Wednesdays were dedicated to yet another research-based practice for affecting positive change: exercise. Like the other wellbeing activities, the exercises took 1-3 minutes only, serving to focus the class and transition into our classwork. For each exercise, I would explain the benefits, give concise direction, and demonstrate before students try. I think these days were the most fun for students, although they could also be the most likely to cause initial social awkwardness. Because of this, I started slowly, with very basic poses, incorporating breath to reinforce mindfulness while setting the foundation for a safe classroom community.
I began the year, in fact the very first day of class, teaching students something they think they know how to do: how to stand. In yoga, the pose is called tadasana, or mountain pose. This pose is important for several reasons: it benefits posture and teaches students the correct way to stand, building important structural supports. Plus, mountain pose is the foundation or starting point for nearly every other pose or exercise I taught. I have made a few videos of the most common and simple poses to use with students.
Ideally, you will have practiced the pose on your own well before attempting with students; like all exercise, there are precautions and instructions that need to be conveyed to prevent injury.
Many of the exercises I used on Wellness Wednesdays were simple yoga poses or stretches, including side, arm, neck, and quadricep stretches, or seated cat-cow. Over time and as the comfort level in the class grew, I incorporated some of the more complicated poses or movements that called for balance or strength, including tree, chair, dancer and eagle poses. But perhaps the most fun were the silier poses: lion pose, breath of joy, and primal screams.
I learned breath of joy in an online class taught by David Procyshyn (founder of doyogawithme.com, a wonderful free resource!), and it is one of the most uplifting and energizing poses I’ve ever tried. Another fun exercise is lion’s breath, which I sometimes incorporated with cat-cow stretches.
Finally, on occasion we would go for a brief walk and practice walking meditation: silently walking, focusing on counting our steps, on the sound of our steps, or on our breath as we walked. This was perhaps one of the most difficult exercises, mostly because we are naturally social creatures and silence was difficult to maintain — particularly when other people outside of the classroom would say hello or ask us what we were doing!
If you would like additional videos or instructions, please comment below or send me an email via the “contact me” page.
