Yoga Tales from Rural Maine: Gratitude

If you are in the habit of practicing gratitude--saying "thank you," counting blessings, being aware of all your gifts and all of the good and beautiful things happening in the world today and feeling the warm sensation of gratitude in your body (a daily I practice I highly recommend!)--then here's one more thing to add to your list: Starting this Thursday night, the inpatient children at Acadia Hospital (the little kids who spend their days and nights in a mental hospital) will get to have Yoga with Naomi at bedtime!

Thanks to generous support from the Children's Miracle Network and the guiding lights at Acadia Hospital, including most especially Nichole Wrightwhose beautiful mind and heart work on our behalf in philanthropy, these children will hear my voice and have my love and move gently in their bodies before bedtime once every other week.

My hope is that they will find their way to comfort and peace; that they will learn self-soothing skills and ways to find a sense of safety and well-being, even amidst the things in their lives that are scary and hard, and in an environment that isn't home. Yoga helps us to find a safe home within ourselves, even when the the world outside is painful.

I offer my thanks to Nichole and to everyone at Acadia who is helping to make yoga part of mental health care for children and adults.

What started two years ago as a pilot program with outpatient kids and teens, has now grown to include a women's trauma group, and now the inpatient kids. I don't get to see them often, but I get to see them, and that's what matters; a little love/yoga can go a long way.

Om shanti, my friends. Add this to your gratitude list and know that the more we focus on what is good, the more good things expand. The next time you're freaking out about violence in the world or bonkers presidential candidates or whatever else absorbs your fear, invite your mind to remember that there is goodness growing through yoga like a flower in pavement, and the more you notice what's good, the more what's good can grow. Find the cracks, plant your seeds, and put your mind where gratitude thrives. And think of us up there at Acadia Hospital breathing our breaths, singing our OMs, finding our smiles, and tucking ourselves in.

Namaste