We finally have new DVDs for the YogaKids who have grown up with Silly to Calm and the ABCs. They are fantastic. Fun, imaginative, easy to follow and definitely enhance the fitness, fun and feeling great that all youth need.

Check em out on this reel player link: HEREl

You can buy them at the YogaKids Store or on Amazon.

I’d love to hear from you, your children and students. Please let me know the favorite parts of your kids. Thanks. Namaste.

Is your brain happy? If so, what makes it so….. If not, what can you do? Meditate.

This simple solution begins with a desire to calm yourself down and find just a little bit of peace. Who couldn’t use that? In a study of meditating monks published in Time magazine several years ago, the area of the left prefrontal cortex showed that our brains are changeable, malleable. Even if you think you were born with or living in a state of gloom or anxiety, your brain’s samskaras (grooves) can allow a happier state of existence. The neurological circuitry can be rewired to bring about optimism and serenity. Compassion is be a learned skill and has uncovered ways to clear the emotional spiral downward and create new pathways to positivity. Most of us believe and know that regular physical exercise is a good idea for life. So how about accepting the idea that mental exercise can do the same for a mind that is jumpy, scattered or depressed. Says Richard J Davidson, “happiness is a skill, like tennis. If you want to be a good tennis player, you can’t just pick up a racket–you have to practice”.

So….just begin with just 5 minutes a day. Change a fretful and frightened mind into a happier, healthier, more holistic and unharried outlook on life. Try a mindfulness practice of non-judgement. Sit still and become an impartial witness to whatever thoughts come up. Break out of the habitual ways of categorizing and judging expereinces and just watch the meanderings of the mind. As the Dalai Lama says “that is the nature of mind”. Ask questions. Are you thinking the same negative thoughts and outcomes continuously as automatic resposnses and reactions? Be patient with yourself. Everything unfolds for each of us at our own pace. Be a beginner. Come to each experience as if is is the first time. Free yourself from preconceptions, prejudices and biases so that you may have the opportunity to witness things in a new light.

Try this song or mantra From Thich Nhat Hanh’s “I Have Arrived”

I have arrived, I am home
In the here and in the now

I am solid I am free
In the ultimate, I dwell.

Repeat as many times as you need too. Smile. Be blissful. Enjoy

Yumi Hasegawa is a certified YogaKids teacher, CYKT, who lives in Mayangon Township, Yangon, Myanmar. Upon the tragedy that struck this country recently, Yumi reached out to our YogaKids community for help. I want to thank all of our YogaKids International community effort who reached out to supply the demand of goods and services that are needed. We have been able to help through the generosity you have suppled.  There is still great urgency to help get food to the babies and children in her community. We couldn’t provide the services that Red Cross, UNICEF or the US government can but Yumi is there, right now and with our money she has been able to buy baby food, water and other staples to help the families in her community make it through. She now has support to get food  to children who she, her husband and friends can reach out to right now. She has money to buy supplies. YogaKids Bridge of Diamonds is sending everything we can raise.

Yumi’s yoga and YogaKids classes in her area is grateful to be able to bring relief to the children, their parents and neighbors to soothe body, mind, sould and hearts, just a little to break through the fear, upheaval and confusion to help provide a few moments of peace for those in her tragically torn community. Through the “YK Bridge of Diamonds” we have fortunately been able to offer food and clothing in a time of such great need. Our doing a little means a lot to the homeless children suffering in Myanmar today.

You can make a credit card contribution by visiting the YogaKids website www.yogakids.com and follow the “Help Yumi” link. You can send checks to YogaKids International, 1714 A street, LaPorte, Indiana USA payable to the YogaKids Bridge of Diamonds Foundation, side marked Myanmar.

The Bridge of Diamonds Foundation is a 501c3. Your donations will be tax deductible. Your contributions will go directly to help Yumi feed the children of Mayangon Township, Yangon, Myanmar and as far as her community can reach.

Please forward this appeal on to all of the yogis you know and any other friends or contacts who might be able to make a difference and help Yumi feed so many children.

May all be filled with loving-kindness
May all be healthy and strong.
May all be free from suffering.
May all be healthy and happy.
May all be filled with peace.

Thanks for bonding together to make a difference in the world.

Infinite Blessings…Thanks and love for your support

Don and Marsha Wenig
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