Friday Art Adventures and Lessons Learned!
I was thinking, when I began writing this, how grateful I am for all that my teacher, Sydney Solis, has shared with me through her wonderful Mythic Yoga e-courses! What I have learned just keeps on growing and growing and expanding beyond what I could have imagined! I see it permeating all areas of my life: the way I teach yoga, the way I look at myself, the way I parent my children, the way I relate to others and to the world.
My skills and my connectedness with others, has blossomed since I began my Mythic Yoga studies this past October. All of my interactions are improving daily. Disappointments arise but seem more to be a part of the plan, destined to redirect me, to open me up to new possibilities. Today, I had an unusually sad and unpleasant day, full of upheaval. It was a day that strained my parenting skills, and highlighted my own insecurities about being a capable parent. Just one of those days you wonder how you will get through. As everything seemed to feel like it was falling apart around me, there was a certain destruction that was taking place. At some point, I remembered what I had learned about myself and I am still learning throughout my mythic yoga studies, about how we need to let go. How we transform through difficulties and challenges. I remembered how during our course, when I had also talked to my priest, he had mentioned those same word to me and it was like I heard it for the first time! He said that when we pray to God for greater patience, we should be careful what we wish for! He said that patience isn’t just “handed” to us, that when we ask for it, we are given the challenges required for us to grow in patience. It was at that moment I remembered that I had kneeled down at the end of liturgy this morning, and prayed repeatedly to become a “better mom”, to have more strength as a mom! Wow, I never knew prayers were answered so quickly! My challenge came hurtling at me the moment I walked out the doors of the church! And then, a sense of peace came over me at some point today, that this wasn’t the end of the world, and everything was going to be ok. Once I felt that, things began to slowly improve. I believe I have learned something, and my prayers, well, they have been answered!
Currently, I am busy preparing for my special needs yoga workshop coming up in May, and things are moving along. I already have four people signed up for my workshop and I am very excited! I have much to do, but feel that all of my work from the past several years is coming to fruition in the form of this workshop.
Unfortunately, my Auburn Hills community center classes did not make it - no one registered! Not a single soul! That, I have to admit was a hard lesson for me. I was SO excited to be slated to teach a Teen Yoga class, and another Family Yoga class, but it was not to be. At first I was disappointed, and I guess I still have that feeling of missing what “could have been” but I know there was some greater purpose in all of this. Now I have decided to spend the time learning more about teens and how to guide them effectively. It seems to be working! I am reading a wonderful book called, “The Good Teen.”
My greatest success of the past week, were all of my classes on Friday, at our home school group, in Warren, MI. As I had mentioned in my previous blog post, I had an unexpected 2-hour art class land in my lap for Friday! Sooooo, I decided to take my finger puppet idea a step further. The ideas were flowing from me. What happened was, two teachers could not be here today for classes, so I was asked to fill the time. I had two hours to fill and thought, what to do? Then it hit me! More about that in a moment…
When I arrived at school on Friday, two other home school moms were there talking, and one is a massage therapist. She was about to go off and give her friend a massage when I walked in. She mentioned that she wished the friend could also give her a massage in return. I said that I would love to help, but massage therapy was not my area of expertise, to which she responded that I could do a yoga class! What a brilliant idea! Sometimes the best things happen spontaneously. I was glad she asked, because yoga was not popular in our group last school year, so I didn’t even offer to teach it as a separate class this year. So, we set up a time, and to my surprise the two women showed up and brought their two “tweens” into the room as well. I had not even thought about teaching a Family class, and now, here was the perfect opportunity! The kids did NOT want to do yoga, they wanted no part of it and were very, very resistant, complaining. Their moms kept telling them it was good for them and they should at least try it. The whole atmosphere felt negative - and I understood it - I have “been there done that” with my kids. I could see the kids were getting more uncomfortable by their mom’s insistence, so I kind of took over. The kids know me, so I joked with them about yoga, made it a light and fun interaction and saw they were trying to relax.
I said to the kids, ”I often tell kids to join in when they feel they are ready, and that the rest of us are just going to get started. You feel free to join us when you are ready.”
Of course when they see we are having fun, they join right in.
