I am so grateful and delighted to finally see this controversy come to light. In our culture, when someone is famous and prominent and has the celebrity status of actors like Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey, people listen and the press is reporting. I am grateful that this travesty is finally coming to light due to their tenacity. It’s about time the real truth gets out. Thank you Jen and Jim. Namaste.

Over 20 years ago, my YogaKids Dakota and Kiva, were scorned and scoffed at for not having vaccinations. I was told they would not be able to go to school. None of this is true. In America, anyway, each state has it’s own legislature around this issue. In Indiana, the you can submit the following letter:

“Pursuant to IC 20-8.1-7-2 (a), on behalf of my son or daughter,__________ , I object to any
testing, examination, immunization or other treatment otherwise required by Indiana law, on religious grounds.” This statement needs to be signed by a parent and delivered to the appropriate or right person at your child’s school. This statute does allow the school to also require a history of immunizations. If they ask, you can just say or write “none”. Please check with an attorney in your area, legal institutions or your state legislature. Each state is different. The right to immunize your children or not, is hopefully within your power.

Innoculations have been known to compromise the immune system. they contain many toxic ingredients that may lead to autism, maladies of various sorts and other symptoms that run the gamut from mild to severe.

For further information please check out the book “What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Children’s Vaccinations” by Stephanie Cave, M.D., F. A.A.F.P. and Deborah Mitchell.

Educate Yourself. Knowledge is power.

Good Luck!

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

I would love to hear from anyone who could possibly explain or justify the recent print ads that show a can of Diet Coke and call it a Yoga Class? It’s obviously not a joke, yet I find it laughable and depressing. I challenge their corporate executives and advertising agency to substantiate this claim……

“THERE WAS ONCE a town in the heart of America where all life seemed to live in harmony with its surroundings…” said Rachel Carson in her eco-book, Silent Spring, written over 40 years ago.

What has changed?

On Earth Day in 1970 President to be Gerald Ford said “We have come tardily to the tremendous task of cleaning up our enivronment. We should have moved with similar zeal at least a decade ago…we must now address ourselves to the vast problems that confront us.”

Please believe that it is never too late……

What do we do? Where do we go from here? In a recent survey of the Environmental Working Group the following statistics were published:

*287 chemicals found in umbilical cord blood taken from 10 babies born in August and September 2004

*212 of the total number of chemicals found were banned or severely restricted in the US

*47 were common consumer product chemicals such as pesticides and fire retardants.

As Chief Seattle said over 100 years ago, “What we do the earth we do to ourselves.”

What’s a mother to do? Read labels. If you don’t what an ingredient is, or it sounds like a chemical compound, don’t buy it. Don’t eat it. Support organic farmers and sustainable agriculture. Make fewer choices based on convenience. Think of the next generations and the effect on the Seventh Generation from today.

I find this concept wonderful for several reasons. Firstly: When I was growing up in Ridgefield, NJ, my older sister Gladys had a friend named Wayne Mellow. All of her friends in high school would constantly tease me. “If you marry Wayne Mellow” they would lovingly yet tauntingly say, “your name will be MarshaMellow, ha, ha, ha.” NOT. As a 7 year old, I would look downward with embarrasssment, and roll my eyes as I thought–not again.

So, as a yoga instructor and child advocate, I was delighted and amused to come across Kelsey Bowman, now 18, who invented a ‘marshmallow launcher’ at the age of 11, with the help of her mom Pat, to help increase the breath capacity of children with leukemia.

The 12 inch acrylic tube that Kelsey and her mom designed helped her and thousands of children, physically, emotionally and socially to receive the life giving gift of being able to strengthen their lung capacity by breathing mini-marshmellows through the tube, as a game, instead of one more therapy have to. To purchase one go to www.kelseyskids.org

Breathing fully and regularly is so crucial for everyone–from newborns to elders. The breath is literally under our nose, and yet, or maybe therefore, we don’t usually pay attention to this life giving sustenance. So when teaching yoga to children in hospitals, schools or at home, we use fun and playful techniques like “Bunny Breath”, “Dizzy’s Trumpet Breath” and “Peace Breath”.

Breathe in. Breath out. Blow out kisses and marshmellows. Enjoy this beautiful day.

