Welcome to this mindful movement practice for kids.
My name is Ashley and I teach kids all the way from pre-k up to 12th grade.
I love teaching kids how to breathe and move their bodies to find a way to center and relax.
So this is a fun practice that incorporates focus,
Breath,
And movement.
So come into a comfortable seat.
Whatever that is for you,
I'm sitting crisscross applesauce or cross-legged style.
And first,
Allow your spine to go tall.
Imagine you have a string pulling the crown of your head upwards.
Maybe closing the eyes,
Tucking the chin very slightly,
And just first notice your breath.
So mindfulness simply means that we know what we're doing when we're doing it,
That we're not lost in distraction.
We're paying attention to whatever we're doing.
When we're moving,
We're moving,
When we're breathing,
We're breathing,
When we're playing,
We're playing.
We want to fully invest in whatever it is that we're doing.
So this morning,
Or whenever you're doing this practice with me,
Let's move and breathe.
So first bring your palms together.
I want you to rub the palms together.
You can rub them a little fast if you want,
And just notice that friction between your hands.
This practice of rubbing our palms together stimulates your nervous system,
Wakes your brain up,
Helps you focus.
Sometimes I see people doing it when they're thinking.
They may not realize what it does,
But it works nonetheless.
And then just let your hands drop down,
Palms down onto the knees.
Just notice any sensations in the hands here.
Now as you inhale,
I want you to bring your shoulders up to your ears,
Making it kind of tense,
And then exhale,
Roll your shoulders down away from the ears.
Inhale,
Lift the shoulders,
Bringing them up toward the ears.
Exhale drop them down.
One more time.
Inhale shoulder rolls up to the ears.
Exhale roll them back away from the ears.
And just notice we often hold a lot of tension there in the shoulders.
Now coming back into our upright seat,
As you inhale,
Turn your chin to your right shoulder.
Exhale,
Come back to center.
Just notice where your mind is.
We want to keep checking.
See if that sneaky brain has wandered away.
Inhale,
Bring your shoulder,
Your chin rather to your left shoulder.
Exhale,
Come back to center.
Inhale,
Chin to right shoulder.
Exhale,
Come back to center.
Inhale,
Chin to the left shoulder.
Exhale,
Come back to center.
Good.
Just notice how you feel.
Now bringing the palms to your knees again,
Palms down.
As you inhale,
I want you to arch your back and lift your chin and gaze up to the ceiling.
As you exhale,
I want you to tuck your chin,
Roll your spine,
Almost like a Halloween cat,
Kind of leaning back in your seat,
Chin to chest last.
These are called seated cat cows.
Inhale,
We come back up,
Arching the back,
Bringing your chin,
Look up to the ceiling.
Make sure you're breathing.
Exhale,
Roll your spine,
Chin to chest last.
Let's do a few more of these at your own pace.
Making sure you're breathing,
Making sure you're matching breath to movement.
Inhale,
Lift the chin,
Gaze up,
Exhale,
Round the spine,
Halloween like cat.
Chin to chest last.
Just a few more.
Notice how good this feels on your spine.
This is really healthy to keep your spine healthy because we do a lot of sitting,
Especially in school,
So we want to move our bodies.
Coming back to center now,
Just sit for a minute and notice any sensations in the body.
Check where your brain is.
Are you with me?
Good.
All right,
Next is rainbow breaths.
We're back to our tall spines.
Bring your hands out beside you and as you inhale,
I want you to reach those arms above your head.
Exhale,
Just gently lower the hands back down by your sides,
Kind of making the shape of a rainbow.
Inhale,
We reach up.
Arms above the head,
Exhale the hands,
Gently come back down,
Rainbow breaths.
One more.
Inhale,
The arms reach up.
Exhale,
Make the shape of a rainbow.
Very good.
Come back to your seat.
All right,
Last move here.
We're going to do a twist.
So on your next inhale,
Twist to your right,
Bringing your right hand behind you.
Left hand comes to that right knee.
Just twist into the spine.
Exhale,
Come back to center.
Let's take the twist to the other side.
Inhale,
We turn to the left.
Right hand comes to your left knee.
Left hand comes behind you.
Twist into the spine.
Notice how good that feels.
Inhale,
We come back.
Come back to center.
Reset.
Let's do one more round.
Inhale,
We twist to our right.
Right hand behind you.
Left hand to that right knee.
Twist into the spine.
Exhale,
Come back to center.
Last one.
Inhale to your left.
Right hand comes to that left knee.
Left hand's behind you helping you twist that spine,
Knowing that when we twist our spines,
It really calms the nervous system.
So not only does it feel good,
It's good for you.
Now come back to center.
Just come back to that seated position,
Maybe closing the eyes.
Just notice how you feel from this mindful movement and breath.
Now for the last thing we'll do,
Bring both hands to your belly.
This is mindful belly breathing.
As you inhale,
Blow the belly out against your hands.
Feel the hands rise.
As you exhale,
Bring the belly in.
Inhale,
Our belly gets big with air.
We feel our hands move out.
As we exhale,
We bring the hands back in.
One more.
Inhale.
Exhale,
Relax everything in your body.
Bring your mind to right here right now.
Notice how you feel from this practice.
Before I go,
I want you to say in your mind three things you're grateful for.
I'm grateful that you joined me today.
I'm grateful that I get to teach kids breath and movement.
I'm grateful for my friends and my family.
And I can't bring to mind what you're grateful for.
Notice how gratitude makes us feel happy.
I hope you feel happy.
Thanks for joining.
Come back to this practice anytime.
