The Wonder Tree

Such a fantastic class to teach at All Saints!

Year 2 today enjoying yoga with a winter theme - they practised breathing with tiny snowballs and went sledging all in the school hall.
All classes get to take part in yoga and forest school as part of our broad curriculum.
Thank you to Mrs Thompson from The Wonder Tree

I'm looking forward to supporting Stortford Heroes by having my little Yoga and Mindfulness tent at Party in the Park on Saturday. Come along for some FREE Superhero themed yoga at either 1.30pm or 3.30pm.

Stortford Heroes We're a local Bishop's Stortford charity dedicated to investing in the community and supporting other

It's Mental Health Awareness Week. Physical activity has huge potential to enhance our wellbeing, increasing our mental alertness, energy and positive mood. If you like being outside and like yoga or would like to try it, come along tomorrow for a free trial - 9.30am Stortford town park.

I'm in the local paper! Here I am at Avanti Meadows Community Day sharing my love of yoga to help children's physical and mental fitness.
https://www.bishopsstortfordindependent.co.uk/news/yoga-and-vegetarian-food-on-offer-at-stortford-schools-open-9253355/

Yoga and vegetarian food on offer at Stortford school's open day Avanti Meadows Primary, which opened at St Michael’s Hurst last September, gave visitors an insight into its educational philosophy.

Thank you to everyone who came to today’s Community Day at Avanti Meadows. I enjoyed providing some free yoga sessions and talking to lots of families about yoga, mindfullness and wellbeing.

What a beautiful morning. Fingers crossed for the same weather tomorrow morning for the first Yoga in the Park of the year. Let me know if you are interested. Please share, thank you.

Yoga in Bishop’s Stortford town park is back - starting this Friday at 9.30am. Contact me for a free trial.

I loved the warmth and comfort from the arrival of the Spring sunshine this week. It was so special to run two of my childrens yoga sessions outside. Such a great way to exercise and teach mindfulness. Being outside we could engage our senses, feeling the sun’s warmth and the gentle breeze on our skin, hearing the birds and smelling the fresh air.

Wonder Story: ‘The Paper Bag Princess’
Yesterday we continued to celebrate International Women’s Day with Key Stage One and Reception . Mindfulness fun - pretending to be a dragon using fire coloured scarves to practise our deep breathing.
Yoga fun - retelling the story of the resilient and brave Princess using our wonderful bodies.

Celebrating International Women’s Day at The Wonder Tree with Goddess Pose, helping us all to feel confident and to connect with our inner power. Yoga fun with Goddess partner pose, group pose and by adding it to our game!

Mindful Monday: Take some mindful breaths today to help you release tension. Add a mantra, such as repeating to yourself “let” as you breath in deeply and “go” as you slowly breath out.

The intension this week was to help relieve tension. For my younger yogi’s, we called it Spaghetti Yoga! Raw spaghetti verses cooked spaghetti is a child friendly way of explaining what tension can feel like in the body and mind. We worked on releasing tension with cat/cow, plow and childs poses, a tense and release meditation and a relaxing Spaghetti Massage.
My adult session today certainly worked - my body and mind feel like I am beginning to release not only my Covid illness but the tension I felt from having it and trying to recover as quickly as possible.

This storm will pass. Sometimes we all need to ride out our emotional storms because inevitably they will pass; our mood will change just like how the weather is always changing. Mindfulness technique to grow emotional awareness: We are the blue sky where the weather happens and the weather is our feelings. Feelings are just things passing through your mind. You are not your feelings. For more info see my blog on ‘Emotional Literacy: Exploring and Expressing Emotions’ : https://www.thewondertree.co.uk/single-post/exploring-and-expressing-emotions

Happy Valentines Day! May your day be filled with self love, love for family and friends and those we remember. ❤️
- Sharing books together are a fab way to develop young childrens self love.
- Make sure you remember to practise self care!

This week The Wonder Tree will be supporting by focussing on our emotional well-being with a human Mood Meter activity and group yoga poses. We will be ‘growing together’ emotionally and physically.

Kung Hei Fat Choy! 🐅 Time to honour and let go of this last year and welcome the light of whatever comes next.
As the Chinese New Year is celebrated on the second new moon after the winter solstice we feel the light start to return and have a deeper sense of change and new beginnings, rather than we do at the beginning of January when we are still deep in darkness. Take time today to light some candles, reflect and be hopeful for what lies ahead.

Wonderful

Head of Stortford's next secondary will be leading by example Rhys Jones, 40, the first principal of Avanti Grange at Stortford Fields, will be calling on his experience at Hockerill Anglo-European College.

The Wonder of Balance.
As I am feeling rather out of balance at the moment with the January Blues my intention for the Friendly Friday adult session was to find balance. Life is all about balance, on and off the mat.
Our balance skills start to decline around age 40 and poor balance is related to cognitive decline.
We found focus and inner strength through our drishti (focussed gaze) and our breath as we attempted slide planks, high lunge twists, tree, eagle and crow.

Wonder pose: Dancer. Another great session yesterday with the wonderful staff at Windhill21 Primary School. We practised strengthening and opening our shoulders, chest and hip muscles before enjoying our peak ‘Dancer Pose.’ A fun and healthy way to boost energy, fight fatigue, and build confidence.

This New Year plant seeds of positivity in your mind and water them with belief. As 2022 continues to challenge us choose to nurture hope to calm fear.

Winter Solstice:
Now the Winter Solstice has passed the light will steadily grow each day. Whenever you find yourself in darkness remember that you can find the light from within. It may be dim when times are challenging, but you have the power to make it grow through the lights of love, gratitude, courage, kindness, wisdom and hope.

Namaste💡
- the light in me bows to the light in you

I wonder what your favourite tree is?

Remember we all sometimes need to be a like a tree:
Be still, breathe and reset regularly.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/dec/14/hawthorn-on-scottish-beach-named-tree-of-the-year-2021

Hawthorn on Scottish beach named Tree of the Year 2021 Prickly tree beat hundreds of nominations in Woodland Trust contest

My adult yoga class: The Wonder of Hygge Yoga - cleansing breath work, a yoga flow workout and a cosy meditation with pillows, blankets and a cat. Followed by a cuppa and a mince pie. Bringing you balance in this pre Christmas world of stress and excitement.

Anti Bullying Week: One Kind Word. I wonder what kind words you will choose to share?

Anti Bullying Week:
At The Wonder Tree this week we are choosing to be kind. We are being kind to others by passing smiles, sharing kind words and connecting through partner poses. We are being kind to ourselves by challenging our inner bully, saying kind mantras and trying out some comforting, kind yoga poses. Kindness fuels kindness. I wonder what act of kindness you will do each day this week?

Letting go let’s us grow. I wonder what you will let go of? Hatred, anger, difficult friends, things you can’t control. Let go by intentionally slowing down your pace, simplifying your calendar, your commitments and maybe your wardrobe. Letting go is an act of self care, to create more space.

I wonder if you eat mindfully or on autopilot? Today we grew our mindful awareness by eating a raisin using our 5 senses. This exercise is a wonderful way to demonstrate the meaning of mindfulness which can be difficult for children to understand.