After taking a class in aerial yoga last week, I have been drawn to continue a quest to find more ways to connect with our inner strength through play. I found one. Yoga with hula hoops!
But first, I needed to get some.
I didn't want the dollar store kind. I wanted to find smaller, shiny colorful ones that you see in the circus or in the specialty stores. Ones that kids could easily manipulate and do some fun poses and games with. I called up a friend of mine from my YogaKids training, Marsha, and we set a date to create.
Fortunately for me, Marsha lives in Nyack, not to far away from me. After playing the scheduling game, we set a time, got our supplies and prepared for hoop making. Two weeks prior to the date, I gently reminded my husband that I was meeting a friend to make hoops, and I needed him home earlier than later so we could do this. I have to say, my husband thought I was a little off my rocker....
When I met up with Marsha, we laid our supplies on the table and admired our finds. We then went to the hoop making source- our Canadian friend Joanne and watched her how-to video to make hula hoops. She made it look so easy, and we dove right in.
We learned how to wrap the straight tape around a curved figure. This took patience, and became exactly what Joanne had mentioned a meditative practice. Once you start, its hard to stop wrapping the tape around until you are complete with the hoop for two reasons - its hard to re-align the tape and it look so much better when they are done.
We took a few shortcuts, but lo and behold, we got them done! And how wonderful they came out!
Elisha Fernandes Simpson CKYT, RYT, aka laughing hearts yoga teaches prenatal, mommy and me, kids (ages 7 -18) yoga and organizes free bi-weekly yoga classes for people with breast cancer. Become a friend on Facebook's laughing hearts yoga page.
New classes: Family Yoga: Jan 29, Feb 12 and March 4th; Teen class begins Feb 6th, both at Hudson Yoga, Croton on Hudson, NY. Classes for 7 – 12 years on Wednesdays at Josie’s International Dance in Ossining, NY. Contact Elisha at info@laughingheartsyoga.com or 914 319 4010 for registration and suggestions about her blog
