Hello again! If you are reading this blog, chances are that you have some school-aged children who are going back to school very soon! It's quite the hussle and bussle, as we get haircuts, trips to the dentist, football practice, doctor appointments, filling out registration forms, meeting new teachers, back to school shopping for supplies (expensive! gads!).

It takes a lot to keep it all together, let me tell you as a single-widowed mother, it's just me shuffling kids around to their individual needs. I think I would have a complete nervous breakdown, and actually do come to that brink many times, if it were not for yoga and stories. Yoga and meditation keeps me focused in the present, rather than letting my mind get the best of me. It actually really calms it down and keeps me centered and rational. And feeling great! During the summer structure falls away and it's mostly family time and vacation, and I squeeze in work somehow. Now we will be getting up early, all of us, to do yoga together. Especially because my son has flat feet, which cause him a lot of pain during athletics. Doing yoga with your kids for therapeutic and family connection is everything. It helps develop a children's sense of safety and belonging in the family, as well as teaches them communication and healthy skills for living. Throw in a story, and that story acts as a guide to their life.

I will be teaching mostly middle school children this semester, as my work progresses and my children grow. And I see just how vital it is that children of this age group get yoga instruction as well as hear stories. I call this part Mythic Yoga, to have those stories to be programmed in their brains and hearts to help them navigate life. Knowing that a hero has gone before us, as Joseph Campbell said, gives us a sense of safety and believing that everything is going to be all right. And adults need this too! Hearing a story puts you in another paradigm, and the psyche actually experiences the hearing as real as one goes on a story adventure and files it away for future reference for dealing with life's issues.

I've had many E-course participants tell me how a child remembered a story that was told and applied it in every day life. Tomorrow I will be teaching family programs for the Adventure Rabbi with the Jewish Community Center at Glacier Ranch, and I will be using the Jewish Folktale of The Wooden Sword. It's perfect for this day and age, as uncertainly looms for many, including myself! But a King finds a happy but poor man and decides to make things difficult for him. He outlaws his shoe-fixing business. The man says, "What am I going to do now for my living?" He then proclaims, "I have faith in God," and he meditates for a while before he gets the answer to carry and sell water. And he does make his living that way, but the King again outlaws such a job, so the man again, turns to God and meditation, which tells him to chop wood for a living. And on and on until the end of the story and each time, not knowing what to do, the man turns within and has faith in God. And something always works out! Stories help us remember to have faith. Faith in ourselves and faith in God. Despair and loneliness are things of the ego. For the Shakti is always with us at every second. It is us. We are the man who has to deal with life and loss, as so many Americans face now. And young people more than ever need these tools to succeed - health and stories.

On another note with the yoga therapy for children. My son has been practicing his toe exercises. We've cut back his intense football practice, but he will practice tonight. We shall see how it all works out. I will even be making some You Tube videos of yoga therapy for children, along with my Mythic Yoga. Stay tuned!

Lots of love and peace,

Sydney Solis