The Benefits of Yoga and Mindfulness with Instructor and K-12 School Psychologist Jessica Scharf

Transcript

hello good afternoon thank you to all the viewers who are watching today we are pink mic legal confessions we have an awesome episode for you guys today it’s been a while so i’m just happy to see everyone again um today we are talking about the benefits of yoga and mindfulness with instructor and k through 12 school psychologist jessica scharf who you’ll hear from in a minute she is wonderful she has a lot of experience for us today so for all you parents that are watching you’re going to want to tune into this because it’s really really interesting so as we all know um we are transitioning now into going to back in person i know personally i went to court this morning and i thought wow i’m actually in court this is weird um so so things are going in person more than ever and the kids they’re heading back to school so um they have packed schedules they have school um obligations sporting events and so everything’s really hectic so this week um we’re talking about um a lot of stuff mindfulness your children um and jessica sharp is gonna sit with us today talk a little bit more about what it’s like to be um for kids in this in this environment what can parents be doing to do more um there’s a lot we’re going to talk about so um as you all know i’m stephanie garces donat and i’m the attorney uh principal attorney at garces law firm where we handle uh realty transactions probate matters and um estate planning really what does that mean we help prepare for the unexpected and in the event that there’s an unexpected absence especially for our kids and by the way we speak spanish in case you are looking for that service as well so um i’m here with my good friend jessica scharf she’s a certified yoga teacher and school psychologist in chicago suburbs um she specializes in k-12 mindfulness and self-care for educators um she earned her certificate of being a yoga instructor in st louis through yoga buzz which seems pretty cool and she teaches seasonal outdoor yoga classes and she’s exceptional so jessica thank you so much for um being with us today and joining us tell me and the viewers a little bit about yourself yes stephanie thank you so much first of all for having me um and before i tell you a little bit about about myself i thought i’d set the space today talking about mindfulness and let’s all just take a second to recenter ourselves you know life is busy just like you said so take a second wherever you are and i’m going to invite you to if you’re seated you can be seated or laying down wherever the viewers are but take a second to notice how your feet are on the ground or your soles of the feet touching the floor you can close your eyes if you want or bring your gaze down towards your the tops of your legs your knees and just take three deep breaths

inhaling

and holding it up for a second and exhale maybe count to five or six as you fully exhale and then inhale again feeling your belly grow big like a balloon

and exhale release and try one more on your own and kind of let go of anything that might have happened before this or anything you might have coming after this and exhale release and let it all go okay so that was just a little tiny taste it’s exactly what everybody needed right midday on a busy work day but anyways yeah so my name is jessica scharf i am a certified school psychologist and a certified yoga instructor in the greater chicago area um my yoga practice started in st louis but i wrote this on my website as well that we relocated to the chicago area to be closer to family and for work opportunities um and just a little bit about myself and how i kind of ended up where i am today um i have a background in psychology specialized in school psychology or in education and then after that um backing up you know in high school and in college i’ve just been a person of movement my entire life and i wanted to incorporate that into my career and i thought as an educator bringing that into the schools would be such a positive impact bringing it to students and families as well as outside of the school realm bringing it to parents and adults who are just trying to carve out a little bit of time for themselves so i’m a huge advocate for self-care self-care and you are you are yeah and i’m just all about um living with intention and it’s been really nice um fortunately i personally in my own family we had those routines and the mindfulness and living intentionally already set up before the pandemic and so it kind of just made like a little wave but ultimately i think like now with the pandemic and coming out re-entry back into the world i think people are really paying attention to you know what routines are in my day um but anyways to circle back yeah so i’m a k through 12 school psychologist and now i’m bringing those outdoor classes to the greater chicago area that’s awesome hopefully you are doing work in people’s time well first of all let me thank you and i know the viewers are going to thank you for doing that like breathing session because i know um i can speak for a lot of the viewers where we all have like hectic lives or like things that really throw a supper balance whether that’s a bad moment at work or you know something in your personal life or your kid did something and it like throws off your whole day so like it’s really nice to like kind of have a tactic or like a plan for when that happens because it’s so easy to just like bottle it up inside so we’ll talk a lot about that today but i’ve experienced