A day of firsts.

Kids yoga. Flow yoga. Gentle yoga.  First 1:1 session.

Thats a lot of yoga.

Kids yoga. Kids yoga. Kids yoga? Where do I start? I'm happy with the class that I put together. I used some fun nature sounds (an app I found) for a 2 minute eyes closed centering……..changing up the sounds. This got them to lay quietly, then when they sat up we went around the circle and they listed what they heard. This worked, I had a whiteboard and wrote down what they said. We checked in with our emotions (acting our how we felt using our bodies and faces, silently), talked about being present, noticed how the room felt, etc. Warmed up, did some silly things, lots of "walks" around the circle of our mats, crow walk, crab walk etc. Plenty of noise and silliness. Then we settled down a little and did sun salutations using hula hoops ~ this was fun and really worked, visualizing the hoop as the sun and holding it up and lowering it down. Jake was in the class, the bigs were at their first Jr. Golf scramble. I worried about him, but he was easy. I had one kid who was a little like this

That kid was annoying. I will admit to having infinite patience with newborns. Babies, so easy for me. A 9 year old boy who is acting like an asshole? (Yes, that doesn't sound nice. I'm okay with it. Kids can act like assholes just like anyone else) ………frustrates me. I don't know that I would have known how to deal with him if I wasn't a parent. As it was it was pretty easy ~ when the kid, who I will call Kid, wanted to hide in the closet or jump around instead of participating? I asked him if he would prefer to be in the kids zone. "Kid? This is yoga! Come do yoga with us! If you want to play with the balls in the closet or yell, there s a place for that too :) Choice is yours.". He eventually settled down. I think that he got the picture when the other kids were having a lot of fun and he just looked silly acting like a baby and not listening. We moved through this fun exercise with feathers (breath work) and then used them to do some seated stretching. Balance, warriors, and then ultimately a savasana. It was fun, yes. I definitely felt like I was working HARD for my money, unlike teaching a normal class. I don't know that teaching kids in the 7-11 bracket is really going to be my bag, long term. My own kids? Yes. OPK's who are annoying? Just not worth the money to me. It felt too much like babysitting one kid and teaching yoga to others. I'm not in that phase of my life. Flow was nice, its fun and different teaching these super strong and fit crossfit people. A good class. At night I taught a 5 PM gentle class, then, on what was the hottest day of our year, with a flash flood warning and heavy thunderstorm warning, my outdoor class was essentially cancelled by the weather. It was hideously hot yesterday. HOWEVER, one of my Sunday regulars hadn't got the news and was out by the pool …..so since I was there anyway, we decided to just do the class until lightening chased us out! It was the first time that I have taught a student 1:1 and it was fun to work with her on the two specific poses that she had questions about. We got to practice together, (a fairly standard power flow series) and then focused on the two balance poses she was working on/had questions about. While we were working on ways to practice her alignment at home, the whistles started going crazy, all hell broke loose, and we packed up and were running to our cars, her asking me to get in touch with her on Facebook so that she could know whenever I was subbing. Within 10 minutes the heavens opened and it was a WILD storm, which I got to experience in the middle of a grocery store shopping lot because we needed coffee :) 

So, Facebook. This is about the 4th student request I've had THIS WEEK of people wanting to know how to get in touch with me. I don't have a website. I don't have business cards (yet). I need both, I think. In the interim, the easiest way to keep in touch with my clients (how do I build a client base without having their contact information?????) was to reactivate my Facebook account. I deleted lots of albums, don't have it on my phone, and plan to just use it for yoga networking. I think. I hope? Thats possible, right? 

Anyone creative? I need a business card. I want simple and clean. I feel like I need word…….a "something" yoga. Or a logo? The tattoo on my bicep? Or do I just make generic old cards? I don't know. I know I need something? Anyone good at this stuff. I generally like coming up with this sort of thing ~ for some reason Im struggling with this. Been thinking about it while I run, while I practice, while I do just about everything for this past week…and its eluding me. 

4th July! Freedom! May you all find freedom in your bodies, in your minds, in your hearts, and in your practice.