Easy Ways to Grow a Successful Kids Yoga Business

My Kids Yoga Playshop was rescheduled for Saturday June 1st and there are still a few spots open to come PLAY with us!

This is the fulfillment of a vision I created last year in my yoga teacher training to empower other kid’s yoga teachers so that all children can experience the benefits of yoga.  If you are a kids yoga teacher or educator in the NYC area, I hope you can join us for an afternoon of Creativity, Fun and Proven Ways to make your growing business a SUCCESS!

Here are the details:

Growing your Kid’s Yoga Business Organically™: A Playshop by Be Yoga Be Love

You have your yoga teacher certification and your kids yoga teacher training under your belt.  You know you want to teach kids yoga. You are ready to get out there and bring yoga into the lives of kids. Now what?

So many of us have a passion for bringing the joy of yoga to children, we know the benefits because we have experienced them ourselves and we want to give the gift of yoga to children.  You have the tools you need to be the best yoga teacher, but you know nothing about business, maybe the idea of running a business even scares you a little.  I can help because I’ve been there, done that and part of my mission is to empower other yoga teachers to grow their businesses so that children everywhere can benefit from yoga.

This “playshop” will give you all the tools you need to launch and grow your children’s yoga business.  You will learn to plant the seeds, nurture them and watch them grow naturally and organically into YOUR vision for a successful yoga business.  Some topics you will discover are Finding Your Yoga Niche, Targeting Potential Clients, Writing Winning Proposals, Setting Your Rates, Getting Organized, Reinvesting in Yourself and your Business.  I play yoga with kids all day long so while we will be learning some fundamentals about the business side of yoga, I call this a “playshop” because I believe that learning to grow your business can be fun too. We will be learning, making vision boards, coloring and creating all day!!

Saturday June 1, 2013, 1 to 5pm

Location: NYC

Please email me at beyogabelove@yahoo.com to reserve your spot or for more information.

 Who I Am: My Story

My name is Betty Larrea and I am a yogi writer and artist.  My purpose is to inspire people to love and express all that they are.  I know everything about growing a kids yoga business because I have done it from scratch twice over the past 13 years.  Back in 2001, I co-founded a children’s yoga business that provided enrichment programs and events to over 20 private and public schools, daycare centers and YMCAS throughout NYC and NJ.  With my expertise in writing winning proposals and grants, I knew what schools what looking for in a proposal and learned how to approach clients so that they would listen.  After 5 years, my business partner and I parted ways and I went back to corporate America, where I gained valuable experience in marketing and promoting a new business.  Then in 2011, I left my corporate job to pursue my passion for teaching and writing.  In less than two years, I now have a successful children’s yoga and education business.  I am currently teaching 16 kids yoga classes at several preschools and elementary schools and a few privates per week, as well as tutoring.  I now also have more time to devote to my writing projects, including a yoga picture book for children to be published this year.

Namaste Quote

Home

These words don’t come on command

the door unlocked with the turn of a key,

an open invitation to come inside 

this tangled web that is my mind

spinning stories that rewrite the past 

setting me free from these chains,

these self inflicted wounds 

that have left scars to remind me 

not to go where I am not welcome

I’ve tripped 

I’ve fallen

I’ve lost my way, 

gotten out of my way

and now

found my way back home

Copyright 2013 Betty Larrea

Everyone has Feelings

This week’s theme in my kids yoga classes was FEELINGS.

Emotions are part of being human and it is important that children develop emotional intelligence as part of their education. Yoga is such a wonderful vehicle to do that because it allows children to express their feelings through movement, breath, sound and stillness.

I used the book The Way I Feel by Janan Cain.  The book provides kids with an opportunity to explore the many different emotions they have from silly to happy to angry to jealous to frustrated to excited and more!

Yoga is a great way to release and soothe children’s emotions and enhance their mood.

