Instructor: Katie Kurmis
Community: School Setting, 30 minutes
Plan Creation Date: April 1, 2016
Yoga Calm Principle/Lesson Goal: Grounding
Lesson Plan:
Calm
- Belly Breathing
- Chime – Listen to the Chime.
Activate
- Mountain Pose – Feel your feet rooted to the ground.
- Warrior 1 Pose – hold this pose for a 10 count to help your body feel strong and grounded.
- Warrior 2 Pose – hold this pose for a 10 count-Think of a time when you were upset or frightened and needed to ground yourself.
Calm
- Relaxation – Body Scan:
- Sit or lie down in a comfortable position, making sure that you do not have any constriction. Loosen any tight clothing.
- Starting with your feet, pay attention to the physical feelings in them: any pain, discomfort, coolness, warmth, tension, tightness, whatever. Simply pay attention to the physical feelings and sensations. Don’t judge them as good or bad, don’t try to change them, just be aware of them.
- Slowly allow your awareness to drift up from your feet to your lower legs, again simply paying attention to any physical sensations in that part of your body, including any tightness, pain or discomfort. Then slowly let your awareness drift further up your body, doing the same gentle noticing for all of the parts of your body – your upper legs, hips, buttocks, pelvic region, stomach, chest, your lower back, upper back, fingers and hands, lower arms, upper arms, shoulders, neck, your head, forehead, temples, face – eyes, cheeks, nose, mouth, jaw line.
- Then let your awareness drift gently and slowly back down your body, noticing any other places where there is pain, discomfort or tension and simply noticing this, until you awareness settles back at your feet.
- Commence doing this exercise just for 5 minutes. It can be done sitting down in a chair or lying in bed. Over time, don’t worry about how long it takes – just allow yourself to pay attention to the sensations in your body. If, while doing this exercise, thoughts intrude, that’s okay – just notice the thoughts, notice yourself noticing the thoughts and gently guide your awareness back to your body.