Instructor: Danette Jones

Community: Individual Work with Elementary Age Girl with Separation Anxiety and School Avoidance, School Setting, 60 minutes

Plan Creation Date: November 3, 2015

Yoga Calm Principle/Lesson Goal: Grounding

Class Intention:

  • Help her feel grounded and safe in her body.
  • Develop awareness of social support system.
  • Increase her confidence.
  • Set up environment to be predictable and safe: meet in regular office; have Lilly, my therapy dog, there; have yoga mat set up; natural light; nature sounds playing; have a small stone as a “focus friend”.

Lesson Plan:

Calm

  • Hoberman Belly Breathing – She will do 5-8 slow, deep breaths with the Hoberman Sphere, with me mirroring her breathing.
  • Belly Breathing – She will continue belly breathing prone on mat in Do Nothing Pose, watching the little stuffed “breathing bird” going up and down on her tummy as she breaths – incorporate Calm Voice visualization.

Activate

  • Floor Twist – Using description in manual, focus on belly breathing
  • Rock and Roll
  • Volcano Breath – Seated – Imagine your breath rising up from the earth, like a volcano. It carries all the fears you keep deep inside you. As you exhale, let go of those fears.
  • Cat/Cow – Feel the deepest parts of your body the breath comes from. Breath as deeply as possible.
  • Downward Dog – Press up into Down Dog. Imagine Lilly using this stretch after a nap. Walk your hands back into…
  • Forward Bend – Feel your backbones as you place your hands on your hips and slowly come up into…
  • Mountain – Become a beautiful mountain. Keep your feet hip-width apart to really support your body. Feel how your feet are the base of your mountain – rooted into the four corners of your feet, deep in the earth, in rock. Then lift the top of your head – your mountain peak – toward the sky. Hug your muscle to the bone as you activate the Mountain Pose. Lift the heart up.
  • Upward Mountain – Draw both hands up with palms facing. Continue to keep your feet solidly in the ground, heavy and grounded. As you reach to the sky, imagine sending energy from the middle of the earth to the sun.
  • Crescent Moon – Bring your hands together into a steeple with your fingers. Breath in, pressing your feet down, slightly stretching to the right in a crescent moon shape. Exhale back to center. Now stretch into a crescent moon to the left as you inhale.
  • Woodchopper – Chop that that does not serve you, makes you feel unsure or unsafe.
  • Roots – Feel yourself anchored to the ground. With your eyes closed, imagine all the people in your world who help you feel safe. Imagine them holding your feet to the ground.
  • Tree – Focus on how deeply your roots are in the earth.
  • Partner Tree/Tree Challenge II – Feel how your partner’s support helps you root your feet deeper into the ground. Keep eye contact during Tree Challenge II.
  • Dancer (This girl is a dancer, so I thought this would reinforce her identity.)
  • Forward Bend – Walk your hands out into…
  • Down Dog
  • Cobra
  • Modified Plank into Dolphin (Repeat sequence if her anxiety is high)
  • Child’s Pose – In preparation for…
  • Back Breathing
  • Discussion – Process experience of Partner Tree/Tree Challenge II and Back Breathing.
  • Personal Space Game – Social/Emotional Game

Calm

  • Relaxation – Read a Mindful Moment Card on Grounding while in the “Do Nothing Pose” with her eyes closed: “Imagine that you could create a special room for yourself. Maybe it’s a bedroom, or a playroom, whatever you like. Now think of how you would design this room. What color would it be? What would be in it? How would this room support you?
  • Closure – Allow her to take the stone (“Focus Friend”) with her as a Grounding talisman.

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