A life changing elective

There’s a new movement spreading throughout our schools in the Maritimes. It is being taught by teachers and brought to life by our students. It is Yoga in Schools.

 

What began as a final project by Breathing Space graduate and innovative High School teacher Karen Berezowski, is now changing lives of young people across Canada. 

 

Although I had two very young children to tend to, I knew this yoga seedling in our schools had the potential to help many children experience peace. Over the next five years, I wrote six school yoga programs and have since trained over 200 schoolteachers to implement this wisdom tradition into their communities.

 

What’s most exciting about this movement is both the role that I see teachers playing and the awakening that’s unfolding in our children’s lives. As I visit schools in the three provinces that are teaching Yoga in Schools, I notice how completely the teachers are embodying the practice and becoming Guru’s in their own way (one who sheds light on darkness). 

 

I am particularly moved by the feedback we’ve received by the students. These are two comments from Yoga 11 graduates, taught by John Howe in NB:

 

“People think that yoga is just stretching but it is so much more, it’s a life style and a guide to be a better person.  No other class has taught me more about myself than yoga.”

 

“Yoga isn’t just a key that opens new doors in your life, but a teacher that helps you open up to yourself.”

 

And finally, we recently we received the following touching message from Yoga Teacher Jeff MacKinnon in Truro:

 

Dear Mr. Mackinnon,

 

“You probably get these all the time, but I wanted to thank you, really thank you. I took your yoga class by accident, a student services mistake, but I don’t believe it really was an accident now. Before I set foot in your class I was wallowing in self pity and hatred, blaming those who had hurt me and taken away my happiness… 

 

I had planned to kill myself after school and I believed had every reason to, until you showed us those four agreements, one in particular, ‘Don’t take things personally’ and something just clicked. At that moment I came to the realization that I had been wasting my life, not living it, clinging to hurtful words, holding a hot coal in my hand with the intent to throw it, but only burning myself. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to look at life through new eyes. I would trade all my years in school for what I learned in your class: how to feel empathy, forgiveness and find inner peace. All my gratitude.”

 

Our children are clearly learning how to step into the light through yoga.

 

For more exciting news and upcoming events, visit www.YogainSchools.ca

 

Jenny