As I mentioned in my bio, when I first started practicing yoga I would set myself up next to a wall for fear of falling over. I was relearning how to walk and turn my head at the same time (something I have never taken for granted again!) and I snickered at my doctor when he told me to try yoga- I wondered, I can’t even walk, how would I balance in yoga class?
What I learned during that first class is that yoga is about balance – but not the “balance” I initially thought. Yoga isn’t proving my strength in my body by standing on one leg, or on my hands – it’s challenging my mental strength – and balancing my energy – putting forth both effort (sthira) and ease (sukha) in a way that makes me feel at peace and proud.
The balance poses I frequently practice and teach (many of them found in this balance article here ) – help me find sthira & sukha – I practice falling out, getting back up and trying again. I teach, “When we fall (and we will!), we brush ourselves off and come back stronger. We learn something every time and we change the way we do things and our reaction.”
One of the props I’ve used this past year in my preschool and elementary classes when I theme my class around balance are these balance birds. The possibilities with these small toys are endless. We typically start off with a discussion about what it means to balance (both on and off our yoga mat) and we practice balancing the birds on our fingers, noses, chins, toes. Then we will move on to practicing yoga poses and balancing the birds at the same time on various body parts. We usually end with a yoga challenge – with the students brainstorming a new pose and balancing the bird (or birds!) on their body and trying to hold the pose longer than their peers.
The best part about using these birds is that they give a playful approach to a challenging topic. Some of my students become easily frustrated when they can’t hold a pose as long as they would like but when I introduce it as a game and they can try, try and try again, we start laughing at the silly poses we try and hold and how the bird falls. Usually, class ends with all of the students proud of their efforts and the fact they they were able to hold the pose one or two breaths longer than when they began. And I can emphasize why it’s important to practice – our brain and bodies get better when we do! That’s why we call it a yoga practice 😉
I also love talking about balancing and using these birds in January – when we discuss beginning again and growth. Read more about it here.
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