that i’m sure a lot of viewers have so thank you for sharing that because um that breathing technique stuff that is so like on like that is such a um under underrated i think when something goes wrong yes it’s it’s honestly i mean it’s something that we’ve all had our whole lives and i think just with the speed of our world today i think people are easily forgetting to slow down and it’s just something that everybody needs and we’re forgetting to practice it and so one of the things i saw recently was just you know the mindfulness piece is easy it’s the showing up and carving out time is that’s the hard part and i think just life is moving too fast and so you know there’s one of the nice parts about the pandemic was that it really forced people to slow down and you know find that time with family loved ones what not but also taking that second to reflect look inward um or start a mindfulness practice but hey um better late than never and it’s if you have if you’re a viewer out there who’s completely new to this you can start any day just starting is what matters so yeah yeah and we’ll talk about we’ll talk about that because i think a lot of people have this idea that yoga is just for like certain types of people i don’t know how to say that without being silent or disrespectful just like super flexible and bendy and all that like moving like an athlete like someone who’s an athlete maybe won’t do that or like something like that you know it’s it’s not true though because yoga is really hard and actually i think it’s a lot has a lot to do with your mind mindfulness right outside of just physical aspect of yoga so um kind of transitioning here with the topic so we talked a lot about the fact that things are going in person i know certain people are like yeah i’m so excited about it and other people are like oh my gosh i can’t believe this is happening this is you know it’s a too soon or is there a variant all these other things that are pending in the back of our mind but um you know jess what are the what are the some of the tactics that people could use to like reduce their stress um whether it’s in their family or the family unit um or even setting a good example for your kids i know that’s one thing that a lot of parents are concerned with yes so thank you so much wonderful question um i would say and especially with you know we’ve all felt those waves of uncertainty and not knowing what’s coming um something that i always come to in practice as l as l as well as i’m sorry as well as what’s found in is focus on what you can control and trying to come back to you know if your mind’s spinning out of control and you need to just get a grip on something think about re-centering self-regulation that’s the whole basis around mindfulness is trying to regulate your mind and your body to be able to get back into work or get back into a conversation with someone whatever it is but um focusing on that self-regulation piece um uh one of the tactics i shared with a parent and she was saying oh my kid’s just so stressed out i’ll just give you some real life examples my kids just getting so stressed out and i said well have you tried the um like the one two three four five technique and it’s i’m not gonna name it word for word right now but it’s like okay tell me and she you know is her child was getting worked up this is like a 14 year old she’s stressed out about getting starting to look at colleges she is trying to make varsity volleyball keep her grades up she’s in a friend fight things like that like all real names of busy parents high schools yeah all high all real high school stuff um but anyways i said well have you tried the one two three four five technique where okay tell me five things you can see right now just stop and tell me look around the room tell me five things you can see four things you can hear two things um you can feel or anyways it goes down five four three two one i’m not saying it perfectly right now but it brings you back into the present moment is the main thing um and focusing on that’s why people say come back to the breath because our minds are often worrying about what we did in the past or what’s coming up in the future instead of taking a second to focus on what can i hear and see right now and what is my breath doing and once you regulate that parasympathetic system your nervous system um everything will fall back into place hopefully but trying to just regulate your body and your mind is the basis behind mindfulness and to get back to work or improve your school performance there’s just a number of benefits but all together i would say take a deep breath if we’re working with younger kids um one thing i did learn and i always want to share with new parents or parents of young ones is a lot of times we say okay calm down and i think sometimes parents and educators forget little kids who are learning to talk and communicate they they don’t know what calm looks like and they’re just more upset and more upset and more upset and so i would say figure out the language that they know or if they know sign language um if you like to practice sign language with kids who are learning how to talk um you can practice that i like to say take a deep breath or breathe and then um i’ve seen it with my own family members is if you demonstrate the breath like you said setting the good example model it and your child hopefully typically they should follow every every child’s different but for most typically developing children what they’ve found in research even with classrooms of kids is um if the teacher participates or