We talked about how yoga and breathing can help soothe certain emotions like fear, anger and sadness, while doing yoga is a healthy outlet for other emotions like happiness and boredom.  The children learned some new poses like Chair pose, while practicing some of their favorites like Tree, Table and Turtle.  I added some fun exercises and lots of sharing time for the children to express their own feelings about times that they felt a certain emotion.

For SILLY, I asked everyone to make a silly face and then we did a Laughing Circle, where we each got a turn to laugh and everyone then copied our laugh.  They were all giggling and there is nothing better than the sound of children’s laughter.

For HAPPY, we did our Sun Salutations because children love it when the sun comes out, so they can go to the park or playground:

   

For ANGRY, we did Volcano Breath and I explained how breathing is a better, healthier way to release anger than yelling or hitting.

And for EXCITED, we did the Super Hero (Warrior) Pose, which they ALL got really excited about!!

    

 At the end of class, I told them there was one last feeling that we can experience at any time.  While other feelings come and go, there is one feeling that is always there…the PEACEFUL and CALM feeling inside.  We have been talking about the peace inside since the beginning of the year, so they could really relate to this.  For Savasana, I guided them through a visualization where they used their breath to send a calm feeling from the top of their head to their tiptoes. Then I played Kira Wiley’s Colors song which has relates many colors to the way you feel.  (I am gray today, gloomy and down like a morning fog. I am blue today, calm as glass and cool as the sea.)

  

Free Guided Visualization for Children

Some of my Yoga Girls in Savasana with their “Stuffies” after doing Stuffed Animal Yoga

Relaxation for Children

Like us, children need to unwind and just relax sometimes.  Even the youngest of children, like some of the preschoolers I teach, enjoy “quiet time”, where they can rest on the floor and find a peaceful place inside.  Elementary school age children appreciate some down time after a long day of sitting in class learning and before they go home to tackle their homework.  In my classes, we call Savasana (Corpse Pose), the DO NOTHING DOLL~ “Nothing to think, Nothing to Do, Doing Nothing is Good for You” (poem from Imaginazium Yoga Card Kit).

It has been proven by doctors, psychologists and educators that relaxation for children provides benefits for mental, physical and emotional health.  For more information about this, read this wonderful blog post Children Respond Beautifully from Meditation from Vanessa of Bringing Up Buddhas.  I can personally attest to this because one of kids favorite parts of my yoga classes is the Relaxation at the end.

Kids LOVE Quiet Time

After jumping like a FROG, barking in DOWNWARD DOG, slithering like a COBRA SNAKE, balancing in TREE and stretching in SUPER HERO (Warrior Pose), my kids usually ask me: “Is it time to lie down yet?”  There is nothing more rewarding than watching a group of little children who find it hard to sit still, lying on their backs with their eyes closed, tuning in to the sound of my voice.  I usually tell them a peaceful story and afterwards ease them back by having them curl into a ball in fetal position and then find their way into a comfortable seated lotus for NAMASTE.  When I look into their faces and see them sitting there blissed out in LOVE and PEACE, I know they they have connected with that deeper part of themselves that can be found when we are STILL inside.

There are many resources out there for Meditation Stories such as Carolyn Clarke’s Imaginations: Fun Relaxation and Meditation Stories for Kids of you can play some calm, soothing music depending on the your class theme or the mood of your children.   I love making up my own guided visualizations, as I read the energy in the room and let the words and imagery express what the children need in that moment.

Try this guided visualization before bedtime to calm and relax your child.  This can be read to children ages 2 to 12.

Close your eyes and begin to calm down your whole body.  We’re going on a little Nature Adventure using our imaginations…

Pretend that you are lying in field of pretty flowers and as you breathe in the fresh air, you can smell the grass and flowers all around you.  You can hear the sound of the wind and the birds flying and chirping in the sky.  And if you lie very, very still, you can even hear the sound of your own breath as it goes in and out.  

