I have a bipolar child in one of my classes, and I have been focusing on awarness with him and the other children. To use the breath to be completely here and now and in control, so that we can make our dreams come true.
I asked children at the beginning of the class series, what they wanted most in the world. Some said to have all the food in the world, another to fly, another to live in California. I tell them that we have the ability to make all our dreams come true, if we follow the disicpline of yoga. The discipline requires that we get our minds into harmony with our body, which in turn gets into harmony with the environment. And we do that with the breath. I help the children realize that their minds are like monkeys, and with a big breath we inhale our arms up over our heads and put a leash on our monkey, then bring our hands down in anjali mudra into our hearts and are perfectly still as we exhale. Otherwise, our monkeys escape with our energy, and it's too scattered to make our dreams come true. We want to be like a tree, big and powerful, with all its energy contained in itself.
I started with relaxation first, using a child friendly version of yoga nidra, and told them the native american story of Jumping Mouse. We acted the story out afterwards, and I emphasized that we are all like jumping mouse, from a tiny mouse, but willing to take great risk to find the sacred mountains, our true selves. It takes courage, faith, strength and more to shed the "mouse" mind and be transformed through sacrifice into the eagle. I had them become aware that they are a different person from when they started class, and now that they are finished with clas, they have transformed through yoga.
love and peace,
sydney solis
www.StorytimeYoga.com