if the adult’s doing it the kids are more likely to follow and so it’s monkey see monkey do i’ve seen research and talked to researchers where they say yeah i’m doing the activities and i turn it on and then i’m grading papers in the background or i’m checking an email on my phone or my computer and it shows it’s showing less effectiveness since the kids know and they little eyes are watching all the time uh parents know but uh anyways they do pick up on if you’re actually doing it with them and seeing that authentic moment that you’re sharing with them so i would say um if you have those young eyes try as i know you parents always need a break but if you’re able to engage in those moments and those activities do the best you can to be present with them in doing it because they will pick up on that and they will they will practice more presents as well yeah yeah these are things we don’t think about very much i even like want to see what we do that is interesting i would never think that they’re more likely to do it as opposed to not dealing with this because you’re not showing it so that’s like pretty powerful stuff and it and it probably goes with the theme of a lot of things that get yeah positive things and and kind of circling back to this technique so one of the questions that i had about that is that we talk about children and you know what they can do um or we can do with them but what about children that like are trying to learn like mindfulness or like breathing and they’re managing the challenges at school perhaps even conditions like adhd or add or you know what if they you know have that sort of thing on top of trying to learn it does that complicate things or how can haren’s best handle that yes thank you so much another wonderful question and honestly something that um i’m so glad you asked because in my field specifically um so i work with the general education population but i specialize in working with special education students um or students who have if there’s parents out there who are familiar parents of students who have 504 plans or ieps individual education plans um students who just have very specialized needs and are very unique and but anyways working with kids with for example adhd depends on how it presents every child is different and so that’s my that is like first and foremost is every kid is different there’s not like i wish there was like a this equals that however um parents know their kids best um talking about functioning back in school and something that i think we as educators have talked about i haven’t had a chance to talk to a lot of parents about it yet but there has been this wave of educational um loss and that’s just something that everybody’s kind of coping with right now i wouldn’t worry too much about it because everybody’s on that same wavelength um however when you’re working with a kiddo with maybe some attention characteristics or attributes i would say rule number one is don’t force your kid to do anything they don’t want to when it comes to the mindfulness and yoga practice just keep demonstrating it as much as you can yourself they will pick up on that um but if you force them to do it then later on they might not enjoy it at all or like once they get older it’s a great coping technique to teach a child of any age or like now i discovered this stuff in my late 20s i wish i knew it when i was their age but anyways um they uh i’m sorry i lost my train of thought i was gonna say um make sure you give the kids the option to so when i would go into classrooms we would you know announce it i’d work with the teacher and say hey who wants to do yoga today so if you’re with a classroom if you’re an educator out there working with a classroom i would have a certain problem about half of the students wanted to participate and then the other half of the students they went and did another activity it was in a different physical space they went out to the hallway um but the kids who wanted to participate were able to and successfully because the last thing you want is a kid that you’re forcing to do an activity with even i’m imagining if this is like a parent of you know two or three kids one kid doesn’t want to do it i mean just imagine being an adult in a class where there’s somebody in the back who’s talking the whole time because they don’t want to be there and so it’s like that but in your family they’ll throw a fit they will not cooperate and so i would just say keep demonstrating it and allow them to say okay you can go do a different activity but you’re going to go read for 10 minutes or something while we practice yoga or mindfulness as a family get creative with it you know what what works best for your family um but never force them to do it i would say also diagnosis or not you know if you’ve got a kid who’s got any sort of attention characteristics um talk with the school team about maybe what they’re doing in school um and it can be different from child to child again a lot of schools i see are using like go noodle videos or movement breaks those are awesome little kids probably in like kindergarten first second grade love any type of movement break um something like that

