Yoga Rediscovered

Posted by: Niika ~ Gabe's Mom on: January 18, 2016

• In: Gabe Posts
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Yes, it’s been a while. I’m really glad to be blogging and connected with you again.
There’s a lot to share with you, so I’m gonna get started!

Over the summer I had a couple of very fortunate opportunities to do special trainings.

My first destination was Omega Institute, in Rhinebeck, New York.

I got a ride from where I’ve been staying in New Jersey into the gigantic Port Authority bus station in New York City. That place is so complicated, tunnels running in all directions, a strange numbering system that makes no sense – what a trip to find my bus! The bus was supposed to be wheelchair accessible, but it wasn’t. So I got out of my chair, climbed the stairs and slid down the aisle to a seat for the long ride.

My chair got stowed under the bus with the luggage. It’s always a little unnerving to be separated from my means of independent movement, but I wasn’t going to let that keep me from getting to my training!

After a few hours riding into the New York countryside, finally, there it was–Omega Institute!

I was surprised to see how big the Omega campus is, so many buildings, people, meetings halls, dining room, a cafe, library, bookstore and an expanse of hills all around. Steep hills, I soon learned.

I couldn’t help but notice the extreme diversity of people all around me. It seemed like every kind of person was there, from rich, fashion moguls to young adventurers working for room and board between stints of hitch-hiking across country. (The staff was AWESOME, by the way. They helped me with everything I needed all week.)
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All summer long, thousands of people travel to Omega from New York City and beyond to attend the wide variety of workshops, trainings, concerts and events. Everyone comes from unique backgrounds and this creates an amazing feeling of utopia made real, everyone getting along and living in unity.

So what was my own reason for being at Omega?
It all started when I saw this video about three young men from the “hood” in Baltimore. They came home from college to try to help underprivileged kids. And they decided to do it with yoga. Seeing who these guys are and what they do, I got really excited!

These three amazing guys–Ali, Atman and Andy– founded the Holistic Life Foundation to teach the peace and power yoga can bring to kids, and teach others how to bring yoga into schools, too.

So I traveled to Omega to attend a training led by these dedicated fellows called, YOUTH YOGA & MINDFULNESS – Teaching Yoga & Mindfulness to Today’s Youth.

I’ve always been an athletic guy, but I hadn’t realized how steep the hills were going to be at Omega, and how much of a workout I was going to get going up and down to my room, to meals and to our workshop meeting hall. And once I’d make it to the hall- wow, lots of steps. I got out of my chair and bumped up the stairway to join everyone for the morning session. I’d climb back down the stairs for lunch. I’d climb back up the stairway when we reconvened for our afternoon session, and–surprise–back down the stairs for a guided meditation outside the classroom! I was catching quite a workout, which could have been annoying, but I was so into my whole experience there, that is just became part of meeting the challenge.

The training showed us to make yoga accessible and fun for kids who might not otherwise be interested, so they could get the physical and emotional benefits.

Growing up, my mom always taught yoga classes in a special room in our house. In the years she home-schooled me, she pretty much forced me and the other boys who joined our “class” to do yoga every morning. Sun Salutations were required curriculum!

To be honest, while I was on my yoga mat bobbing up and down the required number of times, my mind was somewhere very different. I was dreaming about being on a pro basketball court, not a yoga mat!

True: My heroes weren’t yogis. They were sports stars! My mom seemed more like a hippy to me, than someone on the cutting edge of our modern culture.

That was then, and now yoga is a LOT more popular. (I guess my mom was onto something.) Still, a lot of kids haven’t caught on. So one thing I thought was really great that the guys from Holistic Life taught us was this trick. If you are trying to introduce yoga to a kid who thinks yoga is kinda weird and out there, pick up your laptop and just type in the name of their favorite athlete + yoga. Almost always, up will pop about a hundred pictures of just about any famous person, getting their yoga on. These days, almost everyone in the world of professional sports does at least a little yoga.

Pretty convincing and motiving for those kids! (I still love sports, so yeah, me too I gotta say!)

Like I said, I’ve been around the yoga world for a lot of years, but I hadn’t truly grasped how amazing yoga is at helping a school kid or anyone get connected with their breath, their body, and just being here on the earth in a grounded way. Such a simple way to let tension, anxiety and general stress just fade away.

This training taught me how to emphasize the value of yoga from a evidence-based, instead of spiritual or religious, standpoint. We practiced teaching yoga, mindfulness practices and breathing in small groups. Fascinating and really inspiring. I’m ready for more!

A lot of people had really emotional experiences during our training. We were getting trained to help others, but our training seemed to be helping us, too. I am such a people person, so just connecting with everyone was super. My favorite part of the training was getting the nickname “Brother Wolverine” from Ali, who loved my superhero tattoo.

All in all, it felt really great to be part of the extreme diversity of people that make up the Omega culture. I came away realizing how much power yoga has to help me and how much I could help others if I could learn to teach yoga well. One of my goals is to help otherly-abled people–like me–do their own kind of yoga.

I’ve been doing yoga and meditation pretty much daily, and they make such a big difference in my life.

The combination of yoga, breath work, meditation – and positive community – are probably the very best medicine I could imagine.

I really want to share and give back to my community and the world around me by sharing these skills and telling stories to inspire more people to give it a try.

Keep it breezy. Keep it easy!

See you here soon,
Gabe

Tags: yoga, youth