On the Bhakti Trail - Seva Edition, November '09

Namaste Friends,

Welcome to the 10th edition of "On The Bhakti Trail - SEVA Edition."

Please enjoy this month’s theme – Yoga for Young People!

David’s Upcoming Touring Schedule

David and Mira are currently enjoying their Japan Tour. They arrive back in Los Angeles on November 9th and will be offering events in Santa Barbara on November 13th and Los Angeles on November 14th & 15th.

In the first half of December please join David, Mira and Band in NYC at the Integral Yoga Institute on December 12th and in Philadelphia at Yoga On Main on December 19th & 20th.

To see more details please visit the events page at: www.davidnewmanmusic.com

New CD Recording

During the second half of November, David will record his next CD with Grammy award winning producer, Trina Shoemaker. They will record in Woodstock, NY at Dreamland Studio with many amazing musicians including Mira, Philippo Franchini, Jerry Marotta, Jordan Jancz, Rama Bala, John Mcdowell, Steve Gorn, Benjy Wertheimer, Wynne Paris among others! Look for the new release in May 2010 on Nutone Music.

Kirtan College in February

The 3rd annual Kirtan College with David and Mira will be held at Kashi Ashram in Sebastian, Florida, February 21st to 28th, 2010.

This is an exciting training program for those looking to gain the understanding, confidence, and tools to develop a regular chanting practice, utilize the healing application of chanting in daily life and cultivate the musical skills to accompany, compose and lead Kirtan in a group.

For more details visit: http://www.davidnewmanmusic.com/start/kirtancollege.html

Yoga for Young People

“THEY ARE OUR EVOLUTION
THEY ARE THE TEACHERS
THEY REMIND ME TO SLOW DOWN AND BREATHE
THEY SHOW ME MYSELF
THEY TEACH ME PATIENCE
THEY ARE LOVE
THEY ARE UNREPEATABLE MIRACLES (every one of them)
THEY ARE MAGIC”

Cheri Rae

Please share this newsletter with friends and family!

YOGA MONTH

http://tinyurl.com/yogamonthkids
Donate $ 25 or more to receive a Yoga Mind Body Fitness DVD for Children ... and the Yoga Health Foundation will match your donation and send a complementary DVD to a school or teacher of your choice. Your donation will enable us to bring Yoga-based Mind Body Fitness programs to schools for FREE, reaching thousands of children and inspire them to live a healthy lifestyle.

Articles

Yoga Journal - When presented in a child's language, yoga can help counter the stress experienced by young people living in a hurry-up world.
http://www.yogajournal.com/lifestyle/210

Yoga for Kids; Let the Body Breathe, By Mira Binzen
A ‘How To’ article on teaching kids Pranayama.
http://tinyurl.com/pranakids

Videos

Yoga Kids: Silly to Calm - A fun video you can share with kids age 3-6.
http://tinyurl.com/sillytocalm

Yoga at Olympic High school
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp-zgCx5-SE
This short video is the story of how yoga can impact the lives of young people. Two teachers come to Olympic High School in Venice, CA to start a yoga class for girls. We see how yoga touches lives beyond what happens on the mat during class. Yoga is a transformational practice and has implications on education, communication, relationships and self-esteem.

Yoga Saves
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmO3bNNUr0Y
Urban youths find health and hope through yoga practice and lifestyle. Former gang members and foster home kids find a way to deal with emotions.

Recordings

Musical Yoga for Kids, Kira Willey
www.firefliesyoga.com
Listen to one of her songs: http://tinyurl.com/KiraWilley

Relaxation and Visual Meditations, Lori Lite http://stressfreekids.com/category/products/cds/
A message from Lori Lite, “We have developed a line of children’s books, CDs, and curriculums designed to help children manage anxiety, stress, and anger while promoting self-esteem and peaceful sleep. We are the first to introduce research-based, stress management techniques in this unique storytelling format. Psychologists, child life care specialists, teachers, counselors, parents; military families, yoga fans, the Autism community and most importantly children have embraced us.

Programs

Youth-Abilitation www.youth-abilitation.org
Yoga is an effective tool to address trauma in youth. We all know young people communicate differently than adults. Depending on their age, kids use less words, more words, louder words, quieter words or no words at all. These differences in communication styles are often exaggerated or reconfigured in the face of trauma with a young person becoming more withdrawn, anxious, fatigued, tense or numb. When this occurs, yoga and movement are one of the beautiful tools that can help open them up to their joyful selves again. The combination of play, safety, calmness, creativity and community building, work wonders on getting youth in touch with themselves without “talking”. They are able to experience the world being safe again while simultaneously building their own strength and wisdom. And ironically after all this play and stress release, the kids can’t help but express their experiences in many, many words.
One of our favorite programs aiding youth exposed to trauma is Youth-Abilitation. Their approach blends yoga, movement therapy, and mentorship into a creative and effective curriculum youth can relate too. Programs are available nationally. If you know of an organization or group of youth that could benefit from these teachings, please e-mail Director, Taryn Hughes at tarynhughes@mac.com If you are an instructor who would like to learn about teaching for YA please contact them at Youth.Abilitation@me.com

Yoga Ed www.yogaed.com
Yoga Ed. Develops and produces health/wellness programs, trainings and products for teacher, parents, children and health professional that improve academic, physical fitness, emotional intelligence and stress management.
If you are interested in teaching Yoga to children read their program overviews. http://www.yogaed.com/instructors.html

Yoga Playgrounds Teacher Training: Spaces and Structures for Health and Empowerment With Leah Kalish
http://www.kripalu.org/program/view/yogamed/YP-101/
For everyone with a regular yoga practice who wants to share yoga skills with children in school, home, studio, or therapeutic settings.
Learn to design yoga-based classes and sessions for kids that progressively develop physical, mental, emotional, and social skills along with health. Discover how to ground yoga in play while exploring themes such as breathing, alignment, focus, flexibility, kindness, teamwork, resilience, finesse, and so much more. You will be guided in creating lesson plans that transform yoga practice into playgrounds of self-discovery.

Featured Youth Yoga Teacher

Cheri Rae Russell

I met Cheri at Bhakti Fest this September and immediately fell in love with her. She shared stories of how the yogic tools she taught inspired the kids to make life affirming choices. After speaking with her for only two minutes I was in tears (of inspiration)!
Cheri is located in downtown LA at her yoga studio Peace Yoga. She also rides her bike (yoga mats piled on the back) all over downtown LA teaching yoga to “at risk” youth anywhere they’ll “let her.”
When asked why Cheri does what she does she replied, “Because the very act of breathing is living (our common thread) and we know that yoga is the science of breathe with movement (pranayama and asana) and I can think of nothing more important on the planet then teaching children to go within and have an intimate relationship with themselves.”
For the past 17 years Cheri has been teaching Yoga to youth and is currently supporting the girls at Homegirl Café with free yoga classes. To donate and learn more about Homegirl Services visit Cheri’s site and click on the ‘heart chakra’. www.peaceyogagallery.com You can also give your support to Cheri with financial donations as well as new yoga mats and props.

Editor: Hillary Branoff
For responses, inquiries and inclusion suggestions,
Contact: Hillary@davidnewmanmusic.com

www.davidnewmanmusic.com
"Love is the Strongest Medicine" Neem Karoli Baba