Good Night Yoga: A Pose-By-Pose Bedtime Story

Good Night Yoga: a pose-by-pose bedtime story written by Mariam Gates and illustrated by Sarah Jane Hinder. A sweet good night story, with a yoga pose for each page. Ends with a sweet cloud visualization for sweet dreams for any age.

Transcript

Hello,

And welcome to today's Read Aloud.

Today's Read Aloud is Goodnight Yoga,

A pose-by-pose bedtime story.

It's written by Mariam Gates and it's illustrated by Sarah Jane Hinder.

It's really two stories.

I'm going to read you one story,

And then we'll go back and read it again and do the poses with it.

First,

Let's read about the author.

About the author,

As a child,

Mariam Gates was a keep-the-light-on,

Door-open,

At least one glass of water by her bed sleeper.

She has since graduated to asleep before her head hits the pillow.

Mariam holds a master's degree in education from Harvard University and has more than 20 years' experience working with children.

Her renowned Kid Power yoga program combines her love of yoga with teaching to help children access their inner gifts.

She lives in Santa Cruz,

California with her husband,

Yoga teacher,

Rolf Gates,

And their two children.

See MariamGates.

Com.

About the illustrator,

Sarah Jane Hinder discovered her love of illustration as a child when she decided to add some beautiful blue crayon to her nursery rhyme book on every single page.

As a grown-up,

She taught art and design for several years before becoming a full-time illustrator.

She creates acrylic artwork for a variety of children's books,

Including The Three Little Pigs and The Elves and The Shoemaker.

She lives in Manchester,

England with her husband and two chihuahuas.

See Smogowu.

Com.

Good night yoga.

So first we'll just read the text of the good night story.

The sun in the sky is going down and the clouds float by.

The stars sparkle brightly as the moon rises high.

The birds are flying back now to their homes in the trees.

The ladybugs settle softly between the butterflies and the bees.

The little blue cat who lives in the moon whispers,

Good night world,

You'll be dreaming soon.

So that's a nice little good night story and in the back of the book they have the good night yoga flow.

And the poses are,

The first one is called sun,

The second one is cloud,

Star,

Half moon,

Bird,

Tree,

Ladybug,

Butterfly,

Bee,

Cat,

And child.

Now we'll be doing each one of those poses as we read the book and then they have some other text that they wrote to go along.

So let's get started.

The sun in the sky is going down so they want you to do the sun pose.

The sun pose directions are,

Inhale your arms over your head and exhale your arms back down.

As I breathe in,

As I breathe out,

My arms lift up to the sky and then back down like sun rays.

Let's do it two more times.

As I breathe in,

As I breathe out,

My arms lift up to the sky and then back down like sun rays.

As I breathe in,

As I breathe out,

My arms lift up to the sky and then back down like sun rays.

The next page,

The clouds are floating by.

This is the cloud pose.

The directions for the cloud pose are,

Inhale and bend your knees,

Exhale and straighten your legs,

Lifting your arms above your head.

As I breathe in,

I bend my knees and scoop the clouds around me.

As I breathe out,

I stand tall and release the clouds over my head.

Let's do that two more times.

As I breathe in,

I bend my knees and scoop the clouds around me.

As I breathe out,

I stand tall and release the clouds over my head.

Good job.

Let's do it one more time.

As I breathe in,

I bend my knees and scoop the clouds around me.

As I breathe out,

I stand tall and release the clouds over my head.

Nice.

The next page is the stars sparkle brightly.

This is the star pose.

The directions for the star pose are,

Press down through your feet and reach your arms out wide.

I've heard this pose as five pointed star as well.

So as I breathe in,

As I breathe out,

My arms reach out wide toward the stars and relax.

And let's do it two more times.

As I breathe in,

As I breathe out,

My arms reach out wide toward the stars.

One last time.

As I breathe in,

As I breathe out,

My arms reach out wide toward the stars.

The next page is the moon rises high.

What pose is this?

It's the half moon.

The directions are inhale and lengthen your spine,

Reaching your hands over your head.

Exhale and bend to one side and then the other side.

As I breathe in,

As I breathe out,

My spine is long and I bend to the side like a crescent moon.

Now the other side.

As I breathe in,

As I breathe out,

My spine is long and I bend to the other side like a crescent moon.

Two more times.

As I breathe in,

As I breathe out,

My spine is long and I bend to the side like a crescent moon.

As I breathe in,

As I breathe out,

My spine is long and I bend to the other side like a crescent moon.

One more time on each side.

Arms overhead,

Hands clasped.

As I breathe in,

As I breathe out,

My spine is long and I bend to each side like a crescent moon.

As I breathe in,

As I breathe out,

My spine is long and I bend to the other side like a crescent moon.

