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We greet you from the environment of the ashram. Today’s session is dedicated to children and will focus on practicing relaxation techniques. Today’s introduction is about memories. It also offers children a variety of playful techniques and methods to release tension. First, you will see exercises for children aged 4 to 8 years. I welcome you all, greetings friends on the webcast. And we begin today’s practice. Now, sit up straight. We attune ourselves to yoga. Before we begin the practice, we will sing for attunement. Chant Oṃ three times slowly. And first, we will sing together, straighten our backs a little, tuck in our chins. Now we place our hand on the belly and relax it. We relax the belly, take a deep breath into the belly, create a little bell shape, and sing. The highest bell will sound. Oṃ, Oṃ,... Oṃ. The wind enters it, a beetle crawls in. The wind blows into it. The wind blows stronger and stronger, carrying the beetle, the foxtail, the beetle crawls, crawls. The wind blows into it. But be careful, the little beetle must not be afraid. So now stop being afraid and try to pass through as much of this as possible. Here, yes? The wind blows into it more and more, it takes the beetle, the foxtail, the beetle crawls, crawls, the wind blows into it. Now the little bug is interested in the burrow of his friend. So they settle in, inhabiting their friend in any way. The beetle crawls, crawls, the wind into it, fok, the wind fokas more and more, takes the beetle, a snowstorm, the beetle crawls, crawls, the wind into it, quickly we’ll find some. But the rule applies: there’s no place like home. The beetle crawls, crawls back to its little spot, the wind blows into it, fok, the wind blows more and more, takes the beetle, a blizzard, the beetle crawls, crawls, the wind blows into it, fok. And in his little house, the Beetle rests, lies down on a stone and completely relaxes, fully bows, lets go, also the little Matthew, we lie down on our legs, lie down on our knees, kneel, cultivate, rest our head, forehead, and completely relax. A deep breath into the belly, a deep exhale. The little beetle lies down and rests. Sometimes, even when something troubles him, and he carries great sorrow on his little bench or in his heart, even in this little beetle, one can find calm and be freed from that suffering. Take note. As the little beetle leans, as the stone leans, the little beetle falls off it. He turns onto his back and shakes out his legs and arms as much as possible, thoroughly, even trying a little shimmy, and then falls to one side. They completely collapse, fully relax, their arms and legs loosen, they relax their muscles, rest, gather new strength, and finally, their belly and arms soften. And once again, with a bit more force, the little one shakes out the legs, arms, a little bit, the corners, the mouth, you should completely catch it, or ha, or jī, and it falls again. And again, relax, take a deep breath out, and for the third time. Little beetle, with all your strength, raise your arms and legs up, even more, even more, shake it thoroughly, even your mouth, even shake your hair, everything you can, shake it and straighten up, lie down straight, little beetle, place your hand on your belly, align your back and legs, take a deep breath into your belly and a deep exhale. Inhale upward, exhale downward, the waves sway together, the waves breathe downward, one after another. And the waves arise on the ocean, and all the waves arise on the ocean, and all the waves arise on the ocean. And the belly breathes beautifully. Inhale upwards and exhale downwards. The feet are apart. And we completely relax and simply breathe, gently rocking the little boat. And we relax and simply breathe, gently rocking the little boat. Now we will leave the belly alone, allowing it to breathe in its own rhythm. Now we let it breathe as it wishes. It only knows that the inhalation goes upward and the exhalation goes downward. Let us now go back, back,... back. And slowly, He begins to move the fingers on His hands first. The awakening needs to happen slowly. Slowly, it moves the toes on the feet. He slowly circles his wrists. Then he raises his hands above his head and stretches, as if waking up in the morning. He places them behind him in the grass and pulls one arm out from the shoulder, relaxes it, then pulls out the other arm, and again pulls out one arm and then the other, once more, pulling one arm out from the shoulder and then the other. We join our hands in front of the chest and rub our hands thoroughly. And it is also necessary to awaken the eyes, so we place our hands over the eyes. And we blink our eyes and face and cheeks, and we massage behind the neck and gently stroke our body, perhaps there is some pain somewhere. So, we will do this, we will place the boat next to the mat, just beside it, and set it down for a moment. And let us also hold our knees and gently rock back and forth, so that we awaken the spine a little and give it a gentle massage, rocking forward and backward. For some, it doesn’t