Building a Bridge of Diamonds: Toward a More Peaceful Future for Children

Marsha Wenig

Imagine life as an opportunity to build bridges. As you experience all the ups and downs, each new connection and learning brings you closer to your authentic self and enables you to inspire others to do the same. I take on this role of bridge builder with joy as both a parent and a teacher. My vision is to connect children to the love in their hearts, to a passion for learning, to the earth, to each other and to a collaborative, cohesive consciousness of the universe.

Imagine a more peaceful vision of the future…. Uni means one. Verse means song. Can we sing one song with many voices? I believe the answer is YES.

My family and I have crossed many bridges—some with fear and trepidation, others skipping and dancing. “It´s amazing what you can and will survive in a lifetime,’ my mom, a Holocaust survivor, always said. She knew and now I understand.

My pathway over the past 22 years has been yoga. Through teaching, I have had glimpses of equality and inequity. At the ripe age of 30, I decided to make it my life´s passion.

My labor of love, YogaKids International, Inc., grew from our family´s rec room to the local Montessori and is now in 23 countries, 32 states and has delighted millions of children as their bodies grow stronger, their minds more creative, their joy soars and their confidence is engaged.

To spread this message to children, parents, and educators we have started The YogaKids Bridge of Diamonds Foundation, Inc. Our mission is to fund and facilitate programs that connect children, schools and communities in need to the many benefits yoga has already brought to our children. The Bridge of Diamonds extends the work of YogaKids.

By empowering children through yoga, Bridge of Diamonds endeavors to foster the development of a world community that nurtures understanding, cooperation and tolerance. Because making the world a safer and more peaceful place can only start within each of us, we believe yoga and Bridge of Diamonds can link children, families, schools and communities to a more positive future. The children themselves can influence and inspire behavior changes that can improve relationships at home, in school and in their own neighborhoods.

In this early phase of the development of Bridge of Diamonds, we are preparing to deliver a comprehensive teaching solution called YogaKids Tools for Schools to children in inner city neighborhoods. Our YogaKids Tools offers a range of benefits and a “whole child’ approach that helps children improve focus and fitness levels, have fun learning and feel good.

YogaKids Tools for Schools is being piloted in a number of schools in New York City, Atlanta and Toronto.

As we move forward, we will develop and deliver additional programs designed to reach out to children in need, as well as strengthen and restore disadvantaged communities and neighborhoods. Our long term plans include:
Stress relief to children and families in disaster relief areas.

Yoga programs targeted to pre-teens and teens at risk.

A summer camp that brings children from around the globe together to connect and grow as one.

Our identity bears the name of a yoga pose developed when I first began to practice with my children. We would close our eyes and hold hands in the diamond pose as we imagined reaching out and touching the hands of children around the world. When we linked hands and raised our arms overhead, we formed a beautiful bridge of diamonds. One that I believe can lead each one – and all of us – to a place of greater peace and harmony.

Below is an image of the Bridge of Diamonds with instructions. Practice this movement with the children in your life and be a part of the solution to build this bridge of visionary leadership.

Sit in a kneeling position on your heels or cross legged position. Inhale as you raise your upper body, reach out your arms and imagine joining hands with children across the globe to form a bridge of diamonds. Together our love and light will shine in peace.

(Marsha Wenig is the founder of YogaKids International, Inc., the leading provider of yoga education, fitness products and programs for children. For more information about The YogaKids Bridge of Diamonds Foundation or to make a charitable donation to this not for profit organization, please contact: Diane Burstein, executive director, at diane@yogakids.com or visit www.yogakids.com. Reach Marsha at marsha@yogakids.com

(“Bridge of Diamonds’ is a trademark of the YogaKids Bridge of Diamonds Foundation, Inc.)

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