearms and toe pads. Hold, activate and breathe deeply.
- Stand up like a queen or king (strength and dignity).
- Mountain: Begin to circle around and around, making circles smaller and smaller. What are you circling around? Feel all four corners of your feet gripping the earth.
- Upward mountain and Crescent Moon: Our grounding allows us to stretch fully side to side.
- Sun salutation: Twice through; teacher leads the first one; student-volunteer for second. Feel the four corners of hands as well as feet in the plank, down dog, etc.
- 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 roots. Extension into Circle tree pose. Can we be grounded together?
Calm
- Rest on your back as you picture your low back nestling into the floor.
- Guided progressive relaxation tensing and relaxing each body area in turn until entire body is totally relaxed and grounded, sinking into the mat. Feel how the earth supports us all.