Summer Time Yoga

School is out and it is time to begin your summertime activities.  There may be time to include a short daily activity of yoga.  Remember that any length of time pursuing this calming, organizing and centering practice, can result in improved focus, attention, oxygenation throughout the body, increased levels of longer and stronger muscles, and a warm sense of all is right with my world!

Grab the beach towels and be sure to place them threads up.  Take a look at these ideas and add a few to your already favorite asana flow, or follow the short, balanced chakra flow below.

• Three part breath – breathe in through your nose and watch your upper chest rise as it inflates, watch your heart spot inflate, and 3rd, watch your diaphragm expand.  Notice these parts of your chest deflate as you release the breath slowly.  This breath will resemble a wave rolling in from the ocean with your breath slow and deep.
• Take a Conch to your ear and listen.  Describe what you hear.
• In standing, squinch your toes as if you are digging them into wet sand.
• Point first your right toe to check the temperature of the water.  You will be in a modified tree pose to do this and balancing on the left leg.  Repeat with the left foot.
• Move into bird pose with wings back and up on tip toes.  Slowly transition down into chair pose bringing your back stretched arms over your knees.  Then move back up on tip toes and arms forward, over head as if to take a dive into the water.  This transition is smooth, with arms moving slowly through the poses.
• Slowly open your spine with helicopter pose.
• Move into sitting and do a spinal twist. Be sure as you twist to apply sun protection lotion of a high spf to the arm and shoulder behind you.
• Glide into forward bend and brush the sand off your legs.  Breathe into upright sitting while doing sipping breath.  Sipping breath is three short and quick sips of breath as you rise from the forward bend.  Once in sitting slowly release the entire breath.  Be sure to discuss what smoothly you were sipping, pineapple, mango or coconuts are good choices for summertime.
• Criss-cross legs and do a game of Criss-Cross Cranberry Sauce.  Begin with hands on knees and say “criss”, cross arms to place hands on the alternate knee and say “cross”.  Repeat this with hands on knees for the sauce you choose and then cross arms and place hands on alternate knees and say “sauce”.  Be sure to use many varieties of sauce (ie, BBQ, chocolate, tomato, alfredo, blueberry, hot, taco) Focus on sauces that might be a part of a summertime cook-out.
• Boat pose is next and be sure to get your little motors going by doing a raspberry.  I have to sneak in a little oral-motor, no pun intended!
• End this little flow with savasana.  You may wish to use cloth picnic napkins for eye bags. This is the perfect time to use “I am the Breeze” meditation off of the newly released Guided Meditation for Children – I am the Breeze CD.
• Closing chant with the OM mudra on your knees. Follow directions for chant sequence.
• Enjoy tactile fun with the new found focus from yoga.  With a storage container of sand you can;    Sift through sand to find objects such as shells, softened beach glass, or tiny starfish or sand dollars.  Categorize the found objects.  Write with your finger and make an energy spiral, the symbol for OM and write your name.
• Most importantly, have fun!