Well, I asked the moms if it was ok to do a “fun” practice, since I had originally thought we’d be doing an adult practice. I was thinking therapeutic, but of course, fun can be therapeutic as well! IN this instance, it was! They were game, so we got going. We did a greeting and then my favorite warm-up, the Seashore warm-up, which the kids LOVED, it took about 2 seconds and they were totally into it. They loved the crab especially. After that, class flowed smoothly and we had a blast. They couldn’t believe how fun yoga was. The best part was how the parent-child team began to listen to each other. How they interacted in a more positive way, how they felt each other’s breathing. We did many partner poses, and you could see the parent-child teams growing more harmonious, more peaceful. Plus we laughed a LOT. It was beautiful. My only disappointment, was that the class got interrupted rather abruptly, but this was an opportunity to show how yoga helps us to adapt, be more flexible. One child had to leave the room, because her piano teacher arrived (and I had no idea this was going to happen) and then her mom had to leave because her daughter couldn’t find her piano. I was just about to tell a story. But that’s ok, the young boy who was left liked the very active yoga poses I began teaching next: I taught him bakasana and L-handstand, etc, and he was VERY excited. Again, I reached into my bag, and pulled out another “trick”. Sydney has given me SO many tools to be prepared and teach what I need to teach. By the time the other mom got back, he was able to show off his new skills, and then we all did some inversions and resting pose, since I had to get out of there to teach my art class! The rest of the day, the parents and kids were talking about how they had NO idea yoga would be that much fun!
Art class, was beyond my wildest dreams. I took several huge risks. Well, for me they were huge. First, I knew they had all just had a very long, lecture-heavy class (sorry, don’t want to offend anyone who enjoys lectures!) for Biology class, and that was just after eating lunch when they were full of energy and some of them full of caffeine as they often walk up to Tim Horton’s for lunch.
I said, “SO - who besides me has a lot of energy right now?!”
And almost every single hand went up. I told the teens that I can’t sit down and make art for two hours if I’ve got this much body energy going on, if I feel hyper, I need to turn it into a calmer more creative energy.
So, I then asked, “who likes to make noise?!”
Again, nearly every hand went up. My own kids were a bit embarrassed (but they will just have to get over it!) I knew I had to make this a creatively energetic class. So, I opened up my Music Bag, and let them reach in and pull stuff out. Here, these guys are teens and many of them even liked my animal shaped tambourines! I have some cool drums and stuff, and they began jingling and making a TON of noise! It was awesome.
I said, “OK! Now we are going to move!” I was like a cheerleader. The kids also have spring fever, and though it was wet outside, it wasn’t too cold, so I announced that we were going to play the instruments and proceed outside.
Some of them were incredulous, “We are going to take the instruments OUTSIDE?!”
To which I responded, “sure, why not?” Next thing I knew, we were heading outside, and making noise all the way. A long line of teens with me leading and my assistant following. Everyone was wondering what we were up to, and that was the fun of it. Once out the door, I said to my student, Andrew, who is turning into a real leader, “You are the leader!”
Andrew asked if we were going around the building, to which I said YES. It is a huge building, and goes along a freeway service drive. I mentioned to everyone that walking was also a form of meditation, and that got a few smiles. Most of the kids were glad to get outside, it was a bit chilly, but it at least it is spring in Michigan! We were still jingling and playing drums, and the next thing, Andrew turned our lively walk into an all-out RUN! Soon, we were all jogging around the building, through the grass, the mud, the fresh air, it felt amazing. When we made it back inside, everyone proceeded into our classroom, where I wordlessly collected my instruments. It cleared our minds…it was like taking a shower. We were ready to create!
NOW, I could launch my finger puppet ideas. I wondered how teens would react to this, but once they got their hands into the clay, they were excited and engaged. I made the method super-simple, so they could focus on creating. I had tons of stuff to embellish their creations, and what is most amazing was the creative ways they all came up with to use the materials. What could be hair? What could make wings? What about the eyes? What kind of coverings did the animals have? Mythological, or real? What could they use for supports? For beaks? For noses? They each used things in ways I had not even envisioned using the materials. When technical difficulties arose, they came up with stronger supports, and they also pitched in and helped each other out. It was absolutely the BEST art class I had all year, any year, and it wasn’t even my regular art class. I made the class open to anyone, so other kids whose teachers were not there on Friday, were able to try the class. It was great. Everyone was successful. I had someone take photos for me, and will have them next week. I absolutely HAVE to share these! So, our next step is creating cards. We got some fun photos of the kids with their puppet creations, and then our puppets had their own photo shoot. My idea was to turn them into cards, such as ATC’s (artist trading cards) and then put sayings on them that the kids come up with – so they will be relevant to teens – and then creating a design for the other side of the cards, and then printing them out so we can all have a set with everyone else’s card. I told the kids if they turn out well, perhaps they can sell them. I mean, how do any cards get created?
Anyway, the project evolved as we went along. It was SO cool. If nothing else we have a great display for their end of the year talent show.
Next, I was to face my big art adventure at the YMCA on Saturday. And more ahead!
Stay creative!
Lisa
