Hey Well-Beings! It's blog ONE of AIMwell Kids! I must say I am overjoyed to have the opportunity to spread the yoga practice, along with the opportunity to share my learnings about teaching yoga in schools around the Kansas City area.

Before we dive into the data we've collected, I first want to share the why, what, and who of this work.

Why:

• It is not that AIMwell's effort is to force yoga upon students, but to bring awareness of this practice to young minds in an environment they are familiar with. Our true effort is to expand student's repertoire of tools they can apply to everyday stressors and situations. AIMwell Kids programming focuses on physical and mental strength training, concentration, self-love, emotional awareness, and reflection. Through research, we know that yoga provides many benefits without discrimination to body shape, gender, race, socioeconomic status, etc. We believe with the introduction of yoga at a younger age, young minds will develop skills that they carry through their whole life that might lead to a more empowered, physically mobile, self aware lifestyle. Our goal is to collect data that can build a connection to the practice of yoga and an increase in physical and mental strength, stress, emotional control, concentration, and self-love that can eventually help strengthen the argument to have yoga paid for by insurances as a proactive treatment to many chronic illnesses that plague our society... and it all starts here!

• What:

  • AIMwell Kids is a 501 3(c) Federally registered non-profit. Donations help keep the program going and growing as our hope is to expand into many more schools in the area and have the ability to provide students with mat, books, journals, water bottles, and other programming regularly.

• Who:

  • Debonie Lewis - Boni for short. Right now it is me, myself and I working about 5 jobs to get this organization going, but we're hanging in there and having fun.

• What We Have Learned So Far:

  • Having been in 8 different schools so far with ages ranging from 11 - 18, it has been a journey reemerging myself into the school environment. I will admit, after working with adults for over a decade, I had forgotten the outlandish, yet enjoyable wonder that is engaging with young minds. The questions they ask, the social queues that haven't quite landed, and the pure sense of accomplishment and joy when the message lands. My major takeaway thus far is always have 3 plans. The perfect plan. The plan that can accomodate a few hiccups. And the plan that is disaster recovery. The most fun part of those plans is that the reality of each situation mentioned looks different at every school - if yoga doesn't keep me limber this program will. I will share the lessons plans developed in due time, but so far my "perfect plan" accounts for about an hour of time, beginning with a check in, review of what we'll cover that day, and an agenda review. I'll then begin a flow - anywhere between 15-20 mins (mostly dependent upon the students age group, attention, etc.) We'll move into a few games (prizes are usually won), then we'll come back to the mat, bringing the energy level down and moving into a meditation and sound bath experience. I'll issue the surveys after the sound bath and allow for the students to come up and play the bowls if they'd like - it is a huge hit!

  Side note to the above sentiments, my day job is a senior project manager, in which I practice multiple planning iterations and changes, yet nothing prepares you for the on the spot pivoting required for school programs... PMI, we might need to talk about this!

  I cannot wait to provide more updates around data, activities, planning, and the how of the program's initiation.

  Stay tuned, but mostly, thank you for being here.

  Boni