Bending Backwards For Relaxation

By Kendra Bobowick

“Close your eyes and inhale. Exhale. Imagine you’re going for a magic carpet ride to a favorite place and it’s sunny there and relaxing. Maybe it’s a place in the backyard with sun and birds singing. Okay, spend a few moments there.”

That was Kathleen Barton as she tiptoed between yoga mats upon which her students were seated. While silently observing each adult and several children, she spoke in low, soothing tones asking them to mentally “take a ride” to a special place. Concluding a class of Family Yoga, a special series she is offering through Newtown Parks and Recreation, Ms Barton helped students learn how to gently exercise and stretch their bodies and also produce calming thoughts.

Again, she asked everyone to focus, ticking off five quick breaths on her fingers, a gesture the children find easy to follow, she said. The breathing and movements, however, “are more than just exercise,” she said.

“Yoga was invented to help people meditate and sit still,” she told her class. “People would do yoga to calm themselves.”

Her Family Yoga class is meant to “create a relaxed family atmosphere,” and includes the sun salutation, a “full-body warm-up that takes ten minutes,” she said. The exercise will “help focus your attention and calm you down.”

She suggested an overall approach to the day with “a little more patience” could relieve tension. “Focus, breathe, give yourself a good stretch,” she said.

Ms Barton advises that throughout a stressful day, “Take a moment to center and look inward and give yourself minibreaks.” The goal is to avoid “feeling like the weight of the world is closing in on you.”

Introducing another subtle element into her Family Yoga class, Ms Barton named many of the movements after animals accompanied by animal sounds.

“It makes it fun for the kids,” she said.

Some movements included hissing sounds, imitating a snake, for example. Several little girls, including Ms Barton’s granddaughter, Cailee Harvey, mimicked the hissing sounds, or repeated the animal’s names as they stretched.

Aside from the large, inflated, and colorful exercise balls, one organized routine grasping the preschooler’s attention involved balance.

Ms Barton instructed, “Shift your weight to one foot, bring your hands to the center, and walk your feet out. Come into a tree pose and find something still to focus on. Good, you’re beautiful trees.” Students slowly brought their hands together, let their feet creep outward, then drew one foot up against their knee in a balancing position.

After a moment of swaying in the breeze, bringing smiles to the children’s faces, Ms Barton said, “OK, shake it out.”

A Personal Journey

A registered yoga teacher trained in Pilates, hatha yoga, and more, Kathleen Barton’s mission is “to make yoga and movement fun and accessible to all.” Ms Barton had not always held this vision, however.

A longtime executive, she started yoga to reduce stress, which many experience on the job, she said. Once she turned to yoga, it became “more and more a part of my life.” Looking back, she recalls the day she dropped work for yoga.

“Grace had just gotten married, 9/11 came, and I just quit my job and became teaching certified,” she said. Her daughter, Grace Harvey, also co-owner of The Graceful Planet, participates in the Family Yoga classes with her daughter, Cailee.

Ms Barton traded her high stressed business suits for comfortable T-shirts and leggings, and walks through her working world barefoot.

Yoga has “transformed my life,” she said. “For me, yoga became a lifestyle.”

Yoga “helps you relax and that translates into the rest of your life. You want to eat healthy foods, you want to move your body, you’re not concerned about weight, and you’re concerned about being healthy,” Ms Barton said.

Giving a deeper meaning to her feelings, she said, “If you bring your shoulders back and keep your mind open, it’s transformative and gives you a sense of well-being.”

Defining yoga as a lifestyle and philosophy, she explained it as “a lot of poses to help work from the inside out and reduce stress, increase flexibility, and strengthen.

“It is important to take care of yourself”

The Graceful Planet is at 7 Berkshire Road (Route 34) in Sandy Hook. For more information, visit GracefulPlanet.com, call 426-8215, or send email to GracefulPlanet@aol.com.