Happy Apple Yoga

Today was our first Yoga for Exceptional Parents of Exceptional Kids class of the 2014/2015 series at WIAIH.

We worked with apples to explore the idea of presence and mindfulness. We then spent some time scanning our bodies for relaxation and identifying moments of Happy. Using our senses to deepen our connection in the moment helps us return to a Happy Pause or Moment in times when we feel out of balance or unhappy. We worked with breath to guide our stretches and finished with Warrior 1.

I am so grateful to have this opportunity to develop my skills as a teacher and to share this path with fellow parents.

I truly believe that my yoga practice is about all the day to day moments when I can recognize when I am out of balance and then holding onto my intention, chose mindfully to show up with compassion, for myself and for others. Each moment, each juncture, each interaction is an opportunity to practice yoga.

Amidst all the other things I really am still good in all directions.

Projet Rad & Melissa Emblin AMAZING!!!

http://www.projetrad.com

https://m.facebook.com/ProjetRAD?v=timeline&filter=2

Melissa Emblin and her team from Projet Rad have launched their Fall sessions. She is wonderful and this a place where children laugh and use their bodies to move through space and learn a few moves. No matter where you come from they build a common language for all the children to connect. Dance your way to any of the classes she offers, but she is personally teaching our son’s Sat class.

Joy and Play

I was sent a link to these images earlier this summer and wanted to share them because they express what I hope for my son, for myself, for my love, for all of us… I can’t help but feel that if we could all tap into this pure joy, presence and spontaneity the world has to be a better place… I am attaching a few of the comments that I received when I forwarded the email…

I hope we all remember to play and let the children around us play, whatever play looks like for them…

“Beautiful my friend” – LH

“One of the best emails ever!” – CH

“Thanks Alicen” -LL

“Many thanks for these beautiful, very sweet photos.” -LG

“Magical indeed!  Thanks for sharing.” -FJ

“…this is so true…” -EW

“These pictures are absolutely beautiful! I might print some of them for myself. How lovely childhood is!!” – SL

“Absolutely beautiful photos, thanks for sharing! ” -AM

“Gorgeous photos!  The one of the skating girls in Estonia reminds me why I love winter so much – the photo captures my skating on the backyard rink w my sisters!” – Krista Leitham

“Thanks Alicen, these are SO beautiful. Touching to see how many ways children can find to connect with the world and have fun!” – LH

http://themindunleashed.org/2014/07/30-magical-photos-children-playing-around-world.html

30 Magical Photos Of Children Playing Around The World

No matter their cultural background, no matter their economic situation, kids will always find imaginative ways to have fun. Their wild imaginations and magical childhood moments, when captured on camera by talented photographers, can make for truly wonderful photos. These 33 images we collected will prove that childhood can be wonderful no matter where you go.

Many in the Western world fear that technology is making today’s children lose touch with nature and with their own creativity, and while there are arguments to be made for the intellectual stimulation that apps and programs for children can bring, there’s also something to be said for simply playing with a stick in the mud or chasing dandelion seeds though an open meadow.

For better or worse, the children in these photos seem entirely content making their own fun. For us adults, it’s important not to let our world-weary and jaded experience stifle our childish hopefulness and imagination!

Indonesia

Image credits: Ipoenk Graphic

Image credits: Agoes Antara

Image credits: I Gede Lila Kantiana

Image credits: Gede Lila Kantiana

Russia

Image credits: Светлана Квашина

Image credits: Elena Shumilova

Burkina Faso

Image credits: Òscar Tardío

Myanmar

Image credits: Chan Kwok Hung

Tajikistan

Image credits: Damon Lynch

India

Image credits: Sandee Pachetan

Image Credits: Sudharsan Ravikumar

Image credits: Mukund Images

Vietnam

Image Credits: HT KëñShï

Ghana

Image credits: Terry White

Estonia

Image credits: Elika Hunt

Thailand

Image credits: Sarawut Intarob

Image credits: Sarawut Intarob

Image credits: Sarawut Intarob

South Africa

Image credits: Muhammed Muheisen

Source: tinosoriano.com

Peru

Image credits: Enrique Castro-Mendivil

Ethiopia

Image credits: Csilla Zelko

Italy

Image credits: Michael Potyomin

Israel

Image credits: Dima Vazinovich

USA

Image credits: Jake Olson

Indonesia #2

Image credits: Rio Rinaldi Rachmatullah

Image credits: James Khoo

Image credits: Hendrik Priyanto

Image Credits: Mio Cade

Uganda

Image credits: John Van Den Hende

Romania

Image credits: Elena Simona Craciun

Russia

Image credits: Elena Shumilova

“All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once you grow up.” -Pablo Picasso

