How do you express gratitude? How do you respond in times of loss? Do you actively seek out opportunities to be a blessing? Your heart will smile to hear this story of gratitude, loss & blessing.

This story began on February 5, 2013 when Rossana Carrasco, a kids yoga teacher in Mexico City, won the giveaway for Jeeva Finds Courage (Read and Learn Yoga book) and took the time not only to express “thanks” via e-mail but also to post a pic several weeks later of her young yogis enjoying the book and a word of “thanks” on the OMazing Kids Facebook page (a very rare instance of someone taking the time to do so). She also shared pics on the company’s Facebook page.  Rossana planted “seeds of gratitude”.

Of course that was one of the winning entries and the story could have ended there. But I knew that Rossana would need more than that to continue her work with the kids. Her situation touched  me so much because she had taken the time to show gratitude & works with kids with special needs. I was inspired to reach out to the kids yoga community on Rossana’s behalf at least in part by the message in the book “Good People Everywhere”. While I don’t personally have any of my own kids yoga or wellness products to donate to Rossana, I knew that I could do something to help her by using my time & the connections that I have formed with those who did.

So I reached out to all the folks I know in the kids yoga community who have products and shared Rossana’s story with them. I was hoping for just a few extra things to get Rossana started on the path of rebuilding her collection of kids yoga materials. What happened next surprised & filled me with great joy! (well actually it shouldn’t have surprised me since I had “planted seeds” too. Over the past 2 years I had connected with these folks in the kids yoga community through “liking” and sharing things from their Facebook fan pages, retweeting, repinning, doing reviews/giveaways for their products, etc….)

What started as a few sprinkles became showers of blessings of offers to send products to Rossana. Here are the blessings heading her way:

• Mindful Practices – yoga cards (Carla Tantillo – Mindful Practices)
• La Musica de Yoga en Movimiento (Spanish music) and Relax (English) downloads (Shakta Khalsa – Radiant Child Yoga)
• Yoga Yingo – Yoga Yingo games and an Indigo Dreams CD (Jeanette Runnings – Yoga-Yingo)
• You Are Not Your Thoughts & You Are Not Your Thoughts…but what you think matters books (Brian Despard – You Are Not Your Thoughts – Mindfulness for Everyone)
• Musical Yoga Adventures first CD and a routine booklet (Linda Lara – Musical Yoga Adventures)
• Sofia en una Aventura por la Selva Kids Yoga Stories book (in Spanish) (Giselle Shardlow – Kids Yoga Stories)
• Shanti Generation DVD’s – Yoga Skills for Youth Peacemakers and Partner Yoga for Teens (Abby Wills – Shanti Generation)
• Imaginations: Fun Relaxation Stories and Meditations for Kids (Carolyn Clarke – Imaginations: Fun Relaxation Stories and Meditations for Kids)
• I am the Breeze Guided Meditation CD (Nancy Williams – Yoga Therapy 4 Every Special Child)
• Yoga 4 Classrooms Card Deck (Lisa Flynn – Yoga 4 Classrooms)
• Jeeva Finds Courage book from Read and Learn Yoga (Tasha Rose – Read and Learn Yoga)
• Come Play Yoga! CD (Shari Vilchez-Blatt – Karma Kids Yoga)
• The ABC’s of Yoga for Kids books (English & Spanish versions) & Yoga Adventures With Downward Dog: A Yoga Alphabet Playdate DVD (Teresa Power – The ABCs of Yoga for Kids)
• Yoga Power Curriculum and Pizza Party DVD (Leah Kalish – Move with Me Action Adventures)
• Rainbow Kids Yoga cards & manuals (to replace the ones she had lost) (Gopala Yaffe – Rainbow Kids Yoga)
• Yoga Games Galore downloadable e-book (Donna Freeman – yogainmyschool.com)
• Good People Everywhere book (Lynea Gillen – Good People Everywhere)
• Kings & Queens of the Forest: Yoga Songs for Kids Vol. 2 (Kira Willey – Kira Willey)
• Elevator Series Pose Cards (Amy Haysman & Cheryl Crawford – Grounded: Yoga, Laughter, Elevation)
• Yoga Motion & Once Upon A Mat DVD’s (Amira Gaynor – Namaste Kid)
• Dragonflies Adventure , The Ocean Surfari, 21 ways to grow a healthy brain, & Calm and Connected books plus 2 digital downloads: 15 play dough recipes and the 4 B’s self-calming smart card (Barbara Gini – BodyLogique)
• Little Lotus Kids yoga cards (Tracy Johnson – Little Lotus Kids Yoga Cards)
• Kidding Around Yoga, Namaste ‘n Play & OM Work 3 CD’s (Haris Lender – Kidding Around Yoga)
• It’s Time for Yoga book (Tara Rachel Jones – Flower Yoga)
• Yogi and Yogette Learn the Asana Alphabet coloring book (Ann Robideaux – Asana Alphabet)
• Music for Dreaming CD & Creative Relaxation Yoga for Children DVD (Louise Goldberg – Creative Relaxation: Yoga Therapy for Special Needs)
• Storytime Yoga: Teaching Yoga to Children through Story! book – Spanish version (Sydney Solis – Storytime Yoga with Sydney Solis)
• Update 4/8/13: Calm Kids – Help Children Relax with Mindful Activities book & Level 1 online course (Lorraine Murray – Teach Children Meditation Campaign)
• Update 4/26/13: Kurma Kids Kit – in Spanish (1 Kurma Kards, 1 Kurma Poster, 1 Kurma Puzzle) (Ana Menchaca – Kurma Yoga)
• Update 6/4/13: Creative Yoga Games for Kids Volume 1 & Volume 2 (when it’s released this summer), Creative Yoga for Teenagers Book & From Yoga to Dance DVD (Edna Reinhardt – Over the Moon Studio in Australia. Edna has a fabulous FB Group that you should check out: https://www.facebook.com/groups/293881080695013/)

