ITS OKAY TO FEEL WEIRD ON THANKSGIVING

Sat Nam and Namaste. And as a yoga teacher to children and young adults, this is what I told them, while everyone else is telling them to "BE GRATEFUL!" Yeah, yeah.
I will, but not when you tell me to.
I never liked the "sitting around with relatives" part of this holiday - and I never ever could sit through a footbal game, and am thankful my family of origin felt the same way. Then there's the food. I like de-bunking fixed unexplained traditions. Having recently returned from New England and seen Plymouth, Mass for the first time - I got some facts straightened out. First, they ate seasonal vegetables mostly, venison, some foul and likely no turkey on the "Plimouth" Thanksgiving, which was actually a Harvest Feast. So I went out into my garden and picked everything that looked ready. So far on the menu - fried green tomatoes, squash, red potatoes and mixes greens. But this is a collaboration so we shall see what the other contingent brings to the table, if he ever wakes up.
I am big on not forcing the emotional imperative about any given holiday. I am grateful, yes and it's healthy for my nervous system to practice gratitude. But I am also sad and melancholy around this time, having lost a father and grandmother on Thanksgiving day in the past decade. And around Christmas, I just go into my conspiracy theories for a month, until it's over. On New Years Eve I read the Tibetan book of the Dead, The Talmud or the Bible and try to figure out who wrote them.
When moods come up around now, I don't squelch them anymore and put on that crazy happy face for the public or immediate family, nor do I have shame about being and feeling sad, mad, frustrated, muddled or anything else that isn't the popular emotional color of the Holiday. I am not a sheep, I am a human being with complexities and a history - I could never force myself to be pious on Sunday mornings, in a party mood on New Years Eve, totally grateful for having to cook on Thanksgiving, impish and precious on St. Patrick's Day and madly in love with my perfect partner on Valentine's Day. The gift of that is I get to be authentic and at one with (yoga = union) my Self. For example, I am going to sign off now and scream. Details to follow.
Blaire Baron Larsen
IKYTA RYT

JUMBO YOGA FOR YOUTH CLASS AT GOLDEN BRIDGE

What other yoga class for kids is over 90 minutes? Don't we all just assume kids won't last in a room that long with such a discipline? That is why kundalini yoga is ideal for children - it's all about moving!

The Sunday morning JUMBO yoga class at Golden Bridge (ages 6+) is the only class with enough time to really go deeper with students. Hence, this class is well known for its transformative effect on young people, sparking a desire in them to take up their own yoga practice at home. The children gather in a tribal circle and share on specific topics, then they play stimulating, ice-breaker games, developing especially the right hemisphere of the brain, then participate in a solid one hour yoga set ending with meditation and deep relaxation and a closing ceremony.
Blaire Baron Larsen teaches children ages 6+ Kundalini yoga all over Los Angeles. She is Yoga Director at both the City Ballet of L.A.(School) and L.A. Shakespeare Youth Festival.

THE MARATHON CLASS AT GOLDEN BRIDGE

Teaching the 9:30 Sunday class to children ages 6 - 14 at Golden Bridge for 5 years (and now again) was the best teaching experience for me in regards to how to keep children engaged for TWO HOURS. And these are children who don't necessarily want to be there. They are usually in this class because their parents are taking Gurmukh's class downstairs and they had no where to put them, or they want their children to fall in love with yoga the way they have. It is my job to give them an enjoyable experience that makes them want to come back and find their own relationship to yoga, their own journey with it. It always starts with ice-breaker games, which trick their brains. Suddenly they are having fun and opening up as a group. Even those who were determined not to participate or share, open up and reveal what is on their mind. After we have created a safe and comfortable dynamic as a group, then we start our yoga. And before we know it, the two hours is over and they are receiving their Yoga Stones for participating. I wish I had their childhood.

THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S WORKSHOP

THE YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORKSHOP is a 2 hour sanctuary for children 7-13, geared toward empowering them with options (primarily yogic tools) for handling the stress and challenges of Daily Life.

We cover some core issues in The Workshop, so first we must create a safe space through ice-breaker excercises. We address and express our bigger-than-life emotions, our "24/7" schedule, our work load and our current challenges with peers. We then role-play these scenarios, practicing different solutions on them - example - how and when to stand up to our perceived “oppressors.” We all have them.

Halfway through the session we are ready for yoga class, which includes a meditation and deep relaxation. The final results are a newly boosted self-esteem through the practice of ahimsa (non-harm) and “esteemable” acts, a new courage to stand up for ourselves and to admit our faults (versus placing blame, covering, or acting out) and a renewed connection and acceptance of our Selves that we lose every now and then by trying to please the world.