The next page are the birds are flying back now.

Can you guess what pose that'll be?

Yeah,

It's the bird pose.

Focus on one point and lift your foot behind you and balance,

Then switch feet.

In my tradition,

This is called Vairabhadrasana III,

But bird pose is very nice.

As I breathe in,

As I breathe out,

I focus on one point and use my arms to soar.

You're standing on one foot,

You focus on one point,

And you're breathing in and breathing out.

Let's try the other side.

As I breathe in,

You stand on the other foot,

Focus on one point,

And I use my arms to soar.

You're standing on one foot like a bird and soaring.

One more time on each side.

As I breathe in,

As I breathe out,

I focus on one point and use my arms to soar.

The other side.

As I breathe in,

As I breathe out,

I focus on one point and use my arms to soar.

The birds are flying to their homes in the trees.

The next one is the tree pose.

The directions for tree pose are become tall in your spine.

Rest your foot on your ankle or above your knee and balance and then switch feet.

As I breathe in,

As I breathe out,

My shoulders roll back,

My heart is open,

And I am solid like a tree.

Let's hold this tree pose.

Let's try to hold it for three full breaths.

If you fall out,

You can just go back.

Two more breaths.

Relax,

And we'll try the other side in tree pose now,

Standing on your other foot.

As I breathe in,

As I breathe out,

My shoulders roll back,

My heart is open,

And I am solid like a tree.

Two more breaths.

Good job in your tree pose.

The next page,

The ladybug settles softly.

This is,

You guessed it,

The ladybug pose.

Bend your knees,

Roll your shoulders back,

And press your palms together.

In my tradition,

This is sometimes called a goddess pose or a squat.

As I breathe in,

As I breathe out,

My palms press together as I squat on my leaf.

As we squat,

Let's hold it for three full breaths.

And then the next page,

The ladybug settles softly between the butterflies.

You guessed it,

The butterfly pose.

We're going to sit on the ground,

We're going to press the soles of our feet together,

And we're going to roll our shoulders back.

As I breathe in,

As I breathe out,

My feet press together and my knees spread out like butterfly wings.

You can even give them a flap if you want.

Let's hold it for three full breaths,

One,

Two.

The next page is between the butterflies and the bees.

So this is the bee pose.

Inhale and sit up straight with your arms back,

They're clasped behind your back.

Exhale and lower your forehead toward the ground so it looks like you're a bee.

As I breathe in,

I sit up tall and reach my arms back like wings.

As I breathe out,

I buzz my head down to the ground.

And let's hold that for three full breaths.

The next page is the little blue cat who lives in the moon.

Can you guess what pose we might be doing here?

You guessed it,

Cat.

You get on all fours and you pretend you're a cat.

Inhale and look up,

Letting your spine drop low.

Exhale and tuck your chin,

Lifting your spine high like a cat.

As I breathe in,

As I breathe out,

I arch my back like a cat.

Let's do it two more times.

As I breathe in,

As I breathe out,

I arch my back like a cat.

Meow.

One more time.

As I breathe in,

As I breathe out,

I arch my back like a cat.

The blue cat whispers,

Good night,

World.

You'll be dreaming soon.

This is child's pose.

Press back on your heels and rest.

As I breathe in,

As I breathe out,

I sit back on my heels,

Still and round like the earth.

And let's take three full breaths here.

And now that we've completed our good night yoga flow,

I'd like to move into our meditation,

Our cloud journey visualization.

So everyone get as comfortable as you can.

Maybe a pillow under your knees with your arms spread out.

Make a nice little cloud with your blankets and then lay on it.

Lie on your back with your hands by your sides.

Take a deep breath in and let a long breath out.

Imagine you are lying on a white,

Puffy cloud.

Feel yourself sink into the softness as the cloud lifts you up,

Up,

Up into the air.

You are floating,

Rocking back and forth.

Your cloud is taking you somewhere you love to be.

This wonderful place has colors to see and sounds to hear.

Feel how good it is to be here.

Breathe in,

Breathe out.

When you are ready,

Your cloud slowly brings you down,

Down,

Down.

It settles you gently back on the earth.

As your cloud pulls away,

It takes with it anything that is troubling you.

Whoosh.

You are left feeling calm,

Peace,

And happiness inside.

Take another deep breath in and let a long breath out.

Sweet dreams.

Namaste.

Reviews

Oh my goodness this was wonderful! I did this with my 7 year old nephew….both of us understood the directions easily and we had so much fun doing this together! He did it all the way through, even to the end….it was such a joy laying with him in the clouds and seeing him smile and relax….I HIGHLY recommend this! I will be doing this again, even on my own! Thank you sweet friend, thoroughly enjoyed this! 🤗💖🙏🧚🏻😘🧘🏼‍♀️