I encourage each of you to take the time to check out and “like” each company’s Facebook page (links in blue). While you’re there, go a little further by liking, commenting on and sharing something they have posted on their page. I know it encourages me when folks do that on my page so I’m sure they would appreciate that as well. Each FB page will have a link to their website in the “About” section. Go check out the products they offer. I have listed the person’s name so you can put a name with each page. I think sometimes we forget that there is a real person behind each company or page. A real person that has sown much energy into the work they do & have sown their own “seeds”. Many of them expressed being grateful for the opportunity to participate in this blessing project. So when you visit their page, please keep that in mind. They are part of the kids yoga “community”. When visiting a page, treat it like visiting a friend’s house.

So the story could end there….a nice happy ending. But I want to challenge each of us to see what we can learn from this. In the past 2 years I have hosted 50 giveaways and had become very discouraged at the lack of gratitude in folks who have won. This is concerning since an “attitude of gratitude” or “thankfulness” is often a theme included in kids yoga classes…. so one would think the adults would be leading by example. Our high-tech digital age makes it so easy to communicate & express thanks but it seems to be having a reverse effect. The other thing that has bugged me lately is when someone has “liked” something I have posted and then a few moments or hours later it shows up in a post on their FB page or blog with no mention of seeing it on OMazing Kids. I think that bugs me so much because I go out of my way to find, “like”, share & promote other pages & blogs and go to great lengths to give credit. I know this has happened to others as well.  This is again particularly concerning from folks who are teaching kids.

I’m not claiming to be perfect but I am always striving to be better every day. About 10 years ago my husband & I went through a very dark period with the loss of a pregnancy. After a long period of grief, infertility treatments, depression & weight gain, I had to come to the place to choose to be happy for the many blessings I “do” have in my life vs. being consumed with focusing on what I did “not” have. From that day forward I have made a conscious choice each day to express gratitude & to seek out how I could be a blessing to others. It is not just something I “do”…. it has become who I “am”.

I am hoping that my blog post about Rosanna’s story & these kids yoga companies’ generosity will inspire folks. I am looking forward to hearing how Rossana’s young yogis enjoy the new materials & seeing pics of them. Every time Rossana uses each item that has been donated it will have a special memory & story attached to it. I’m sure she will relay the story about her loss & then a great outpouring of blessings from folks all over the world. Imagine the seeds this will sow in these young children! I’m sure someone sowed a seed in Rossana’s life that planted this deep expression of gratitude in her.

See this album on the OMazing Kids FB page. I will be adding pics that Rossana posts of her young yogis enjoying the donated items. The smiles are priceless! – https://www.facebook.com/OMazingKidsYoga?ref=tn_tnmn#!/media/set/?set=a.539215672796109.1073741830.174264525957894&type=1

Theses websites have great info about gratitude:

• http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_grateful_are_americans
• http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/expandinggratitude
• http://www.gratefulness.org/readings/practice_gratitude.htm
• http://greatday.com/motivate/060125.html (the seeds you nourish)

Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing. ~ Ezekiel 34:26

P.S. I attempted to be as inclusive as possible in reaching out to the kids yoga community when seeking donations for Rossana. Guess what….. this does not have to be the end of the showers of blessings. If you have a product that you would like to donate, you can reach me by e-mail. I’d be happy to update this blog post with any future blessings 🙂

Angela Moorad, MS, CCC-SLP, IAYT, RCYP-2

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