Grounded Blog
In the busyness of life, we tend to get contracted, even with our yoga practice. We want to be aligned, with good form and practice these principles in sequential order. At times, all of those details can bog us down. Bring playfulness into your yoga practice and think of it like a game. See what part of you is winning in certain poses. Pick three actions to focus on:
1.Rock solid steadiness 2.Spacious, full, bright, paper-smooth breath 3. Scissoring the midline
The directions for Warrior 1 Up are here, but don't stop there. Think Rock, Paper, Scissors with each pose and notice what becomes more clear.
Tags: Warrior I Up, Clarity, Breath, Hug the Midline, Play, Poses, Scissors, Paper, Rock, poetry
For many of us, a new year represents a blank slate, a Tabula Rasa. Imagine being able to “refresh” any or all areas of your life. Now visualize this table with two columns, Yes and No. You create your truest life by thoughtfully choosing what goes in the No column and what is a Yes. Everything you say YES to and everything you say NO to matters. What if your yes’s and no’s were tabulated and at the end of a day, week, year, lifetime, you could see how the data, otherwise known as your life, balanced out?
Have you ever head the term "The Ground Truth"? Spies say it when they want to know what really went down, no cover-ups and no interpretations. Apparently in life or death spy situations it's important to know the ground truth in order to move forward in the mission. In NASA, the ground truth is part of the calibration process where a person on the ground makes a measurement of the same thing the satellite is trying to measure at the same time. The two answers are then compared to help evaluate how well the satellite instrument is performing.
Sedef Dion who co-created our Pre-Grounded program shared with me the story of a four year old girl who in the cutest way mistakenly called Savasana....Lasagna. This inspired me to write a Savasana visualization with a Lasagna theme that Amy and I recently used to connect with our Fernbank Elementary Yoga Club students. After we did our practice complete with the Lasagna Savasana, one of our students..the Principal's five year old daughter said..."that was so relaxing...this could help me fall asleep at night". Since it was her birthday that day, we wanted to put together a recording that her parents could play for her as she settles down for a good night rest after a long day. The artwork in the slideshow is that of our Fernbank students expressing themselves after the Savasana.
Grown-ups like numbers. When you tell them about a new friend, they never ask questions about what really matters. They never ask: "What does his voice sound like?" "What games does he like best?" "Does he collect butterflies?" They ask: "How old is he?" "How many brothers does he have?" "How much does he weigh?" "How much does his father make?" Only then do they think they know him. If you tell grown-ups, "I saw a beautiful red brick house, with geraniums at the windows and doves on the roof..." They won't be able to imagine such a house. You have to tell them "I saw a house worth a hundred thousand francs." Then they exclaim, "What a pretty house!"...That's the way they are. You must not hold it against them. Children should be very understanding of grown-ups.
— The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery
So Children, how do you master the art of Grown-up relationships one conversation at a time?
GROUNDED. (ADJ.)
1. HAVING A SECURE FEELING OF BEING IN TOUCH WITH REALITY AND YOUR PERSONAL FEELINGS.
2. A FIRM FOUNDATION TO BE INSPIRED AND INSPIRE OTHERS.
Two weeks ago my Grounded class wrote letters of congratulations to Emily, who had just earned her White Bandana. She's nine years old and lives in Atlanta. The kids in my class were amazed that at just nine she had achieved this. They were inspired. The letters they wrote were thoughtful, complementary and from the heart.
Tags: Gratitude, Drawings, art, Inspiration
There is a huge difference between going deep and going in. Deeply understanding and knowing something is not the same level of experience as ingesting or taking something in and transforming because of it.
Tags: Laughter Milkshake, Deep, Transformation, Freedom
It all began one morning while following Grounded Yoga's Facebook page. Co-Founder, Amy Haysman posted a super cool picture of Deepak Chopra's "The Seven Spiritual Laws of Superheros" that peeked my interest. On the cover of Chopra's book is a new super hero with the world in her hands and with text that reads, "Harnessing Our Power to Change the World". I had to go further and research more about the book and the author. In his book, Chopra teaches us that by exploring the boundaries of energy and awareness, allowing us to better understand ourselves and our potential, we are capable of changing the world. Yes! Of course!! This made total sense to me. So, I decided to take on the challenge of saving the world by tapping into my own Chakras. I found that I was becoming more grounded, more creative, more present, and more aware of my surroundings than ever before. My soul just opened up! This was only the beginning of my Chakra Adventure! I had to take what I was learning into my classes. I taught a six week Chakra System series to children ages 4-11 Super Hero style! It was Chakrariffic!!



On the eleventh of October,