GET OUT OF YOUR MIND AND INTO THE HOOP

Exploring creative movement with a hula hoop, as a tool for healing the mind-body.

I am gearing up for my trip back to Vancouver, BC. I am so thrilled to have this opportunity again in such a wonderfully progressive and supportive community. The district principal Jim Powell rocks. I thought it would take a long time to convince him of my larger hoops and program benefiting the children but in 5 minutes we had planned the whole trip. He agreed that the toy hoops are too light and therefore don’t work. This discourages kids.

We established that as teachers, we can’t afford to have not even 1 child or adult, discouraged from using an ineffective product or program. I will be teaching a 1 day training in 4Rhythm Hoop Dance to all teachers who sign up out of the 12 schools is district 69. This will be the first of many schools in Canada to supply their schools with properly weighted and sized hoops along with a program that works. I have styled the Hoop Warriors™ program to be effective and fun in the areas of post traumatic stress, abuse and addiction recovery as well as physical education for overall health. Teachers will learn hoop sizing, common mistakes, how to quickly target and correct bad posture and body mechanics, injury prevention, the 4rhythms and tricks. They will learn how to style an hour long class as well as how to incorporate the hoop as tool for strength training, agility and enhancing mental focus. Oh- and it’s all fun.

I also have dates set for 5 school assemblies with my 9 year old pal Marie as my assistant. Sally Whibley, a local personal trainer and Juice Plus Sales rep has been instrumental in promoting all my trainings and classes in Canada. She is a certified BHDT (betty hoops dance therapy) instructor and sells a ton of her custom hoops in Victoria, Parksville, Qualicum, Errington and Nanaimo. Her daughter Marie, took about 8 classes and the teacher training. She will help me guide the 100 kids through the program.

Intention to Teach Children

I believe our society multitasks and is too externally driven. We don’t schedule anytime to process information. We run from one job or activity to the next with little reflective time. Adrenal burn out is one of the number 1 causes of disease. Poor diet and poor sleep factor in, but mostly excessive mental stimulation. Phone, TV, video games, computers, classes, sports, music lessons, homework. There is barely time to process daily activity let alone decompress from it.

Creative movement has been proven successful in benefiting children on so many levels. It gives them a space to connect to their thoughts, emotions, breath and body. From this, they become aware, calm and focused. This in turn, can aid in relieving PTSD, social anxiety and negative patterning. Not only is it a low impact total body workout, but the children get a chance to work “in”. Whether in consciousness or unconsciousness, they check in with themselves as they move and breathe. They deepen their movements not because they are told to push it harder or do better but because this is a personal experience. They get to say what it feels like and where they want to go with it. This enlightenment activates and inspires something inside of them. They want to. They feel good. They begin to really trust themselves.

Once they have this trust they can go deep. As in team building sports, meditation and Yoga ED. children start to see beyond boundaries, goals and what is taught to be possible. They explore themselves from a detached state of ‘normal thought’ and get connected to the universal. They feel confident to encourage others, motivated to help adults and excited to participate in life.

In my studies with the 4Rhythm program, kids have been able to access their pain from abuse, challenging situations, terminal illness and disasters such as 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. Creative movement with guided visualization aids children in controlling their emotions. They do not hide it, shut it out or let it overwhelm them. They feel it arise and feel mostly, in control of moving it out of them. These emotions might stay exposed after class and then can be talked about and dealt with. The children know that the hoop gives them a safe space in which to be and feel themselves. They love it for this reason as well as the joy it invokes. This is why adults are hooked as well!

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 10th, 2009 at 12:55 pm and is filed under Hoop News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.