Do you recognise this dialogue?
"You heard of this thing, the 8 minute abs?"
"Yeah sure 8 minute abs. Yeah the exercise video"
"Yeah, this is going to blow that right out of the water. Listen to this:..........7 minute abs!"
This makes me chuckle every time I watch 'There's Something About Mary', but the reality is, in the western world speed is king. Consider wi-fi speed, speedy boarding, same day delivery, getting from A to B as quick as possible, fast food, lose a stone in a week, to name just a few. How does it make you feel when every set of traffic lights turns red or the blue circle of death appears on your screen?!.
The problem with achieving something by shortcut is that is it doesn't always bring the satisfaction and wisdom you might hope for.
"Mindfulness,, do we want it?"
"Yes"
"When do we want it?"
"Now!!"
If there were a pill we could take to achieve mindfulness in our daily lives, we'd surely take it, but as with any quick fix, although this may achieve some short term gratification its unlikely to be life-changing or sustainable.
Yoga is an ancient practice, which leads us on a journey of awareness and self discovery. Students of yoga will be familiar with the 8 limbs of yoga or the 8 fold path, you could call them steps. The first four steps concentrate on our attitudes, our physical being and awareness of ourselves as an energetic being. These prepare us for the second four which focus on the senses, the mind and higher consciousness. The order of these is no accident and sits perfectly with revealing of the pranic sheaths (physical, energetic, mental, wisdom, bliss) and moves from external to internal.
The Cambridge dictionary definition of mindfulness agrees with this process:
‘the practice of being aware of your body, mind and feelings in the present moment, thought to create a feeling of calm’
At Yoginis Yoga, through our years of yoga training, practice and experience teaching, we know this and so our programmes are designed authentically in the spirit of the yoga tradition.
The four levels of training move from physical to breath to brain to mindfulness. In this way we are guiding children on this journey and teaching them progression and patience. Unlocking tools that they can use for life, but also the awareness to know when they are out of balance to seek help, make good decisions and live their best life.
At the core of our mission and values is what all quality educators know is needed; providing sustainable, progressive, all inclusive programmes. This allows children to access yoga through their whole schools lives, not as a quick fix, easily gained, easily forgotten.
We work with education and childcare providers who are building Happy Healthy Content children to grow into Happy Healthy Content adults.
Level 1- Physical
Body awareness is key to physical development and a pre-cursor to learning
Level 2 – Breath
Learning breathing techniques for later self-regulation and emotional wellbeing and the role of the central nervous system
Level 3 - Brain
Learning how different areas of the brain function and how yoga can stimulate whole brain learning and development
Level 4 – Mindfulness
Learning techniques to give the skills to build awareness and to make good choices in the present moment