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...
Yoga Calm Goes to Jail
A guest post by Certified Yoga Calm Instructor Jeff Albin Deputies and probation officers have been driving through the gates of Norcor (Northern Oregon Corrections) for over 10 years now. For them, it is an old routine. Nothing new greets the eye as they press the...
Standardized Testing Can’t Measure What Matters
Quick: What’s the difference between No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top? Not much. As Diane Ravitch notes in a powerful and insightful essay in the New York Review of Books, both are part of what Pasi Sahlberg calls “the Global Education Reform Movement,” or...
The Happiness Contagion
Pay it Backward Have you ever had a stranger help you from out of the blue? Our good friend Don was recently thinking about the quality of empathy and what it would be like to receive such a random act of kindness. So on his way to work one day, while ordering coffee...
How to Treat ADHD Effectively? Pills, Skills & Love
Joseph, a five year old boy diagnosed with ADHD, was making good progress in yoga class at school. He was coming to friendship group once a week, and his mom and dad were working with me [Lynea] on parenting skills. For Joseph, change came slowly but consistently. He...
Where Physical Yoga & Principles Meet
One of the most indelible and defining moments in my training to become a yoga teacher began with a loud POP! At first, I thought it was my classmate’s back adjusting as our instructor led her into an advanced pose, but the look on her face said, “This is serious.”...
Resolutions vs. Gratitude
My first yoga class of the year is always a big one – as many as 50 people squeezing into a small space, each wanting to start off the new year right. And usually, I ask my students about their “resolutions.” This year, though, was a bit unusual – not only for them...
Technology Alone Is Not Enough: Creativity, Vision & a Whole Child Approach to Education
Recently, Lynea and I were asked to speak at a conference about technology’s impact on education. Immediately, my thoughts turned to what we feel is one of the greatest challenges facing us as educators and parents: the addictive nature of electronic media and its...
Brain-Based Learning: Developing Empathy & Compassion
Four times a year, Lynea and I conduct our Certification Workshops. They’re among our favorite events. We love seeing how practitioners creatively apply Yoga Calm activities as they share the 5 class plans they create as part of the certification process! Each of...
Taking Care of Holiday Stress
It’s that time of year again. Despite nature’s call to slow down and hibernate, we tend to speed up and do more. Holiday commitments, family travels, the end of school terms and corporate years, shopping, family expectations and dynamics – it all adds up to a lot of...
Working with Yoga-Resistant Teens? Try These 7 Tips to “Meet Them Where They Are”
When it comes to sharing yoga, teens can be the toughest audience of all. They may be invested in coolness, not wanting to show too much interest in anything they don’t discover on their own or that’s dissed by peers they look up to. Some may resist yoga as too trendy...