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?