This year, I have begun yet another new expansion called Parents-Kids-Home Yoga. The genesis of this project came about when I decided to commission a very talented friend of mine from Hong Kong to draw a set of Beginners series of 10 yoga postures (yogasanas) for children last year. One thing led to another, this small project turned out to be a global platform for bringing Yoga to parents and children at the comfort of the home.
Through this platform, I hope to empower parents to start spending quality time with their children using Yoga as a platform for them to explore, to connect and also to bond at a deeper level. That is the main purpose of this project – Parents Kids Home Yoga. Basically the moment the parents are able to inspire their children into practicing yoga which is an independent intelligence, not only it awakens the muscle memory and bio memory in terms of awakening the body intelligence, it also works on many different systems of the body – physiology, psychology and neurology. So yoga is not just confined to the physical level of workout, it is a complete system by itself. When parents start working with children at this fundamental level, they will experience a new space – the space of yoga, that space is only accessible when they are able to bring the child into the space of purity and awareness.
How to create a sacred playground for your child in the Parents-kids Home Yoga?
There are a few important concepts in the Vedic tradition you need to grasp first before you create the sacred playground. First of all, there is an energy in each one of us that is constantly giving birth. That energy is responsible for what we see and experience, that energy is the source of life – it is called Divine Feminine Consciousness. It is not so much about gender because in each of us we carry both energies – masculine energy and feminine energy. So it has nothing to do with gender, it is about the inner quality. Now, your ability to create the space or hold the space of possibility for your child is determined by your ability to be established in the Divine Feminine Consciousness. The Divine Feminine Consciousness is the Cosmic Mother energy, the energy which is healing, the energy which is responsible for creation, creativity, possibility, expansion. In the Divine Feminine Consciousness, you see only the possibility in your child’s eyes, the huge possibility and you will be to hold the space of possibilities for them to explore about life, about themselves.
How to go about establishing yourself in the Divine Feminine Consciousness?
First of all, you need to drop all the logical thinking that you have and establish yourself in only receptivity, passivity and an ability to go beyond logic, meaning establish essentially in the heart rather the mind. Your ability to be centered in your being – relating with your child as who she or he is, gives you that ability to relate with them as they are. So there is no expectation or conditioning from the past, only the pure space of unconditional love. Being in the pure space of the Cosmic Mother who is nurturing and providing the most possible space for the child to play, to explore, to discover about themselves.
Second concept is the Space of a Child. Children relate with space not so much about verbalization or words. So your ability to create a beautiful space for them to experience yoga is important in terms of your ability to engage them in the Space of Yoga. When a child is born, they are established in the pure awareness and deep listening where there is no thought. If you are able to relate with a child in the space of a child, communication and communion happen, in that space you become a child as well. The key to enter into the space of a child is authentic listening.What do I meant by authentic listening? It means listening without any judgment, thinking from the past, you basically just listen what the child has to share or impart to you, and there is no question what you expect, what you think from your past or conditioning. In the space of a child, you will really see the huge possibility, the huge expansion that you can provide for the child. They are in the most innocent, creative and energetic because it is the space of their original state of being. So your ability to bring them to the space of a child again and again gives them the confidence to develop, discover and also to explore about life.
Finally, the third concept is the Space of Yoga. The Space of Yoga requires all of us to be established in the NOW, not the past or future. Our mind constantly oscillates between the past and future, which keeps us away from the present. So it is very important that, as a parent, you need to bring the child back to the NOW – the present moment. Only when all of you are established in the NOW – present moment, you can even actually give the instruction of yoga. In Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra, he said that ‘NOW starts the instructions of Yoga’ in his first Sutra (verse). Before you start yoga, you should spend some time to center your child to the space of NOW, the present moment.
Fundamentally when these 3 put together, the confluence of these 3 – Divine Feminine Consciousness, the Space of Child and the Space of Yoga – come together, it becomes the sacred playground for the Parents-kids Home Yoga to happen. That starts the whole fun of possibilities for you to explore with your child. Namaste. 😀
Click here to learn more about this project – http://bit.ly/PKHYoga-SPA