I love yoga .. something clicked with me a long time ago when I was working in a drug rehab residential for families and I need to de stress.
My Mum suggested Yoga and at the time I laughed as I was crying to her that I was so stressed out! I couldn't believe she was suggesting I go and 'workout' “I don't need to get fit!” was my thought but I'm so glad she took me along to a yoga session with an old skool yoga teacher who chanted 'OM' smelled of incense and encouraged me to become aware of my breath.
I was so resistant to it for about the first 10 minutes with my British reserve refusing to sing out and my busy mind thinking about all the things I could be getting on with instead...and then something happened maybe it was the way that I began to focus on my breath as the teacher encouraged or maybe it was the gentle movements that took my concentration and effort or maybe it was the way I started to feel relaxed for the first time in ages. I think it was the mixture of all three and by the end relaxation I relaxed so deeply that the teacher had to come and gently 'wake me up!'
It was a pivotal point in my life as I began to be able to use breath techniques to relax during my job, I was better equipped for some of the more challenging experiences that came along as part of working in social care.
My yoga teacher went to teach in India and I spent a while searching for a teacher that I could connect with and then I found Josy Wood a wonderfully inspiring teacher whose first yoga session was a rich tapestry of the physical anatomy of yoga, the deep connection of the breath to every movement interwoven with yoga philosophy explained so simply that I was inexplicably drawn to it. In the relaxation I had a golden moment, I relaxed so fully without falling asleep I felt stillness that I can't remember ever feeling before and I cried a few tears in that darkened room lying on my mat feeling so at peace with everything.
After one particularly hard session in my job when a ten year old who had been moved from foster home to foster home to the rehab to be with his family who had abandoned him twice in the past said to me, 'Why should I trust you? You won't be there for me' I realised I was in the wrong job. As rewarding as it often sounded on paper I couldn't truly help, I couldn't be a constant in these peoples lives, I wanted to forget about them as soon as I got home because their sufferings were too much to bear and I felt constricted by the changing management who cared more about numbers in rooms to keep the cash flowing than genuinely making a difference. It wore me down fighting for the children's rights to be heard in what outwardly was a 'family centre' but inwardly was an adult centre putting the grown ups first.
I've always worked with children, they often don't have a voice and they aren't shown the respect they deserve I've struggled to make parents and workers to see their children as intelligent beings not stupid careless robots waiting to be instructed in the next set of commands. I may have made a small difference in some of the children's lives because I fought for their corner. I hope so if only so they know that not all grown ups will treat them with contempt.
As I continued to work at the centre I started my Yoga teacher training course determined to change my career path if not my life path.
Then I was pregnant!... Amazing..Wonderful.. Scary! If you've ever been there you'll know what I mean what a mixture of emotions. 20 years working with, looking after other peoples children in different jobs and now I would have my own. Wow!
My yoga helped me all through my pregnancy and enabled me to have a drug free natural birth that gave me an overwhelming admiration for the power of the human body. And there in my arms a tiny perfect human being made from me and Lee...what a moment of agony and ecstasy that can't be described in words!
Its a real life journey having children and it changes some of your views, one thing I realised was that parents do have the hardest job in the world and yes I do look back on some of my attitudes to parents with a hint of regret although I still see that children need our understanding, patience and love and even though I can see personalities in my children it is by and large their environment and nurturing that affects their behaviour and attitudes, and I'm always acutely aware of how I behave and how it can directly affect their behaviour.
Yoga has been a life saver for me, once just me and my man now responsible for 3 children of my own this hardest job comes with the following job description...enjoy!
(taken from the net)
POSITION :
Mum
Dad
JOB DESCRIPTION :
Long term, team players needed, for challenging
permanent work in an often chaotic environment.
Candidates must possess excellent communication
and organizational skills and be willing to work
variable hours, which will include evenings and weekends
and frequent 24 hour shifts on call.
Some overnight travel required, including trips to
primitive camping sites on rainy weekends and
endless sports tournaments in far away cities!
Travel expenses not reimbursed.
Extensive courier duties also required.
RESPONSIBILITIES :
The rest of your life.
Must be willing to be hated, at least temporarily,
until someone needs £5.
Must be willing to bite tongue repeatedly.
Also, must possess the physical stamina of a
pack mule and be able to go from zero to 60 mph in three seconds flat
in case, this time, the screams from the garden are not someone just crying wolf.
Must be willing to face stimulating technical challenges,
such as small gadget repair, mysteriously sluggish toilets
and stuck zips.
Must screen phone calls, maintain calendars and
coordinate production of multiple projects.
Must have ability to plan and organize social gatherings
for clients of all ages and mental outlooks.
Must be willing to be indispensable one minute,
an embarrassment the next.
Must handle assembly and product safety testing of a
half million cheap, plastic toys, and battery operated devices.
Must always hope for the best but be prepared for the worst.
Must assume final, complete accountability for
the quality of the end product.
Responsibilities also include floor maintenance and
janitorial work throughout the facility.