work because it’s uphill, so it’s difficult, but in the end, they manage it—excellent. If someone makes an effort, it will always eventually work out for them. So let’s try to jump up into a squat, whoever can do it. And then we’ll move into standing. For the body to rest properly, it must be thoroughly exercised, warmed up, and stretched. Now we will stretch our bodies and at the same time, through this practice, perhaps gain great strength. Let us prepare for the elephant and do the elephant warm-up. Let’s prepare for the elephant and do the elephant warm-up. He will exercise both ears, see how well it suits him. Let’s place our hands behind us, on the elbows. And now imagine the elephant looking into the mirror, wondering what expression it might have. He likes his long trunk. He is proud of himself, but his hands are far back. That’s it, Anaško, push your elbows far back. They will exercise both ears. Look how well it suits him. Look there, look here, look straight beyond the nose. It is approaching, let us watch, as the whole earth trembles. Beware, there will be a fanfare. And we wave to the friend we have here, we’re not going to him yet, Klārko, we’re just waving to him. Let’s connect to one more elephant. Everyone has at least one friend in their life, right? Everyone has a friend in their life. And even the elephant has a friend. She shooes away the mosquito, turns to the left, turns to the right, once more to the left, once more to the right, then crosses over, steps forward, and conceals the words between them. Greet, and if you have a friend, go and greet them. So the elephants greet each other; every elephant has many friends. We will not forget any elephant. He greets, and if he has a friend, he goes to greet him as well. So, let us slowly return; we have already completed the practice. We greeted all our friends. Did you greet them? So let us prepare for the Sun Salutation. The Sun Salutation. Raise your hands above your head, bow to the ground, pay your respects, and remain still for a moment. Raise your hands above your head, join them above your head, then bring them down to your heart, a greeting to the sun, hari oṃ. So now we have a nice cat exercise ahead of us, let’s prepare for the cat. The Cat pose beautifully releases the back. When the spine relaxes, a nervous person becomes completely at ease. Sometimes it is enough just to relax the spine. Let’s prepare for the cat pose, sit like Maruška, and most importantly, straighten your back nicely, tuck in your chin. The cat first lifts its paws, and its back is straight, nicely tucked in. Inhale and exhale. And the cat will arch its big cat’s back, rounding the spine properly and bending it. He looks at the sun, rounds his back, arches it, and rounds it again. And each little cat arches its back seven more times and then curves it. And the cat with a very large back, we will tap it from behind. Here is a large back. Here is a big backbend. Excellent. Here is the cat backbend. Here is a big arch. A little up here. Like this. Head down. Like this. That’s it. Now here is the spine. Here is the great spine. Excellent. And the little cat arches its back a few times. Excellent. Here is the ridge. Here is the big one. Here. Good. Good. So. And finally, the little cat arches its back. It arches its back properly. The chest lifts upward. The flaps. He straightens his back. And he steps out. So. When the back relaxes, all the muscles relax. But the best at relaxing is one animal. Do you know which one? The little hare knows best how to relax, it lifts its ears, the little hare in the moss, a beautiful nest, and half-lays its head in the grass, rests its forehead, takes a deep breath into the belly, and exhales, completely relaxing the elbows, completely relaxing the elbows, the little hare, so that the back can relax, completely letting go. Completely relax the elbows to release as much as possible. And now the little bunny will begin to breathe deeply into the belly. Take a deep breath into the belly and a deep exhale. Stretch your arms out with straight hands. It lifts the body, lifts the little ears like a rabbit. It twitches. He watches carefully to see if any beast is approaching and relaxes. And one more. One little animal knows how to relax beautifully. And this is the little tiger. The landing is remembered by the little tiger as relaxation. How does the little tiger rest? Show it. Janíčko. So, he lies on his belly, relaxes one leg, bends it, stretches the other. And this is how the little tiger rests. A deep breath into the belly, a deep exhale. Please, the leg is bent, the lower one is stretched. Good. And in the tiger pose, our back releases the most. Tigers are said to be the best at resting of all. And as you rest at the end, I will tell you a story. Everyone lie down as comfortably as possible and listen closely. There was a little ant. There was a little ant. And because he was building his home together with other ants, he was carrying a large straw up into the tree. But after climbing a few meters, the straw fell. The little ant did not hesitate; he quickly turned