We hope to create a movement of youth, certain in themselves, as they face this uncertain world. Therefore, our students bring home with them the materials covered and contact information to stay in touch and follow up with any future issues that present themselves.

Next workshop in Los Angeles is set for July, location TBD. To be on the mailing list for THE WORKSHOP contact us at yogamidcity@gmail.com.

TEACHERS TRAINING

TEACH YOGA TO CHILDREN. Teachers, Parents, Administrators, Artists, Yogis and anyone with a passion to work with children, are invited to join Master Youth teachers, Blaire Baron Larsen and Crystal D'Angora at YogiTree in Toluca Lake from 4-5:30pm to participate in The Light Leaders Teacher Training Course. You do not have to know how to wrap your body into a pretzel to teach yoga! Light Leaders Teachers Training is a comprehensive, fun and transformational 3 day Journey that will change your life and the lives of children you guide and teach. Even if they are your own! November 6-8
RSVP to The Yogi Tree - 818-760-0012. theyogitree.com

LIGHT LEADERS - CHILDREN'S YOGA FOR TEACHERS

http://wwwlightleadersyoga.com


What is Light Leaders?

We are a Teacher Training program for studios, schools and communities who wish to bring the valuable practice of yoga to children. As individual teachers, we have been priviliged to be at the front lines of the Children's Yoga Movement, teaching children and youth for several years now, at Golden Bridge Yoga in Hollywood, in public and private schools, in community centers, children’s homes, churches, temples, juvenile detention centers, rehabs and hospitals.

In the past few years, we have noticed a rapidly growing demand (actually surpassing the supply) for solid, experienced and devoted yoga teachers for youth. We recently pooled our combined experience and resources and decided to pass it on in the form of Light Leaders, our teacher training program.

With concrete evidence that yoga and meditation helps improve children's overall performance in school, we know the need for yoga teachers there will soon increase a hundred-fold. We also know that for children living in the stress of today's world, yoga helps kick out any surplus of negativity, fear, anxiety, anger, depression and other undeserved pressures which trickle down onto their young spirits from society. Yoga and meditation are some of the best tools to instill confidence, concentration, and self-discipline. We know that when children feel calm, confident, and loved they can succeed.

We have direct experience with the effects that this powerful yoga has on our students and we have noted ongoing progress in their lives as a result of a weekly practice. We feel it is our unwavering obligation to share and spread these teachings and techniques to you. Let's help to create healing communities for the next generation across the world.

If your community has a need for yoga teachers, we are here to help. Please contact us.

Blaire Baron & Crystal D'Angora
Los Angeles, CA

WHAT WE DO
Crystal and Blaire come to your community and spend three days with you, immersed in the practice of teaching and learning. We guide you in classes, as you will teach the children, and we give you the time and space to teach from the first day on. You will be moving, playing, and learning through experience: brain awakening games, role playing, songs, yoga sets and postures, meditations for children and group dialogue and exercises will help you uncover your own child. We discover our adult baggage and identify our blocks and biases and renew ourselves in the process.

WHO IS LIGHT LEADERS TEACHER TRAINING FOR?

Light Leaders Teacher Training is for current and future teachers who want to help children learn and develop a passion for yoga. Light Leader Teachers Training invites and inspires all people who work with children to tap the fountain of youth within themselves by becoming teachers of this ancient healing practice to children. As we remember the joy and creativity that comes with play, awaken our compassion and empathy for learning new information, and heal our own young spirit, we are re-born more vital and effective teachers. You, as teachers, guides and leaders will share the great benefits of this healing practice and live in the light of serving the future in today.

Travel light, spread light, be the light. Yogi Bhajan

THE COURAGE TO CHANT

MANTRAS
THE COURAGE TO CHANT
I started at a Charter School which is like a public school in that no sect or religious beliefs can be inferred. However, the school is a progressive school and open to free thought, other cultures, other ways of life, other belief systems. The fact that the principal asked for yoga spoke for itself.
THE ADI MANTRA
It means the First Mantra. The mantra that opens every Kundalini class. I call on the Great Divine Wisdom, the Divine Teacher.
I have never taught a yoga class, from kindergartners to adults, where I did not use the Adi Mantra. I call on the Highest Wisdom Inside Myself; I call upon the Highest Teacher Within Me. I bow to my Highest Voice and Self. These are ways to get the message across without going into the issue of God. The children understand the voice in their body that tells them the right thing to do. They immediately nod their heads if asked about the Voice. Whether they call it their Conscience, their Angel vs Devil, their Heart or their Mind, they hear it and know what you are talking about.
In the community center, the ballet troupe are 95% Mexican American and Catholic. In the St. James afterschool program, they are Christian, but open to yoga. The Adi Mantra is for all religions and all people and it can be framed and described as such.