Instructor: Amy Schaffer
Community: Therapy Setting, 30 minutes
Plan Creation Date: November 1, 2015
Yoga Calm Principle/Lesson Goal: Grounding
Lesson Plan:
Calm
- Belly Breaths – with Hoberman Sphere – First lead by instructor then student lead
- Compliments – activity for the student who lead the belly breaths
Activate
- Cat/Cow – Student lead – Come to all fours with hands under shoulders and knees under hips to being – Feel the stability of the earth below you
- Alternate Arm/Leg Kicks – Starting with right leg straight back and toes pointed down, continue Alternate Arm/Leg kicks with left leg – Feel your arms and legs getting heavy, while you are getting stronger
- Down Dog – Including heel pumps to stretch out the calf muscles
- Forward Bend
- Plank – From forward bend, plant hands on the ground in front of you with all four corners of your palm, bending at the knees if you can not reach, straightening legs to the back of the mat – Notice the space between you and the earth
- Cobra – From plank, bringing hips and legs down the mat, lift your chest and shine your heart forward – imagine you are wearing antlers on your head
- Bow – Inhale, press feet back, lift chest and head off the floor – Noticing your breath and imagine it is filling your back
- Superman – Lean to the left and to the right as if you are superman or superwoman and trying to take a sharp turn just before you land down on the ground
- Child – Kneel to the floor and sit back onto your heels – Let your head be heavy and breath into your back and let it puff up like a parachute
- Repeat sequence from the beginning of cat/cow
- Forward Bend – Bend knees, place hands on hips, look up and stand up
- Mountain – Think about activating your muscles as you pull them in tight towards the center of our body – “hugging into” our center
- Partner Pull – Reminder the activity is not a tug-of-war – Noticing the teamwork between us and our partner and the combined balance and stretch – Noticing without our partner this activity would not be as easy to do – Switching sides
- Roots – Emphasizing the four corners of the feet – Pressing into the earth as if our feet are seeds planting into the soil – We might need to add super sticky tape to our feet first! – Pretend to swipe sticky tape to the bottom of feet
- Tree Pose – Noticing the four corners of our feet are still planted, shifting your weight to one side (right), bring your left foot up into a kick stand, bring your hands to your heart and lift your foot up your right leg, either above or below your knee – Stretch your arms and head up like branches in the sky, while rooting your standing leg – Repeat on other side
- Dancer Modified – As your feet are still rooted into the ground – Looking straight ahead, possibly needing to find a spot on the wall to help with balance – Practice doing the pose with once with eyes open and once with eyes closed
Calm
- Upward Mountain – Pressing feet down, lift belly, head and heart, your shoulders should be down – It looks like a football touchdown
- Crescent Moon – Carving out a crescent moon on both sides
- Seated Volcano Breaths – Exhale and slowly “explode the volcano” – Imagine your breath spread around you and settling your mat like a blanket
- Relaxation – Lying down – Ready…Set…R.E.L.A.X. story page 90 “Airborne”