YOGA + Life® Magazines
  • Partner With Us
  • Subscribe
  • Education, Trainings + Retreats
  • Events
  • “The Practice”
  • HOME
  • FEATURED
    • Community + Culture
    • Wellness + Nutrition
    • Products
    • Profiles
    • Yoga + Fitness
    • Events
  • ALL CONTENT
    • Community + Culture
      • Art
      • Books
      • Community
      • Culture
      • Family
      • Fashion
      • Food + Drink
      • Nourish Me
      • Motivation
      • Music
      • Outdoors
      • Travel
    • Wellness + Nutrition
      • Self-Care
      • Nutrition
      • Psychology
      • Recipes
      • Therapy
      • Weight Loss
    • Products
      • Product Spotlights
      • Roundups
      • Try It On – Reviews
      • Try It Out – Reviews
    • Profiles
      • Business
      • Partner Profiles
      • People
      • Spotlight Cities
      • Students
      • Studios
      • Teachers
      • Seva Story
      • Sustainability Story
      • Storytelling
    • Yoga + Fitness
      • Asana
      • In the Practice
      • Meditation
      • Philosophy
      • Physiology
      • Sports
      • Workouts
    • Events
      • Festivals
      • Retreats
      • Training Spotlights
    • Inspiration From Y+L Partners
  • Y + L COMMUNITIES
    • COLORADO
    • MINNESOTA
    • NEW YORK
  • CONNECT
    • Order A Magazine
    • Advertise With Us
    • Contribute
    • Contact Us
  • LIVE CLASSES
Featured Posts
  • What We Love : Summer + Fall 2022
    • 20 views
  • photo of leaves
    Celebrating the Seasons with Ayurveda | By Marissa Angeletti
    • 44 views
  • Introducing Lightworker UV : Fitness & Yoga Mat Sanitizer
    • 64 views
  • Partner With Us
  • Subscribe
  • Education, Trainings + Retreats
  • Events
  • “The Practice”
0 Followers
0 Likes
Partners
YOGA + Life® Magazines
Subscribe
  • HOME
  • FEATURED
    • Community + Culture
    • Wellness + Nutrition
    • Products
    • Profiles
    • Yoga + Fitness
    • Events
  • ALL CONTENT
    • Community + Culture
      • Art
      • Books
      • Community
      • Culture
      • Family
      • Fashion
      • Food + Drink
      • Nourish Me
      • Motivation
      • Music
      • Outdoors
      • Travel
    • Wellness + Nutrition
      • Self-Care
      • Nutrition
      • Psychology
      • Recipes
      • Therapy
      • Weight Loss
    • Products
      • Product Spotlights
      • Roundups
      • Try It On – Reviews
      • Try It Out – Reviews
    • Profiles
      • Business
      • Partner Profiles
      • People
      • Spotlight Cities
      • Students
      • Studios
      • Teachers
      • Seva Story
      • Sustainability Story
      • Storytelling
    • Yoga + Fitness
      • Asana
      • In the Practice
      • Meditation
      • Philosophy
      • Physiology
      • Sports
      • Workouts
    • Events
      • Festivals
      • Retreats
      • Training Spotlights
    • Inspiration From Y+L Partners
  • Y + L COMMUNITIES
    • COLORADO
    • MINNESOTA
    • NEW YORK
  • CONNECT
    • Order A Magazine
    • Advertise With Us
    • Contribute
    • Contact Us
  • LIVE CLASSES
  • CO YOGA + Life

Kids Yoga: Step Inside Your Mind + Outside in Mother Nature : Learn About Colorado Through Mindful Movement | By Rachel Glowacki

  • CO YOGA + Life®
  • 291 views
  • 3 minute read
Total
1
Shares
1
0
0

Originally published in the Summer + Fall 2020 issue.

Wow, what a difficult spring 2020 has sprung upon us. We have had a lot of time to think in our homes and virtual worlds, and now, as we enter into the summer and fall seasons, I am asking myself these questions: How do we as parents/ teachers adapt in these new uncertain times and thrive where we live and learn about our beautiful environment?

I’m a mother to two middle school boys and am assisting their distance learning. One day, I was reminded in my son’s seventh grade virtual science class that Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species did not say that the strongest survive, but the most adaptable do. What adaptations have you made during this pandemic as a parent or teacher working with children? When my children tell me that they are bored, I say, “Well, boredom is an opportunity for creativity.”

