The Children You Save
A few years ago, after hearing news of another mass shooting, I sat with the principal of the rural elementary school where I worked as a counselor, feeling sad and discouraged. Then he said something I’ve never forgotten: "The children you save never make the...
New Hope for Dealing with Tension & Trauma, Part 2
Read Part One Words Are Not Enough: Yoga & Meditation As we discussed last time, recovery from trauma is both a mental/emotional process and a physical process. Key to the latter is deactivating the somatic cues that trigger the troubling emotions and autonomic...
New Hope for Dealing with Tension & Trauma
Have you ever been so nervous or scared, your body was literally shaking? That shaking is called neurogenic tremoring – an innate release system that nearly all mammals are born with and seems to be a key component in how they handle stress. Yes, just as our bodies...
Sowing Mindfulness & Social Skills, Harvesting Gratitude
Heading into the holiday season, I find my thoughts going back several years to a party I attended at the elementary school where I worked as a counselor. Each of the 32 students contributed some kind of food. There were large bottles of soda, big bags of chips and...
Schools, Yoga & the Religion Issue
What began as a local story of a few California parents objecting to classroom yoga has, over the past couple weeks, ballooned into one of national interest, garnering mainstream media coverage. According to the original North County Times article about the dissent,...
Focus Behind the Razor Wire (Yoga Calm Goes to Jail, Part 3)
A guest post by Certified Yoga Calm Instructor Jeff Albin Part 1 Part 2 The detention officer bursts through the conference room door at exactly the same time the voice of CONTROL blares over the intercom: “MR ALBIN WHAT ARE YOU THROWING AT THE RESIDENTS?” The...
3 Activities to Start the School Year Right
Parents and teachers know how important establishing routines is for healthy child development, but the shift from summer fun to school schedules can be challenging. Of course, “challenge” is just a different word for “opportunity.” Here are three ways you can make...
What to Tell Your Child About the Colorado Theater Shooting?
What do you tell a child when a horrific event like the Colorado theater shooting happens? Many parents are asking, just as the host of AM Northwest asked Lynea during her recent appearance on the program. (You can watch the full interview here.) Helping soothe...
Not Your Mother’s Yoga Class (Yoga Calm Goes to Jail, Part 2)
A guest post by Certified Yoga Calm Instructor Jeff Albin - Read Part 1 here The sounds of Foghat's "Slow Ride" echoing through the claustrophobic halls at the detention center would be the first clue that this is not your mother's yoga class. There are no gleaming...
Yoga Calm for “The Medication Generation”
Everyone wants to be heard. Everyone wants to have their truth acknowledged. Maybe this is why one of the biggest frustrations we deal with growing up is the sense of not being heard – or even having a voice. Sometimes when children are referred for psychiatric...
Who’s Raising Our Kids? 10 Tips for Parenting in an Online World
Let me tell you a story… Storytelling is the most ancient of all teaching techniques. Embedding knowledge and empathy in narrative, its the way we make sense of our lives. And it’s not just through movies, books, plays and other fictions. Journalists often use...
Nurturing Our Natural Love of the Earth
Springtime again! And who can resist the call of the sun, leafing trees, beautifully blooming flowers? Our response is deep-seated. Rooted in our genetics is a love for nature, for the beauty of natural settings. It came early this year, too, with record high...