foreign so the one i was going to say the one i’m seeing lately that i really like is um uh it’ll it’ll be like a video on youtube and you can probably just type in movement break but it’ll say okay do you like let’s say there was a thanksgiving one and it was like okay do you like mashed potatoes or cranberry sauce and like half the kids are like i love mashed potatoes and the other kids are like yelling cranberry sauce cranberry sauce and so they pick what they want and then the screen switches and it’ll say okay you’re gonna if you picked sweet potatoes you have to do running in place for the next 30 seconds and then the kids who pick cranberry sauce need to do jumping jacks and so you know little kids just love anything to get out of their seat and then coming from a psychology end of it anything that has kids um making their own choices during the school day and at home this goes for school and home anything to promote them making their own choices and taking ownership of well i’m not being forced to do this you gave me two options this is like you know a monologue in their head well i had a choice and i chose this one they take more ownership of it then and you can all i’m i’m such a big advocate for kids making their own choices and them taking ownership in the process of it um because then they’re more likely to engage and cooperate so for like let’s say if you have two kids and one of them doesn’t want to do yoga say you do not have to do this the three of us are going to do it or the two of us are going to do it whoever but if you don’t want to do it your other choice is you’re going to go read your chapter book for the next 15 minutes and you’re going to read it right over there where i can see you and so just being able to have those conversations with your kids um and again i’m i’m talking from a scope of like you know i’ve worked with 18 19 20 year olds all the way down to like early childhood kindergarten so everything is always dependent on how your child presents um in terms of characteristics it could be inattentive type or combined type or they could be the like when we talk about adhd typically i think most people are thinking of attention where they’re like impulsive bouncing off the walls it all depends but other there’s all sorts of techniques out there some kids want movement breaks some kids want a fidget where they can function perfectly fine but underneath the desks maybe they’re playing with their fidget or some type of clay with their hands some kids really need that so if any schools out there are not doing fidgets please allow kids to use their fidgets um and other kids like to do breath work and mindfulness and yoga just figure out what works best for your kid um and or your class of students whoever it is and just work with them and just try to promote um what works best for each individual child well i love them because i think sometimes we forget that they’re still learning they’re learning boundaries they’re learning like you know like my mom has like it’s kind of like when if your parent makes you eat a food like broccoli yes i was just thinking of that and i and you keep having to eat it every you know day at dinner you’re going to hate it by the time you get older because you never really had an option so that’s what i was thinking about when you said option and that’s a great way to um at least present it to your kid because i think sometimes we’re talking about different you know decisions that they’re going to make maybe them not doing yoga is a decision in their mind they’re like i decided not to do this i decided to do that or something you know um so kind of i know we talked about movements but one of the questions that um that i had about the movement thing is we’re talking about like simple movements right or even like running in place but what are some like exercises that like anyone can do during the day whether not even just kids even adults as well like to re-center refocus and just like reset themselves yes and when i um gosh when you said that just now i was thinking of most of us are maybe not most of us but i would say when i imagine this question i think a lot of us are at a computer at a desk these days and so the first thing that came to my mind was cheer yoga is that something you’re familiar with i can talk a little bit about it okay awesome so shout out to yoga buzz in st louis um one of the main principles of their training is accessibility and adaptability and so with chair yoga i’m so glad this is um something that’s like kind of coming up more and more trending if you will that um if you need a break from your desk chair yoga is a wonderful practice for um you do take giving like giving yourself like a two five ten minute break so that’s every anything and everything from just taking some simple breaths that’s probably my i would say like lowest uh i guess in output towards like movement just do exactly what we did a couple minutes ago um gaze towards the floor close your eyes and maybe just take a couple deep breaths or you could increase it to like you know relaxing your shoulders pushing your back all the way into your seat seeing how your feet feel on the ground um maybe some head rolls i like to do this like soft touch to the shoulder try to like imagine don’t actually do it but imagine your ear touching your shoulder but then relaxing your shoulders um and if you have the space there’s like you know just the basic basic movements of um the six movements of the spine you can do those seated too but i would say if you’re able to do like the table top so you’re on like palms and then knees and then um opening up the chest and then closing it but you can also do that seated so the six movements of the spine opening closing this way and then the c curve so like this way and then twist and so you you can do these all in your seat too so twisting this way twisting that way i’m just doing it for i’m just unfortunate for this head one would go like are you pulling it or you just like so for that one yeah i was very i would say more of just like a touch and i i like to do it without the touch but sometimes people i would say put your hand on the top of your head and then you can just it’s just there for like placement and awareness i wouldn’t pull at all um but i like to just feel that stretch on the other side of the neck here and maybe take two deep breaths wherever you’re at with that and then try the other side i also like to do hands on top on the tops of your legs and then just slowly this is a good one for any desk work for all the attorneys out there less seriously

