A research article by Dr. Sprengel and Fritts (2012) reported that:

“School and classroom-oriented programs that incorporate mind-body practices have demonstrated positive outcomes for well-being, resilience, academic performance, test scores, individual self-perception, self-regulation of negative behaviors, anxiety, stress, Attention Deficit Disorder/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, insomnia, anger/aggressive behaviors, and chronic pain conditions.”

It is important to teach children how the mind and body impact one another, and ways to practice mind body awareness and activities. We know that one stressful thought could put your body, chemically, into a state of stress.  This could result in a behavioral outburst, body aches and other somatic issues. Teaching children that they have some control over these aspects (their mind and body), can lead to healthy, regulated adults in the future. 

What are some examples of these mind-body activities?

• • • Yoga
    • Meditation
    • Relaxation techniques such as breathing
    • Massage
    • Guided Imagery
    • Tai Chi

This week, we’ll be posting some fun mind-body activities from Bloom Yoga to incorporate into your school day for physical education breaks during the day! Be on the lookout for these activities on our Facebook page and YouTube channel!

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For example, a child who has been doing exercises, breathing, and mindfulness practices may develop more control over their responses in their body and not resort to fight or flight responses in the moment.

Think of a child in a classroom who often resorts to yelling, screaming or throwing things when they get overwhelmed. When we proactively give that child tools and when they are in a regulated space in their body, they tend to retain the information learned about breathing and mindfulness. They can then utilize these skills in times of stress, instead of resorting to fight or flight responses.  We of course always want to teach skills reactively too, but the magic happens in our prevention approach!

When a child in your care is regulated and ready to learn, give them skills to manage stress just like you would teach academic topics. Then watch the child slowly integrate these skills when the stress arrives.  Kids are brilliant, adaptive, and resilient. Let’s continue to foster ways to keep them healthy and thriving!

To learn more about using yoga as a preventative method for stress, visit the Bloom Yoga web page.

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Using yoga for interaction between caregiver and child creates an environment that promotes playful interactions, healthy activity, and the opportunity to increase attachment. Yoga is also a natural environment to promote and teach caregivers and children ways to respond and interact during times of stress.  Yoga teaches skills in a proactive way, but can also be utilized in a reactive way during or after stressful times, with body based coping skills that directly impact the nervous system and the brain. 

Bloom Yoga incorporates five main elements for family and children’s classes to promote an all-inclusive environment:  connect, move, breath, focus, and rest and reflect.  With these five elements of a yoga class we are able to teach skills for prevention of stress, as well as skills for response to stress. 

Family—or “caregiver and me”—yoga focuses on positively impacting family functioning and resilience, helps with nurturing and attachment, and improves social and emotional development, self-regulation, coping skills, and awareness.

These benefits align directly with the Strengthening Families Protective Factors. Developed by the Center for the Study of Social Policy, Protective Factors have been linked to increasing family strengths, enhancing child development, and reducing the likelihood of child abuse and neglect — all outcomes that embody the mission and vision of Bloom Yoga and Illuminate Colorado.

If you’d like to join us on Thursday, click HERE [CLASS IS FINISHED] to register. You will receive a confirmation email with the Zoom link and information. We hope to see you there!

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Games and activities that include the senses

Some of our videos on Bloom Yoga’s YouTube playlist could be a great resource for this!

Mindful Eating

You can use any food for this!  However, we love to use the little Cutie oranges for this activity.  Give all participants an orange.  First, have the person observe the orange, the color, the shape, the pores.  Second have them feel the outside of the orange, texture, temperature, peel their orange and notice the feeling inside and outside the peel.  Third, have them smell their orange.  What happens to your mouth when you smell the fresh orange?  Does your mouth start to water?  Notice that your body is already reacting without even eating!  Fourth, perhaps take a small bite and move it around in your mouth.  Notice the taste.  Slowly eat your orange and pay attention to it slowly and mindfully. 