Credits: Bored Panda

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Poem for Our Children

I have started a collective poem recently hoping that it might help other people have a small window into what it may be like to experience the world as a child or a person with neurological differences. I cannot understand but I can try… this is only what I imagine it may feel like… I hope that others add to this, their experiences with their child or for themselves. When I watch my son move through the world and see the look of confusion and sadness on his face when he understands he is missing something… a nuance of a social situation, when he sees the look of frustration on my face or on the faces of the adults around him my heart breaks a million times over… wanting for him to feel connected, to understand… longing for others to take a moment to want to reach across the divide and understand with patience and compassion what is happening for him.

I invite anyone who would like to add to this, add lines to the poem, moments of reaching across the divide…

Can You See Me … Hear Me … Listen To Me … Understand Me?

Salt shaker lid falls off in the sauce… eat it anyway…

Perfume isle at the department store…

New plaid wool shirt…

Cheap new sheets…

Burnt popcorn…

TV section of an appliance store on a Saturday full of customers, all TVs on full blast…

Your child calling your name while you are on the phone…

Rubber cement on your hands…

Moments after a new haircut on the back of your neck…

Sunset in June in the woods without bug repellant…

One mosquito in your tent… at night… all night long….

Someone brings you coffee and adds or leaves out the sugar/ cream…drink it anyway…

Eat a food you dislike most in the world…

Spend 6-7 hours a day in a language immersion program… the cashier at the drive through misunderstands your order and is annoyed with you…

At a party where you know no one and everyone speaks a different language…

You wake up relieved you were just having a dream and then crash into the memory that this may be a small glimpse your child’s world…

Alicen Willis, 7 y.o. son, ASD

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 A Wild Child

Burst of energy into the room

Sparks of excitement flying from my eyes

Playful banter

“I ‘m here!”

“See my pose!”

“La la la, I’m singing now.”

“Do you see me?”

“Are you there for me?”

“It’s too noisy!”

“Stop talking!”

Emotions boiling over

Like a pot of pasta on the stove

Loud, sticky, messy

Decrease the heat

Take me to a calm, quiet place

And hold me

Sing to me

Until all is calm inside me again

Joanne Giacomini, 7 Year old son, ASD

***************************************************************************************************************************

I want to be me

I got to move

I got to stand

Why do i have to sit

I got to move

I got to stand

so I can be

So i can learn

So i can eat

Why do i have to sit

I want to be me

Lise, mother of 2 dyslexic ADHD great kids 23 and 10 y. o.

friend, wife, president, employer, coach, desperate for support

*************************************************************************************************************************

Shadows, shadows on the wall

I love you all, big and small

Doors, doors they open and shut

To me, they look like little huts

Poles, poles tall and short

I wish I can hide them in a fort

Numbers, letters I love them all

I just want to be loved and never fall

Naureen, mother of a 3 year old with ASD

Rock Climbing for Fat Girls…

Last year I did what I had told myself for many years what I kept telling myself wasn’t supposed to be done… I certified as a Yoga teacher and I am still fat… the usual messages kept repeating in my head and I stayed in my self made boxes of Gerunds. All the -oulds… could, should, would… the types of words that keep us down and closed. I broke though and stepped up to what I can, shall, and will do… I took the road less traveled and what a difference it has made.

Today, I am going with my family to step up and break out of another self made box. Before I had cancer 15 years ago I LOVED rock & ice climbing. Before I lost confidence in my body and had an immutable belief that if I wanted to do something I just did it. No second thoughts. I remember running long distances and stopping because I got bored, never because I was spent physically.  Recently, I have gone back to running. I don’t allow myself to pull my shirt down to cover my belly wondering who may be looking, no oversized men’s t-shirts that look more like a dress. I show up in my tight red t-shirt and magenta running bra and lime green sneakers and am pleased with myself no matter how long it has taken me to do a 5K.