POSSIBILITY FOR ADVANCEMENT & PROMOTION :
None.
Your job is to remain in the same position for years, without complaining, constantly retraining and updating your skills, so that those in your charge can ultimately surpass you
PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE :
None required unfortunately.
On-the-job training offered on a continually exhausting basis.
WAGES AND COMPENSATION :
You pay them!
Offering frequent raises and bonuses.
A balloon payment is due when they turn 18 because
of the assumption that college will help them
become financially independent.
When you die, you give them whatever is left.
The oddest thing about this reverse-salary scheme is that
you actually enjoy it and wish you could only do more.
BENEFITS :
While no health or dental insurance, no pension,
no tuition reimbursement, no paid holidays and
no stock options are offered;
this job supplies limitless opportunities for personal growth, unconditional love,
and free hugs and kisses for life if you play your cards right.
The other one I love and although I'm way off the teenage stage I've seen some of my friends go through it so I'm sure I will relate more to this one day
So now I've had a bit of fun above I revisited my other posts on this blog to remind myself there is a different perspective on parenting. I don't want it to be days spent calling one command after another, I want to continue to see my children as special as that first moment I met them, I want to spend real precious times with them that they can treasure and take with them into adulthood, I want to give them some skills that they can use to deal with the stress and strain out in the 'real' world and while they are immersed in it I want them to thoroughly enjoy their childhood.
So of course I wanted to home educate and you can read my Link magazine articles elsewhere on the blog for the whys, hows etc
I home educate its my main job but then as I continued with my yoga teaching and my practice at home my children became interested in what on earth I was doing bending myself all over the place every morning and why I sat quiet on my 'special cushion' not playing at times or chanting at no one in particular! Soon I had 3 budding yoga buddies!
Not always smooth is my yoga practice at times a small child hanging on my 'Triangle' or sitting on my 'child pose'!
Throughout this journey my eyes have been open with awareness of the seed being sown without cohersion as my children have joined in and worked with me at times, asked for yoga sessions, sometimes devised their own session for me to do and along the way used techniques I have shown to help themselves with anxiety, anger, sleeplessness, frustration and the whole gamut of human emotions that children can experience!
One day I took them to a qualified children's yoga teacher, I sat in on the class and knew after the first few minutes that this was what I could do, this was how I could connect with children, how I could be there for them forever. I could share my knowledge and help children discover yoga and sow the seed of this strong foundation of self help for the body and mind that would give them a resource to pull from for the rest of their lives. It sounds a tall order but I've seen so much benefit for me and my children I knew others could benefit from it too.
I started my teaching children module last June (2010) a fantastic course with Michelle Cheeseborough who expanded my ideas of teaching to include games, songs, circle time and much more to help children develop creativity, self confidence, concentration, co operation, and teamwork. I had started teaching a family yoga class right before I started my course, the class has evolved over the last year as I have gained experience and as the children have shown me all their different needs its been a wonderful learning curve for me as a teacher and a parent.
My amazing children come with me to my new job! They love to show their skills and they tell me they're proud of me by telling me 'your the best teacher' (I try not to float my ego as its not the yoga way! Although it is heart warming to hear praise from your own kids)
The story doesn't end there because as I delved more and more into this exciting new life path I began to see that I could show my children how to discover themselves through meditation. During my course we looked at teaching meditation to children and how beneficial it can be and I invested in a very useful book 'Teaching meditation to children' by David Fontana & Ingrid Slack. It is a good introduction to starting meditation with children and I did a few of the suggested practices in the book with my little yogis. They loved it, particularly my idea of them having their own candle to gaze at and snuff/blow out at the end.
Although the book is a good read and gives you all the basics I soon felt we needed more to go on and after reading 'The Soul Bird' by Michal Snunit in one meditation I realised my children really responded to visualisation in their meditation and although concentrating on the breath was an important part of the session for their ages 3, 5, 7 they need something more visual to focus on. So about a month ago I was determined to use some of the money from my family yoga class to buy some more yoga books. I poured over the book list from the course checking them out on Amazon and came across 'Nightlights.. stories for you to read to your child to encourage calm, confidence and creativity'
I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to try meditation or relaxation with your children they will love it as mine have and I've used it in class during relaxation. Its just wonderfully illustrated and the stories are a rich visual feast for the imagination. My girls adore it and ask for specific stories now already and we haven't read all of them yet! The book is very easy to follow and has a simple 'way to begin' tip that helps you get started.
We have tended to do these when the girls are in bed ready to settle down for the night rather than a seated meditation but I might have a go at that at some point. I put on each girls candle and then they do the little start stretch recommended in the book then I read the story, sometimes we talk about it after, sometimes they are fast asleep when I've finished! Always I feel a warm glow radiate from my heart centre when I whisper goodnight to them at the end.
I teach Family Yoga on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays and adult yoga on Wednesday evenings in Sheffield. If you are interested in a class please get in touch for more information.
