Pose of the Month: Airplane

Start the Airplane post by standing. Find a focus point on the floor to look at and use to help you in keeping balanced.

Open the arms out to the sides and slowly fold the body forward, at the same time lifting one leg up into the air.

Palms should face the floor and the toes of the lifted leg point toward the floor. Try to keep the neck aligned with the spine. Your aiming for a straight line from head to heel of the lifted leg. Keep looking at your focus point, breathe and hold for 20-30 seconds. Then switch legs.

When you practice see if you can build on the length of time you hold the leg in the air.

Five Tips: Trust For Kids

Trust means to place faith or confidence in yourself, another person, or a situation.

Trust is something that we share with important people in our lives. You trust your mom and dad because they are your parents and you know they want what is best for you.

You also trust that your teacher will help you learn everything you need to know before you go to the next grade in school. You trust that your doctor will make you feel better when you feel sick.

But perhaps the most important person to trust is you! If you have a test in school that you studied for, trust that you will do well. If you have to speak in front of your whole class, don't be nervous, trust yourself; you can do it! When you trust yourself, other people will trust you and you will trust them too!

Here are a few ways you can practice and build trust:
1. Be nice and helpful to other people
2. Be yourself! People will trust you more if you are true to yourself and not changing to fit in with others.
3. Be honest. Trust will build between you and others if you are honest to each other and do not lie.
4. Treat others the way you want to be treated.
5. Stick to your word. If you say you are going to do something, do it.

Trust We Must

This month's topic is TRUST. It feels appropriate with everything that is happening in this great nation of ours that we consider the concept of trust.

Whether it is trusting that our new president can make good on his promises, that the economy will get better (eventually), that our own finances will make it through, and/or trusting that we can stop and hopefully reverse global warming. From big issues like these to small everyday experiences, life gives us opportunities to practice trust.

In the practice of yoga, trust is important. You have to trust that your body can do the pose, and in some cases trust that you can hold and relax into the pose for the length of time you're being instructed. Balance poses and inversions provide opportunities for building trust both in body and mind. Inversions are shoulder stands and hand stands poses where you basically put the body upside down.

Why trust? Because trust helps build relationships within ourselves and with others. When we are able to place faith in ourselves or others we are able to live harmoniously, accomplish tasks, set big goals, and allow others to support us along the way. This quote by author Foster C. Mcclellan speaks to this very point:

Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement. -- Foster C. Mcclellan

I find for myself that trust and gratitude work hand in hand. When I allow myself to trust, especially when I am anxious about an outcome, I notice that shortly after the outcome has come to fruition I am filled with gratitude.

Perhaps as Thanksgiving approaches we can practice trust in knowing our families will get along, that meal plans will work out just fine, and that in the end there will be much to be grateful for.