Let’s get creative and step into our imaginations and learn about the natural habitat of Colorado through mindful movement.

Bringing Colorado’s state flower, tree and bird to life through movement increases our ability to learn and adapt to our natural environment in a playful and educational way. If you are assisting your children with distance learning, or if you are teaching and want to connect with your students in a fun and meaningful way, all of these creative yoga shapes can be practiced physically apart and virtually together!

STOP AND GAZE AT THE STATE FLOWER: The Columbine

How: Stand tall and connect your outer edg- es of your pinky fingers, touch each tip of your fingers to each other and connect the inner sides of your thumbs together, making the shape of a flower bud. Open and close your hands like a delicate flower and gaze at the many colors the state flower takes — blue, white, yellow and pinkish.

Why: Mudras/Hand postures help center the mind and increase concentration.

Learning Points: The blue flowers sym- bolize the beautiful sky, the white flowers reflect the snow and the yellow flowers cap- ture the image of Colorado’s gold mining history. Remember … just gaze at the state flower, because it has been illegal to pick them since 1925.

Reflection Question: What color Columbine flower are you?

BALANCE LIKE THE STATE TREE: The Blue Spruce

How: Stand tall with feet hip width apart, shoulders relaxed and the crown of your head reaching up towards the beautiful blue sky. Picture in your mind the Blue Spruce tree. Imagine your feet as the base, your arms as the silvery-blue needles and your head as the tippy top of the tree. Take the sole of your left foot and firmly place it above or below your right knee; lift your branches up towards the sun and hold steady. You are a stable and adaptable tree that can withstand all types of weather: the cold, the heat, the snow, the rain, the wind. Then, switch sides and balance on your other leg.

Why: There is a brain and body connection when we visualize being a tree and withstanding all types of weather; it increases our mental and physical stability.

Learning Points: Blue Spruce trees adapt and tolerate high winds, droughts and floods.

Reflection Question: What weather are you in while you stand as a Blue Spruce tree?

FLY LIKE THE STATE BIRD: The Lark Bunting

How: From the Blue Spruce tree, expand your arms out like wings, extend your tail feathers by stretching one leg back and make the sound of the Lark Bunting bird, by gently saying hweee, hweee, hweee.

Why: Flying like a bird increases balance and coordination, and it’s fun!

Learning Points: The Lark Bunting bird was chosen because of its singing and dancing nature.

Reflection Question:If you could fly like a Lark Bunting bird, where would you go?

Photos by Carly Finke.

Rachel has been teaching yoga since 2008 and has specialized in kids yoga. After becoming a mom and a yoga teacher, she found a desire to teach children’s yoga after bringing their storybooks to life through movement, breathing exercises and meditation. She is an award-winning author, mentor and leader in the kids yoga community. She hopes that one day mindful movement will be taught regularly in schools like math and science! In 2019, she joined Next Generation Yoga as a senior trainer and curriculum developer. Rachel lives with her husband and two sons in Edwards, Colorado.

Total
1
Shares
Share 1
Tweet 0
Pin it 0
CO YOGA + Life®
CO YOGA + Life®

This article first appeared in CO YOGA + Life™!

Previous Article
  • CO YOGA + Life
  • People
  • Profiles

Taking Action on Inequality : Q+A with Tyrone Beverly

  • CO YOGA + Life®
View Post
Next Article
  • CO YOGA + Life
  • Retreats

Keeping the Yoga Retreat Alive During a Pandemic | By Lisa Blake

  • Bobby L'Heureux | Director or Partnerships, Y+L
View Post
More from Y+L
  • The Vail Wine Classic Returns This August

    • Lexi Reich | Managing Editor
    View Post
  • An Evening with Elizabeth Gilbert : A Revolutionary Woman Is A Relaxed Woman | By Rachel Glowacki

    • YOGA + Life® Magazines
    View Post
  • Telluride Yoga Festival

    Telluride Yoga Festival Makes A Move To Mountain Village | By Kristen Grace

    • CO YOGA + Life®
    View Post
  • Elizabeth Gilbert is Coming to Denver on May 4 | By Kim Fuller

    • CO YOGA + Life®
    View Post
  • Oars

    On The River + In The Flow : Balancing Yoga, Meditation and a Thirst for Whitewater at a Women’s Wellbeing Retreat | By Lisa Blake