You look around and see colorful butterflies fluttering all about and tiny lady bugs crawling on the ground.  You open your arms out wide, as you feel the sunlight warming your whole body.  

You are surrounded by the wonders of Nature in all its beautiful colors.  The lush green trees, the bright blue sky, birds and bugs in all colors, and the bright yellow sun, which looks like a giant gumball of light.  As you look up at the puffy white clouds above, an amazing rainbow appears and you begin to climb up to the top where you can see the whole world below… all the people, animals, trees, ocean, mountains and everything in Nature. 

You feel so happy and are filled with peace inside to know that you are part of this big, beautiful world we live in.  You breathe in this happiness and let it wash over you like a gentle rain.  You slide down the other side of the rainbow and when you land back on the grass, you feel like you are floating on a cloud, your heart filled with such joy and love for everything and everyone.  

You can feel that you are loved by Nature and you let that love inside your heart, flowing like a river, as you share it with those around you.  Let yourself sink deeper into this peaceful place and know that you can always go here with your breath and your imagination…

(if this is during the school day, bring children back to full consciousness by having them wiggle their fingers and toes slowly and curling up into a little ball in Fetal Position, holding this quiet space for a moment longer before they sit up)

Pieces of You~ A Muse Monday Poem

Painting by Amany Isaac

Pieces of you

coming together

like an intricate puzzle,

waiting to be filled in,

you become fuller with every breath,

every moment,

capturing your essence,

feeling it flow through your veins,

like liquid life force

fueling your being,

unveiling the true you,

the you that inspires, creates,

feels with fierce intensity,

exposing yourself for all to see.

Poem Copyright 2004 by Betty E. Larrea

Yoga is Like Music Quote

Yoga and Imagination~ Perfect Together

Kids Yoga is part poses, part play and ALL IMAGINATION!

In today’s yoga classes, my theme was simply YOGA.  I have been teaching yoga to this particular group of preschoolers for over  a year and a half and they have come a long way from the first day I walked into their classroom.  It’s amazing to see their development  physically, mentally and emotionally.  These kids are always so enthusiastic about yoga that they are constantly asking to share the new poses they made up.  So today, I allowed them to lead the class in doing their very own original yoga poses!

What is YOGA?

We began the class with a discussion on what YOGA is.  I got some really amazing answers from the children about why we do yoga and what they like about yoga:

“It helps us be strong.”

“It’s exercise and makes us healthy.”  

“To practice.”

“You get to be whatever you want to be”

Then we went through the sequence of our yoga class.  When I asked why we started class with OMs their responses  were:

“We chant our OMs so we can get ready for yoga.”

“We say OM so we can be calm.”

Ready, Set, BREATHE

I then asked the children what came next in yoga class and they immediately called out “BREATHING”.  We talked about how important it is to breathe and how good it feels.  I asked what their favorite breathing exercise was, some liked Balloon (belly) Breathing and others liked Volcano, so we did both.

I can BE a Yoga Teacher!

I then turned the class over to the children and they each got a turn to teach their pose to the rest of the class.  It was amazing to see that they understood the concept that how each pose stretches a certain part of the body.  Some of the poses they made up were cheetah, fire truck, helicopter, and dinosaur while other children showed us new versions of their favorite poses, including tree, camel, and dog.  Letting them demonstrate the pose allowed them to learn leadership and you could tell how proud they were after we clapped our hands for our “teachers”.

Time to Relax

After our stretching, moving and trying out all hese creative new poses, the children were ready for Savasana.  I played Kira Willey’s Colors, which includes yoga poses in the many colors of the rainbow:

I am purple today, bright and happy like a butterfly in the air

I am yellow today, I shine my light out like the sun

I’m a rainbow today, all the colors of the world…are in me

The class was a huge success and it makes me so happy to see how much my kids have progressed in their yoga practice and to know that they really “get” how yoga helps them in their lives.

Reawaken- A Poem for the New You

Yoga Quote of the Week

Quote by Confidential Yoga