“Yoga is everything” was the response I received from Krishna a few weeks back when I asked him what yoga meant to him. “It’s a part of everything I do. It makes me stronger and more balanced.”
Krishna’s mom giggled as she confessed, “He is practicing Surya Namaskar each day! I told him that if he keeps doing that, he will never get sick!”
“Namaste means the love in my heart loves the love in your heart,” Jonah replied when Naime asked him about the meaning of the word as they sat on stage together at the end of the 10am adult mixed level class at Dig Yoga, Lambertville. It’s sweet and everybody smiles and gets a well deserved post practice chuckle, but it is also the truth! Through this practice, the kids have formed this beautiful community within the larger community. Each week, new kids are welcomed, and old friends are greeted with love. They help one another, offer focusing strategies, teach each other new games, and encourage each other to try new things! We are cultivating a young tribe of beautiful yogis that are living their yoga and weaving threads of mindfulness into many parts of their lives.
The way children are practicing and sharing their yoga both on the mat and off the mat is absolutely inspiring! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again and again…children are our greatest teachers. My job is to encourage them to stay connected to themselves through the many obstacles we face, to feel empowered by their quirks and differences and recognize these are their true gifts, and to encourage them to share their practice with others. This is exactly what our lil’ digsters have been doing, and they are making us all so proud.
For the past couple of weeks Krishna has been designing sequences that are helping him find patience and ease through transitions. He shared one of his sequences with his peers a couple of weeks back, and the children were so inspired by his willingness to be open and honest about his struggle with finding patience. This exchange was incredibly powerful to observe. Along with selecting poses, Krishna noted what children can do in the poses to align their bodies in order to feel the full benefits of the asanas. He also commented on how the poses made him feel as he flowed from a state of impatience and tension to calmness and focus.
“I use my breath to find my inner patience,” Krishna wrote next to a picture of plank pose. “ In crow I have to find my strength and balance…claw the earth with my hands and lead with my heart. When I come to my belly I lower my heart to the earth and show it gratitude. Flow with the gratitude attitude.”
The kids at Dig Yoga are starting to collect pieces of fabric and yarn with the intention of weaving a tapestry together this summer. The loom will represent the radical affirmation of diversity we embrace as part of the tantric philosophy. All of our colors and rich textures, ages, perspectives, struggles, victories, wishes…they make us all so beautifully unique. Yet, at our core we are all one. We are here to love and help one another create the lives of our dreams. The word tantra literally means loom or weaving. It can also mean groundwork. This is what guiding the children through this practice feels like each week. They are naturally weaving this rich and vibrant loom as they come together week after week with a sincere desire to move, breathe, share and create together. Each child comes to the circle and offers their unique gifts and perspective and seems to leave with a sense of connection and oneness. Together we are doing our very best to weave this loom of the purest love and truth!