Brave Bear (Yoga Tots)
by Tessa Strickland
Yoga Tots: Happy Tiger
by Tessa Strickland, Estelí Meza
Children in the illustrations follow the movements of a polar bear and tiger cub to do calming yoga poses. They reach and stretch and slowly breathe in and out.
The illustrations are really cute with bright colors! The text does a good job of explaining the poses, and the artwork clearly shows what movements you are supposed to make in each pose.
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Yoga Adventure!
by Jamaica Stevens, Roco Alejandro (Illustrations), Jamaroo Kids (Performance)
Children go on a journey around the world, visiting different animals and doing yoga poses in exotic locations. First we do a plane pose to travel to a new continent. Then we do a warrior pose with bison, and bicycle to a new place where we meet chinchilla doing happy baby pose. We stretch like grey wolves, pandas, frogs, and koalas. We sail the seven seas and hop on board a train.
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Pretzels de Yoga: 50 Actividades de Yoga Para Chicos Y Adultos
by Tara Guber, Leah Kalish, Sophie Fatus (Illustrations)
Este conjunto de tarjetas de yoga incluye posturas y meditaciones para niños con instrucciones claras. Hay tarjetas para ejercicios de respiración, posturas de equilibrio, flexiones hacia adelante, flexiones hacia atrás, giros y posturas de pie. ¡Incluso hay tarjetas para posturas de yoga con un compañero, y hay juegos que puedes jugar! Estas tarjetas te ayudarán a ser creativo con tu práctica de yoga y a mantenerte seguro mientras pruebas las diferentes posturas con una buena alineación.
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The writing is beautifully encouraging and gentle. I love how the author softly draws us into a quiet place of reflection.
This book is divided into four chapters entitled “Find Inner Peace, Focus Your Mind, Overcome Obstacles, Foster Gratitude and Spread Joy.” Then each chapter is divided into sections for each meditation, journaling pages, and intention setting. There is plenty of room for journaling and writing in your thoughts. Continue reading
Most of the meditation prompts and guidance in this book are innocent reminders to release stress, focus on what is important, believe in yourself, and allow yourself to relax. But sometimes there will be a weird one that made me wonder about the underlying philosophy that is being taught in this book. It is very focused on self, and talks about an “Eternal Consciousness”. There is an entire chapter about interpreting your dreams that sounded completely idiotic to me.
There is a lot of talk about “creating your own reality” and other strange ideas. (Reality is reality. You can change your perception of it or how you think about it, but what is real is real. You don’t create it. It just is.) While reading, I would just try to enjoy the normal meditations and mindfulness prompts, and skip over the weird ones.
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There are breathing exercises to try, with clear instructions and a list of benefits. There are exercises for an energizing breath, or for a calming breath. Some of my favorites are included like Alternate Nostril Breathing, Buzzing Bee Breath, and Ocean (Ujayi) Breath. There are breathing techniques for mental clarity, stress relief, and for better sleep through calming and cooling breathing. Continue reading
For example, in bridge pose you can imagine that a river is flowing underneath you and your legs and arms are the bridge across the water. Children can pretend to be a snake, a dog, a mountain, a butterfly, a dancer, a tree, a plane, a pretzel, a boat, a warrior, and a dragon! All of these correspond with the traditional yoga pose, and add an element of fun and awareness to the practice of yoga.
The text is told in rhyme and beautifully written!
I really love that each pose comes with instructions for modifications and variations, so that the yogi can choose what feels best to them in the moment. There are also warnings for poses that could affect old injuries, or would not be appropriate for the elderly or for pregnant women, so that the reader can practice poses safely.
Each pose has clear instructions with options to use props like a bolster, blanket, yoga strap, or pillow. You can make the pose deeper if you are ready for more of a stretch, or you can make the pose easier if you want less pressure or intensity.
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As a professional pianist, I didn’t quite find what I expected in this book. I thought it would be a book about USING music as a way to meditate, but this is mostly about how music practice and meditation practice share the same techniques and characteristics. I guess I was looking for advice about meditating WHILE playing an instrument or listening to music, but the author advises meditating in complete silence.
The writing is clear and interesting, but verbose and repetitive. The writing style is beautifully lyrical, but quickly becomes tedious as each paragraph is overloaded with words.
Luminous Libro 