Remembering My Papa: Beginner's Yoga Positions and Kid's Meditations Take Patience!
By Robin Ohara
I remember when my Papa came home all excited because he had started taking yoga classes.
He had a thin book of yoga positions for beginners, and we went outside to practice.
One of the positions was called the boat pose, but beginners and children were "allowed" to bend their knees.
We just sat on the ground and brought our legs straight out in front of us at a 45 degree angle. Being a kid, I couldn't hold it for long at all, and began to get bored with the whole project, but Papa stuck with it and became really good at holding the poses for long periods of time. There was no Internet back then (!) but we went to the library and got books on yoga, (some had poses for kids) and he took me to his classes once in awhile.
Part of yoga is meditation, and even though I couldn't hold still for any length of time, he showed me some kid's meditation techniques. One was really easy, and I still try to do it once in awhile today.
Sit with your eyes facing a door or wall with grained wood. If you don't have one, get a piece of wood from a lumber yard. Make sure the board is wide enough that when you focus on the center, wood is all you see. Now relax and count from one to ten as you breathe in and out. Like so-
Inhale slowly through you mouth(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc to ten) exhale slowly through your nose (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc) keep your eyes open and focus on the wood grain. It's not easy at first. Your mind will wander and you'll start thinking, so the counting helps put your busy brain to rest.
Papa went on to get his yoga certification and taught night time community classes at Portland State University during the winter months. I never did get any further along than "yoga positions for beginners", but occasionally I will try to hold one for a minute, and when I do I laugh remembering him practicing patience as he taught me.
Some memories, last forever.
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