around and went back for the straw. And back up again. But that did not happen. He climbed one meter higher, and the straw fell down again. The little ant is thinking, it no longer feels like continuing. But still, he returns again, takes a straw, and climbs back up the tree. Yet the straw falls from him even the third time. And now the little Ant hesitates and no longer feels like it. And he no longer believes that he will succeed today. But still, he decides to return for the straw. And again, he carries it back up. And in the end, he succeeds. He truly carries that straw all the way to his anthill. That evening, the anthill arrived, and the entire anthill was very happy because they finally had their new dwelling completed. Everyone rejoiced and everyone began to celebrate. And the little ant sat on his couch like a king and was very happy, because today he has overcome something great. And today he has learned something great. So let us take a deep breath in again and a deep breath out from the belly. We roll over onto the belly, stretch out the arms and legs, extend them, roll back onto the back, stretch the arms and legs as far apart as possible, and then sit up. Now we will sit up straight, cross-legged, align ourselves, and gently straighten the back. And at the end of the practice, we will chant Oṃ three times slowly for calming. At the end of the exercise, we chant Oṃ three times. What did Brouček learn from that lesson? Does anyone know this? Verunka? He learned to work and finish it, yes, and to carry the straw. That’s exactly it, he had to learn patience to bring it there. What do you think, Raduška? Yes, to overcome hesitation. He hesitated a little, to overcome it and continue working. What else did the anteater probably learn? It learned not to give up. So we could remember something difficult. Simply, never give up. So mostly we will practice, and we will practice again tomorrow. Do not give up. So, children, we will go this way. Follow Klārkā here, this way, like this, to the back. Yes, and you can all go have a drink, alright. Why then? Yes, well, it can only be bypassed, yes. So, you can, you can go ahead and take yours, well. As you have seen, children learn yogic philosophy even in the form of stories. As you can see, the children learn yogic philosophy through stories. And today’s topic is relaxation. You will also see the names of relaxation techniques in the second part of our broadcast. And you will see a yoga class of children aged 8 to 14 years. They are children who already have experience with yogic practice. So I welcome you to today’s day of yogi. Let us sit comfortably at the beginning. And perhaps at the beginning, when we start practicing, I will ask you why we practice yoga. Why do you think we practice yoga? To relax. Please, do you know what we would be releasing from? from all the problems that accumulate throughout the entire day, why we still practice yoga. Choose what yoga brings us, for example how we feel after practice. Victory, stretching, mischief, calming, yes. To Mārtī, we feel release. And we already feel it ourselves, don’t we? That yoga is actually doing something with us. So that is why we practice, because we know what yoga does to us. And today we will practice a lot of kaṭuprāṇa, which precisely releases, stretches, and also energizes and strengthens. Now we will sit straight and attune to the yoke. We align the back, the shoulders are back and down. To align ourselves well, we will create a kind of candlestick. Gently move your elbows back and rest them on your knees. And now it is necessary to release three fundamental things. We will release a lot of prāṇa. We relax it. We relax the elbows. And we also relax the chin. And we open our eyes. And for a moment, we close them again, if it feels comfortable to us. A deep breath, greetings, hari ho. So let us begin with relaxation, preparing ourselves for relaxation lying on our backs, Ānanda Āsana. We lie down on our backs and imagine that a wooden doll has entered our dream. Let’s begin with a deep breath into the abdomen, a deep exhale. a deep inhale and a deep exhale. And we became friends with that wooden little figure. But because we learned from him how to become like wood. Imagine the right leg becoming stiff, as if it were a wooden doll. The entire right leg stretches fully, but since it wouldn’t be sustainable for long, we relax it. And for a moment, the wooden doll becomes a rag doll. The left leg will once again become a wooden doll, tightening and relaxing as much as possible. And now both legs will become like a wooden puppet, stretching as much as possible, as much as possible, and then relaxing. And now the little figure is teaching us further the entire area of the pelvis, the buttocks, as much as possible again, we engage, contract, and then release. The wooden figure also has a completely wooden chest, so the entire chest skin, the core, the whole torso—we stretch it as much as possible, the entire chest skin, and then we release it. We stretch the right arm as much as possible, stiffen it, and then relax. We stretch the left