I have had bipolar, ADHD and just generally overexcited kids in many of my classes. No matter. I direct them into awareness of the body by calling out their bottom on the floor, their hands in their lap, and then by beginning with awareness of the breath in and out, in and out, the air in their nostrils, and then the awareness of and the space and people around them. Then I have them create some imagery. I ask them what do they want most in the world? What is their heart's desire? What is that picture they have in their head of that desire?

Some say 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 discipline of yoga. The discipline requires that we get our minds into harmony with our body, which in turn needs to get into harmony with our environment. That’s when the boons come. We are responsible for controlling our bodies and to be aware of our bodies in the space we occupy. Watch out!

I teach them that we do that with awareness of the breath and observing the mind. I help the children realize that their minds are like monkeys --- as Plato said ---jumping from tree to tree, from thought to thought. 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 calm and still as we exhale. Otherwise, I say, our monkeys escape with our energy, and it's too scattered to make our dreams come true. Turn off that TV! Monkey mind at work! Take another breath, reach those arms into the air, leash your monkey and exhale it down to your heart.

Another idea I teach is that our minds are like an apple tree, with too many branches-- too many thoughts. We get tiny fruit. We want to have only a few branches, fewer thoughts channeling that energy, into big apples and big dreams. Plump, juicy. Take a bite!
So we slow down. Close our eyes. Visualize a big, thick-trunked tree and when we inhale, branches reach to the big spacious sky --the space between our thoughts -- rest your mind in the space in between your thoughts -- and when we exhale, roots drop deep, deep down into the earth. And trees are so powerful, so full of energy, because they are perfectly still.
I ask them to find that stillness in the solid tree, the stillness in the big spacious sky, the stillness in our bodies - that stillness in between our thoughts - where eternity lies and the power to make all our dreams come true.