    • CO YOGA + Life®
    View Post
  • Break Free Fitness Festival : Colorado’s Largest Fitness Festival With A PARTY Twist

    • YOGA + Life® Magazines
    View Post
  • Vail Symposium Celebrates 50 Years in the Vail Valley | By Katie Coakley

    • CO YOGA + Life®
    View Post
  • Shakti Flow in Mexico : “With Nature, Yoga and Inquiry, We Transformed” | By Peggy Markel

    • YOGA + Life® Magazines
    View Post
  • Tips on Success : Falling Upwards with Nina Williams | By Olivia Lyda

    • CO YOGA + Life®
    View Post
  • Play + Connect at Everland : Sedalia, Colorado | By Lexi Reich

    • Lexi Reich | Managing Editor
    View Post
Archived Posts!
  • swimwear
    3 Swimwear Collections We Love For Summer 2020 | By Kim Fuller
    • 290
  • Nourish Me : Daikon Banh Mi Shop, Boulder | By Lexi Reich
    • 286
  • Atherial Fitness
    Atherial : Aerial Yoga + Aerial Barre in Denver | By Taylor Rose Worden
    • 536
  • Loving Cup : The Only Chai Recipe You’ll Need | By Lisa Blake
    • 239
  • SoulCycle Denver Opens November 10
    • 365
Instagram
Join us here on Wednesday, June 22 at 12:15 pm MST for an Instagram LIVE with our Crown Partner @allisonrissel of @yogateacherconf 🧘‍♀️
As yogis, our work starts with spreading our internal light out into the world. LightWorker UV (@lightworkeruv) — the creators behind the industry’s first UV-C mat sanitizing machine — understands this best. As a brand rooted in bringing safety, peace of mind and light back into the yoga and fitness community, its company mantra “We Spread Light” has never been truer.
@maineyogafest ✨CONTEST ANNOUNCEMENT✨
Tabay Atkins became one of America’s youngest certified yoga teachers at the age of 10 and has been discovering and sharing tools for wellness since.
Many CBD companies out there make full-spectrum products, but @miraflora.co, a CBD company based in Boulder, CO, takes it to a whole new level, starting with the way they grow the hemp itself. Call it full-spectrum farming, if you will.
RENEWAL 🌱
Can you create a to-do list prioritizing tasks where contentment and meaning mesh together?
@holisticyogaschoolcolorado was born over a decade ago with the intention to create a Yoga Shala, a community place for learning and growth. Krista Davis founded the school, drawing inspiration from many years of traveling, living and teaching in conscious communities and yoga centers around the world. To this day, the school continues to thrive as a family-owned and operated small business.
Facebook
Facebook
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
Join us here on Wednesday, June 22 at 12:15 pm MST for an Instagram LIVE with our Crown Partner @allisonrissel of @yogateacherconf 🧘‍♀️
As yogis, our work starts with spreading our internal light out into the world. LightWorker UV (@lightworkeruv) — the creators behind the industry’s first UV-C mat sanitizing machine — understands this best. As a brand rooted in bringing safety, peace of mind and light back into the yoga and fitness community, its company mantra “We Spread Light” has never been truer.
@maineyogafest ✨CONTEST ANNOUNCEMENT✨
Tabay Atkins became one of America’s youngest certified yoga teachers at the age of 10 and has been discovering and sharing tools for wellness since.
Many CBD companies out there make full-spectrum products, but @miraflora.co, a CBD company based in Boulder, CO, takes it to a whole new level, starting with the way they grow the hemp itself. Call it full-spectrum farming, if you will.
RENEWAL 🌱

Join the YOGA + Life® Newsletter!

Events, Product Reviews, Promotions and More!

about
YOGA + Life® - an online community and magazine.
Recent Articles
  • What We Love : Summer + Fall 2022
    • CO YOGA + Life®
  • photo of leaves
    Celebrating the Seasons with Ayurveda | By Marissa Angeletti
    • CO YOGA + Life®
  • Introducing Lightworker UV : Fitness & Yoga Mat Sanitizer
    • YOGA + Life® Magazines
  • Is It Time To Illuminate What Is Possible For You? Meet Dana Knerl, Holistic Healing Guide
    • CO YOGA + Life®
  • About Us + Policies, Terms
  • Online Columnists
  • Contribute
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
YOGA + Life® - All Rights Reserved

Input your search keywords and press Enter.

 

Loading Comments...