19 years ago when I became pregnant with my daughter Dakota, I allowed my MD to scare me into eating fish. He, along with many books at that time, insisted I would not get enough protein for me and the baby, and would endanger my growing child. Out of fear, I continued to eat our scaly and clawed friends. So if you are pregnant and worried about a shortage of protein, don’t be.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) revealed that women who ate fish just twice a week had blood mercury concentrations that were seven times higher than those who don’t. It’s pretty amazing, BUT just one can of tuna per week is 30 percent over the EPA cutoff for safety levels. YIKES.

Plant foods like flax seeds and walnuts contain the EFA (Essential Fatty Acids) that we need without causing any harm.

Eat these protein sources (whole grains, beans, any nuts (preferably organic) - peanuts, cashews, almonds, macadamia can be used to make buttter and milk. Brown rice, a plethora of legumes, tofu, soy products, veggie burgers and pups can actually build stronger bones (2003 USDA study) than women who eat meat.

Did you know that…? There is no other species besides us humans, that would drink another species milk. Breastfeeding for babies is the best way.

A Harvard Medical School analysis study found that countries with low calcium intake (300mg a day) had a lower incidence and indication of osteoporosis that those of us in high calcium consumptive countries. What the bleep should we drink?

We all want our children (and ourselves) to be happy, healthy and wholesome.

I hope that you will continue to find tips on our blog to guide your children in their everyday lives to make positive choices in school and at home.

Instill in them an understanding of healthy choices in lifestyle and food, and do the same for yourself. Remember when we are stressed, our kids are stressed. As parents, we ARE our children’s first teachers, the ones that they will emulate and copy. So take care of yourself. Children model our behaviors. Give them role models that make you a star.

Teach them to take care of themselves, each other and our precious planet. Don’t litter. Always find a trash bin or have a small bag in your car for refuse. Did you know that if you throw an aluminum can into the trash instead of the recycling bin, it takes around another 80-100 years to decompose?

Isn’t that one more reason not to drink from cans or buy pop?

Did you know that carbonated, bubbly beverages can wreak havoc on our bodies’ systems. Their main three ingredients:

1. Phosphoric acid interferes with the absorption of calcium which is so important for nurturing our children’s bones and impedes digestion since it neutralizes the hydrochloric acid in the stomach.
2. Sugar increases the chances of high blood pressure and cholesterol, heart disease, diabetes and obesity.
3. Aspartame is known to have 92 detrimental side effects including brain tumors, diabetes, emotional disorders, epilepsy and autism.
4. Caffeine brings on the jitters and makes us all ’snap’ easier, as well as invokes insomnia, depletes the body of vitamins and minerals, and interferes with the body’s ability to use calcium, which can lead to osteoporosis and can soften the teeth and bones.

So, what’s a parent to do? DRINK WATER and ENCOURAGE YOUR CHILDREN TO DRINK WATER AS FREQUENTLY AS POSSIBLE.

Instill and install H₂O as their beverage of choice. Years ago when I took a son’s friend out to dinner and ordered water as our beverage for the table, Richie stunned me when he said, “I don’t like water. It tastes nasty”. I had never thought of water even having a taste. “How about some juice?”, I asked. “Nope. I only drink pop. It’s the only thing I like.”

Please be cautioned by canned and processed juices, which can contain many of the detriments of soda. Yet, fresh juices are life enhancing.

Fresh squeezed is best. Buy an electric juicer or the old fashioned, hand-held kind for orange, lemon or grapefruit juices. It you are lucky enough to have a juice bar in your neighborhood, take your children there instead of fast food junkie huts.

Let them see, smell and take part in where real food really comes from and how easy and fun it is to make it yourself. They’ll see their food with the living technicolors of the rainbow without artificial dyes and disease provoking colorings. Teach your children how to juice anything from strawberries to carrots, oranges to bananas to make delicious and nutritious juices, smoothies and truly healthy popsicles as summer surely approaches. Of course, they must be supervised when using any kind of appliances, but they will feel healthy and proud when they prepare their own.

Soda is one of the main reasons, nutritionally speaking, why many people suffer health problems. Aside from the negative effects of the soda itself, drinking a lot of soda is likely to leave you with little appetite for vegetables, protein and other food that you and your children need.