Image from Mindful Kids Miami

Nature Walk

Take a walk outside.  Notice all your senses.  What do you hear?  What are some things you see?  What do you smell?  Does it create a taste in your mouth, similar to smelling an orange?  Can you touch a tree, pinecone, or blade of grass? what does it feel like?  Perhaps journal or draw about your nature walk and all your senses afterward.

Guided Relaxation

Pay attention to the voices, background noise, and what you feel in your body. Where is your body connected to the earth? Just utilize your senses to be present and rest your body. We posted a video of a guided relaxation HERE. 

We hope some of these ideas help you to be a little more mindful today.

For more information about Bloom Yoga, visit our webpage.

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In Cleo Wade’s book “Heart Talk, Poetic Wisdom for A Better Life” she states, “There is no way to give kindness to another, without knowing it in ourselves first.”

How can we expect to be kind to others if we can’t, first, be kind to ourselves?  Tomorrow is not only about sharing kindness with others, it is also about being kind to ourselves.   It’s the idea of self-care in this strange and difficult time.  What are some of the ways that you’re kind to yourself in the midst of all the craziness?

Perhaps you are a first responder, or essential worker. Or maybe you are working at home while trying to teach children at the same time. Maybe you lost your job during this crisis. Or perhaps you live alone and have temporarily lost physical connection with other people.

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 Dr. Marie Dezelic, in 2013, created this image called the “Window of Tolerance-Trauma/Anxiety Related Responses”:  

THE WINDOW OF TOLERANCE, DR. MARIE DEZELIC

This image shows what coping skills are trying to produce.  The top and bottom of the image describes anxiety and trauma related responses in the body.  Can you think of a time when you have witnessed a response like this?  I personally remember a time when I was in a classroom and witnessed a child throwing a chair because of anger, or even the exact opposite response when a child slept through class.

What we are trying to do through these three elements of yoga is to bring a child or person back into “the Window of Tolerance.”  The Window is the center of this image where a person is “calm, cool, collected and connected.”  Yoga is a perfect environment to bring the nervous system back into regulation by utilizing the body-mind connection.  Other forms of exercise or coping skills tend to involve one element or another: either calming the brain or calming the body. But yoga does both!  I like to think of it as TWO FOR ONE!

Let’s explore these three elements: Breathing, Postures, and Relaxation.

BLOOM YOGA ACTIVITY: DRAW YOUR BREATH

With that information, we can learn how to elongate the exhale to promote the “Rest and Digest” response in the nervous system. 

Let’s Practice… 

Extended Release Exhale

Breath in for a count of 3, try filling up your chest, rib cage, as well as your belly while inhaling.

Breath out for a county of 5 or 6, release all the air out of the body.

Find a count that feels good to you. The goal is that your exhale is longer than your inhale.  Try and practice breathing for a minute or two, a few times a day.  Or utilize this breath in times of stress, or before bed to promote the relaxation response in the body!

For the sake of this blog, lets focus on calming postures for the nervous system!  Rhythmic movements can have a significant impact on your body as well.  Think about a baby having a hard time sleeping, and then gets rocked by a caregiver.  Can you think about ways to provide your body with rhythmic movements whether through yoga or other exercises?  Then also incorporate stretches that feel good to your body?  There are so many online resources here!  Perhaps you check out an adult yoga class online and see which postures feel calming to you!  Or maybe you are looking for something for your child…. Check out Cosmic Kids Yoga on YouTube!   Illuminate Colorado’s YouTube channel will also have some yoga resources for you to teach your children!  Explore and have fun! 

BLOOM YOGA ACTIVITY: DESKTOP MEDITATION

Putting it all together

We know that children and adults thrive from some sort of routine!  Can you make these three elements a part of your routine?  Give your body and mind time to decompress and rest.  

Sarah Crisafi is the program manager of Bloom Yoga, providing children, families and professionals in the system with an innovative service that is beyond the typical “bare minimum” of service that is often offered.  Bloom Yoga utilizes the whole person approach, enhances known protective factors that can help strengthen families, aids in the prevention of child maltreatment and provide an environment for post-traumatic growth.

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