I tried on my old harness this morning, just to see what would happen, of course I couldn’t even get the leg loops on with the straps fully expanded. Oh well, it is too old to use anyway. The shoes are a bit tight, post-childbearing spread and all. So I went on line to find a harness. See if, like yoga clothes, anyone even caters to my size. Of course I have had no luck but I WILL find a solution because size discrimination will not keep in the box. When I was in the middle of my cancer treatments I said to myself, when I climb and run again I will be recovered. This past summer, I went climbing with my family. The guide took us to a spot with a variety of routes, mostly beginner with a few moderate choices. When it was my turn the guide tried to coach me to the easiest routes, I knew the difference. I choose the hardest path up, the cracks and smallest holds and mere bumps to smear my feet onto. Finally he stopped trying to give me the easiest solutions and left me alone. I was happy to bust through his assumptions and my long-held inner messages. I cried with joy the whole way up, proud in knowing that climbing at my size outweighs (haha) the ratings. I remember hiking with groups as an Outward Bound instructor and I weighed my pack, and I now knew that was the amount of weight I carry on my body everyday. I told myself while climbing… imagine what I would have thought about climbing with a 70lb backpack on…

Today when I certify as a belayer it will be another step on the path that celebrates the body that survived cancer, that gave birth even when the doctors didn’t think it would be possible, that feels the wind in my hair as I run. No small detail like finding a harness that fits will keep me locked down and sealed in a small box of my own creation. Yay for me!

Being Present for Our Joy

http://http://www.karmatube.org/videos.php?id=5067

I really love this website and have signed up to receive their posts each day. I enjoy everything they have sent me. Here is a repost from today.

 

 

Despair, Gratitude, Joy & Peace

It’s been a few weeks since the last post and our last class this Spring with Yoga for Exceptional Parents of Exceptional Kids. What an amazing experience it has been. I am filled with so many emotions these days. Despair for finding a place where our son can thrive and laugh again. Gratitude for the amazing parents and artists and professionals I have had the chance to meet this past year, who dare to listen and hope. Joy for sharing my journey to become a yoga teacher. Peace when I allow myself to be present and listen to my heart.

Our last class in June was a brilliant shining day, we were able to spread out our mats at the park and practice in the sunshine. The sounds around us of children laughing and splashing at a nearby pool, the construction vehicles working, the wind in the trees and the birds singing offered the music for our meditation. It was such a pleasure to practice together. We were able to make our own Mala bracelets with gorgeous beads generously offered by Susan Lumiere of Himalaya Lotus Light in Montreal. We each set in our own intentions and prayers. Franca Kesic, at WIAIH,  has been an amazing supporter of my need to share what I have learned as a yoga teacher, I thank her from the bottom of my heart. I am also so grateful to all the parents I have met at WIAIH, they offer such compassion and wisdom. We truly are all teachers for each other.

Now we are planning Mom’s Camp. Yay for us!!! a whole weekend to sleep and swim and receive massages and remember who we are, reconnect with our inner balance.

 

 

 

Voice and Spirit Readings

Voice

Be like the bird, who, pausing in her flight …, 

on boughs too slight, feels them give way beneath her, 

and yet sings, knowing she hath wings.

– Victor Hugo

Spirit

“It is only when we silent the blaring sounds of our daily existence that we can finally hear the whispers of truth that life reveals to us, as it stands knocking on the doorsteps of our hearts.  ~K.T. Jong

 

“Listen to yourself and in that quietude you may hear God

 -Maya Angelou

 

“What if our religion was each other,

If our practice was our life,

If prayer, our words

What if the temple was the Earth

If forests were our church

If holy water—the rivers, lakes, and ocean

What if meditation was our relationships

If the teacher was life

If wisdom was self-knowledge

If love was the center of our being.” ~ Ganga White

 

 

 

 

Last Words from Maya Angelou and Listening

Recently another mom from the yoga group shared with me some of the last words from Maya Angelou…

“Listen to yourself and in that quietude you might hear the voice of God.”

 

CTV Story on Cost of Autism in Quebec

CTV Story on Cost of Autism in Quebec

Don’t we know this story only too well. Now what to do?… Anyone know how to reach Lucie Charlebois, or know which committee she is speaking of  “waiting to hear the recommendations”?