arm as much as possible and then relax it. And we stretch both arms as much as possible, they become completely numb, we stay in that jñāna bandha for a moment and then release. And now the whole face. We will do kriyamāna, stay in it for a moment, fully tense the entire face, and assist. And now the wooden doll will be made from our entire person, so the whole body including the face will become as stiff as possible, tensing up as much as possible. Hard as wood, if someone were to hit it, they would get hurt. They are still a bit tight, but they will loosen up properly. A deep inhale and exhale into the belly. And we relax, placing our hands with palms facing upward, the knees slightly apart. And we observe our breath and completely relax. The only thing we will try to observe now is our breath. We hear from afar the gentle rustling of leaves, the chirping of a little bird, and it is all very pleasant. And so we become absorbed in the surrounding sounds, while continuously focusing on our breath. He is our greatest friend. And we completely relax. And we completely relax the hands and feet. They no longer want to be, to dedicate the extremities. Relax your face. Relax your belly. And now, once again, let us begin to breathe a little more deeply. A deeper breath into the belly, a deeper exhale. Inhale into the entire chest, and a deep exhale. And slowly we stretch the fingers on the hands, on the feet. We circle the wrists. Let’s rotate, we can yawn as if we were just waking up in the morning, stretch our arms as if we were awakening. We will still awaken the eyes, join our palms, warm them, place them over the eyes, and gently rub the face. So let us prepare for the practice, for stretching and relaxing the back. Let us place our hands in a lateral stretch, or in a practice position, or in a lateral stretch. Now, bend the legs as much as possible, and with the exhale, lower to one side, and with the inhale, return back. and with the exhale to the other side and with the inhale back, and three more times each to each side, and this way our back, the muscles of the back, beautifully relax, and when the back relaxes, our little head also relaxes, which often thinks too much during the teaching. And when it relaxes When the head relaxes, our heart also releases, which sometimes unnecessarily gets upset. So, we’ll hold the knees, complete the full pose, hold the knees again, and then rock gently to the right and left. We will roll over onto our backs and massage them. Alright, that’s enough. Let us prepare for kaṭuprāṇāma. It is a greeting. It is a large, long sequence of exercises during which all our muscles are relaxed and stretched. So the first round we will do together. Inhale, join your hands, look into your hands, and exhale. Inhale, little stretch, back up, back, and now inhale. Exhale, we go into the mountain and stand firm like a mountain. The mountain gives us great strength. Find stability in life. Place the foot forward between the hands. Inhale. We look forward ahead toward our goal. It is possible. And we will look into those hands raised up. Inhale. Step the leg forward. Deep forward bend. Go ahead. Let the head hang down. Let’s take a moment to get the blood flowing to the head, stretch our legs, it doesn’t matter if we don’t touch, and let it get properly circulated, because it will help us with our learning at school. Inhale. Inhalation. And exhale. Right foot back. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. And now we move into the cobra. Hold the breath. Exhale. Inhale and exhale. Let us close our eyes for a moment. Straighten the back. And the base. We also relax the face. We relax the belly. The first practice of kaṭuprāṇa was for stretching. So, in the second round, we practice a little faster. So, in the second round, we practice a little faster. Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, cobra, sixteen, seventeen, nineteen, nineteen, twenty. And once again, let us close our eyes for a moment, relax the shoulders, relax the jaw, and most importantly, relax the face. If we have any thoughts now or something unpleasant on the bench, we allow them. The back is beautifully relaxed, and now we will also try to release the elbows. And whoever manages to relax their elbows, suddenly their whole body is beautifully relaxed. Let us prepare for the third round of kaṭuprāṇāma, and it will arise within us. All the while, we will try to observe our body and observe our breath, concentrating inwardly into ourselves, and we will practice at a moderate pace, trying to relax as if a little boat is floating on the water—one, two, three, five. five, seven, seven, eight, nine, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty. And for a moment, we observe what is happening in the body. The blood began to flow, and then it calmed down again. Like when a large wheel is spun, but it slowly comes to a stop again. We observe this body of ours. And for a moment longer, let us try to observe our breath. Where are we breathing? Let us try to become aware of where we are breathing right now. And whoever discovers the place