From the category archives:

Mental Health with Yoga and Story

The Grateful Crane – Connecting with the Animal Powers

November 9, 2011

In November’s Storytime Yoga Kids’ Story of the Month Club we turn our attention to the animals. Our modern world has lost touch with these divine creatures, so let us focus our attention again on these mysterious and incredible beings that we share our world with. Let’s learn to once again give thanks to them [...]

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The Golden Princess: Create Original Fairy Tales to Combine with Yoga and Help Kids Cope with Stress

November 4, 2011

Early one morning my daughter came into my room complaining of a serious stomachache and “nervousness.” She said she felt like throwing up. After talking with her for a while, she revealed the feeling of pressure. Having a learning disability in addition to dyslexia, she is frequently behind in school and gets confused. She complained [...]

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Kids Yoga Philosophy: This Halloween Teach Children About Death Through Story

October 28, 2011

In Ernest Becker’s Pulitzer prize-winning book, The Denial of Death, he writes that what young people need most in their lives is the chance to face death, be courageous and be a hero. True heroism and courage is about facing death, yet our Western culture is replete with heroes that merely shoot hoops or behave [...]

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How Stories and Yoga Play Therapy Help Kids Become Aware of their Feelings

September 21, 2011

It’s been sheer delight to be back teaching live classes again with the little kids. Every time I put on a Storytime Yoga class or tell a story to one of my own children, I am made aware of the profound effect on kids’ ability to access their feelings and become aware of emotions. This [...]

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Heartbreak and Rejection: Your Stories Help Ease the Pain of your Teen’s

September 19, 2011

My son called me to be picked up early after school because he said he didn’t have any homework and that he wasn’t feeling well. In the car I asked him about the physical symptoms, and he said he was “all right.” It was his sister who quietly used her psychic abilities to say that [...]

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Demons, Devils and Darkness – Shadow Play for Children with Yoga and Story

June 24, 2011

While visiting France this May I toured the 15th century Chateau Tarascon in Bouches-du-Rhone, Provence. I was struck by the archetypical image of the immense castle towering ahead of me. The history of kings, queens, a hundred years’ war and prison and protection against invaders were spoken by the walls and halls. But it is the [...]

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Kids Yoga: Labyrinth Walking for Children and Teens

March 28, 2011

  Under the full super moon this March my children and I walked the Mt. Washington labyrinth here in St. Croix. It was a gorgeous Caribbean night, and people of all faiths – Muslims, Wiccans, Catholics – the people of St. Croix, – turned out among the tiki lights and palm trees to take a [...]

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Yoga and Storytelling for Trauma

March 24, 2011

Today, March 24, 2011, marks the 8th anniversary of my husband’s death. I remember well that morning of my husband’s suicide, and one of the first things I did was call up and ask master storyteller and teacher Laura Simms for a story. This is what she told me. A man’s beloved son was suddenly [...]

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Save Civilization – Tell a Story and Bring Folk to Life

January 29, 2011

My introduction to the rich cultural heritage of St. Croix and the Caribbean was from attending a tribute to educator and storyteller Delta M. Jackson Dorsch. I was proud of my two kids who sat for an hour through the dry messages for the elderly Cruzan author of The Role of the Storyteller in Virgin [...]

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Between Body and Word – Body-Centered Play Therapy for Children and Adolescents

November 20, 2010

Connecting the word with the body can create powerful connections of body and mind, as I experienced in the workshop “Entre Cuerpo y Palabra,” or “Between Body and Word,” presented by Psychotherapist Silvia Weitzman, Director of the Asociación de Psicoanálisis e Infancias (Association of Childhood Psychoanalysis) at the 9th International Congress on Mental Health and [...]

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Anger, Meditation, The Hulk and Boys

May 19, 2010

Last night I watched the Incredible Hulk with my 12-year-old son. I watch these types of movies from time to time with him for fun, as I do watch girl movies with my daughter, like Hannah Montana (never thought I’d do that one!) It was fun to see shots of original cast member Bill Bixby [...]

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Yoga and a Story for Young Girls’ Self-Esteem

October 27, 2009

Yesterday I taught an afterschool girls club at Emerald Elementary in Broomfield, Colorado. It was the second time I had visited this group of girls, and it was great because the social worker who invited me, Jo-lynn Yoshihara Daly, was a friend from high school. The girls are all Hispanic fourth and fifth grade. I [...]

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Mental Health for Children Through Yoga and Story

April 4, 2008

Last blog I wrote about peace and character education using yoga and story. This is an extention using yoga and story to include mental and emotional health. Thursday I was in the fourth and second grades again at Creekside Elementary in Boulder. In the fourth grade, we sit family room style with me sitting on [...]

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Teaching Meditation to Older Children using Personal and Traditional Stories

March 6, 2008

Namaste!Last night my 7-year-old daughter asked to meditate with me. Her 11-year-old step-sister was being mean to her, she said.  Of course we will meditate! I said. She brought up her 10-year-old brother. We lit the candle, and naturally now that they are older, beyond the preschool and early elementary stage, we can talk about [...]

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Yoga and high-energy, distractible and ADHD kids

March 20, 2007

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 [...]

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