where we breathe, places their hand on that place. Where we breathe, we place our hand there, where our breath flows. When there are two places, we calmly place both hands. When there are three places, we place three hands. Excellent. Now it is all visible, but you are breathing correctly because a very healthy type of breathing is abdominal breathing. This calms us down very well by breathing into the belly, so it can calm down very effectively. And the most proper type of yogic breathing is into the belly, the chest, and all the way up to beneath the collarbone. So we correctly perceive that we are truly breathing with the belly as well as the chest, all the way up here. Under the clavicles. Excellent. And now we will also release the back in the rabbit pose. The Rabbit is the best āsana for releasing tension in the back, as well as for relieving stress when we come home from school. When we are tense about something and something has gone very wrong, and we are nervous, perhaps before an exam, the śaśāṅka āsana, the hare, can help us. Now, draw the shoulders back. As we tuck the pelvis, we gently draw it slightly downward. And a deep exhale. And we relax, completely relax the elbows. We relax the back. And we also relax the belly. Sometimes, when by chance our mind is full of foolish ideas and we take a rest, those ideas seem to vanish, as if everything within you has been purified. And now, let us take several deep, deep breaths into the belly with that little bunny. And the belly presses against those legs. And it presses into those legs. And we feel that we are breathing with the belly. Excellent, you can see that it even lifts your back. Alright, and now we push off with the heel, stretch out the arms, and complete the posture. So we stretch our arms, then rise back up with a straight spine. A deep inhale and exhale. Excellent. So let us lie down at the conclusion of the tiger relaxation, the little tiger. So, we lie on the belly and bend one leg. We place one hand over the other and rest our head upon them. Again, a deep breath into the belly and a deep exhale. A deep inhale and a deep exhale. Once, a great yogī was practicing under a tree. He was meditating when suddenly a tiger’s growl sounded from the bushes. The tiger looked terrifying. All the disciples who were around the yogī scattered away in great haste. The only yogi remained calmly seated and looked at the tiger with a kind and gentle gaze. The tiger approached him, looked into the yogi’s eyes, filled his mind, and slowly, calmly—though it was a beast, a predatory beast—walked back peacefully into the jungle. As it walked away, all the disciples gathered around once again. They asked how it was that the tiger didn’t eat you. Everyone climbed up the trees, afraid, very afraid. They asked how it was that the tiger did not devour you. The yogi smiled and said, why would he eat me? He could not eat me. He couldn’t even imagine me. Because there are two things in the world that quickly tame every tiger. And the students went home and pondered which two things they were. So let us stretch again, we will still reflect a little, but now we are stretching, rolling onto our backs. We will stretch the body, lengthen ourselves, as if we were rising again in the morning. We stretch one arm behind the head, the other arm. We can interlace our fingers and roll to the right, to the left. With arms stretched out, we roll the stick over our head to the right, to the left. So. And finally, let us join our palms and rub them together. Let’s thoroughly massage and rub our eyes, forehead, cheeks, and chin. And we sit down. At the end, we realign ourselves and sit down again. We will chant Oṃ three times. We will massage the belly, relax the muscles, relax the prāṇa. deep breath, deep breath,... Deep breath, deep breath, deep breath, deep breath, ... deep breath. Klārko, because he didn’t provoke it, and not just him, he was probably generally kind, because nothing really seemed to provoke that tiger. Matec? Yes, children. He attacked because his tiger is afraid. He had absolutely no fear, unlike the one who is afraid that when you run from the tiger here, she becomes very scared and the tiger attacks her. But that yogī was not afraid even a little, and nothing provoked that tiger. And he had two things. He had no fear, and what else? Heart. And how does the yogī look at him? Kindly. He looks at him kindly. Can anyone harm us when we look at them with kindness? He thinks for a moment and then finally smiles as well, doesn’t he? In the end, he also smiled when he thought of the tiger, because he had great love in his heart, he was not afraid, and the tiger had to bow its head and leave. So I bid you farewell for today, and we will continue the practice tomorrow. We are now practicing twice a day, which is very good; it is clearly beneficial for your health and your peace of mind when we practice regularly. And we look forward to our health. Thank you for your attention, and once again, we send our greetings from the Ashram in Střílky, from the center of Yoga in daily life. Subtitles created by JohnyX.