um again i was telling you earlier like i’ve told some of my colleagues people that really aren’t into yoga about yoga and like how it can really help you like de-stress and like focus and you don’t have to be super athletic and it’s just funny because like even what you’re showing me now i’m like i didn’t even think that you could do it at your desk and still kind of see like the benefits like that felt really good to do my little yeah sitting here doing my role so like right it makes me feel like relax you know because i think um especially a lot of parents and a lot of individuals that are you know running a business or working for someone else or working with children i mean it’s like no matter what your position is you’re either at a desk or you’re somewhere where it could be like you’re on your feet and then you have to stretch anyway so i think yeah absolutely yeah so i think um for viewers out there who have a little bit more time um i’ll i’ll add to my resource list too but just youtube chair yoga and you can do these all at your seat so those six movements of the spine i went through those really quickly but i would do each one hold it for two or three breaths um and let’s see what else and then you can do a figure four so like take one ankle and then at your desk you can cross it over the opposite uh knee like you’re almost you know sitting cross-legged or whatnot but then fold your upper body over and then you’ll get um a stretch on the outside of your thigh and that helps with sciatica um any lower back pain a lot of people i talked to who get say oh my i have such lower back pain um that’s probably one of the first major things that i recommend as a yoga instructor but then i talk to other people who are medical professionals um pts doctors are like oh that’s the same thing i would recommend and it’s just simply a yoga movement or just like a static hold um if this seated is hard i like to lay on my back with my feet near a wall and then do that for the figure four or like crossing one ankle over on top of the opposite knee and put the other sole of your foot up on the wall and that allows you to relax your hips more okay okay yeah sorry i know it’s hard to explain i went really quick well that’s and it’s fine i

a lower back pain and this is something i had uh colleagues of mine and and and friends actually suffer from so what what is the basic thing because even i have lower back pains so what is like the most basic thing you can do if you’re like sitting or does it prefer it’s just stretch yeah you mentioned it but i didn’t know what you meant yeah yeah so um lots of lower back pain the first the first couple postures i think of are this figure four so you can take it in there’s lots of variations um but i would say if you want a release in your hips so you’re not like tensing up your whole body it would be laying down on your back and then scoot towards a wall and so i mean i’m yeah i’m seated here but i’ll show you i’ll talk about it so you would yeah scoot your bottom towards like where the wall meets the floor and then cross while you’re laying on your back you’re going to cross over one ankle on top of the other leg and then lift up that straight leg okay so it’s like so then you’re gonna put that sole of your foot up on the wall and then scoot your you’re gonna like kind of scoot as you will closer to the wall and then you’ll get that deep stretch on the outside of your hip and that releases um into the low back it’s all connected um so everything in our lower body is connected to the upper body and it’s um that’s the first one i would say is what i think of and then something else the two other ones that i think of are a forward fold it’s exactly as it sounds you can do it seated or standing and i am always big on do what feels best for you if anything ever hurts well first of all always consult with your medical professional your team your doctors whatnot but um on top of that do what works best for you you don’t have to fold over and touch the floor um just releasing in that lower back and folding the body forward let’s say you’re standing folding the body forward and use yoga blocks and set them to the tall setting and so that brings the floor closer to you or if you don’t have yoga blocks um there’s like an ottoman near me i can see and i’m like oh just fold over and like put your hands on the ottoman or fold your upper body over and put your hands on like your quads or your shins whatever works for you make it adaptable for your practice it’s your body everybody’s different um and then the third one i would say is um it’s technical technically called malasana squat for any yogis out there but it’s like that deep squat where like your body’s pretty much making the letter m so like so like your hips are all the way low um and then basically if you were to do a squat but your knees are facing outward a little bit and then your hips go all the way down towards the floor um it can be a little painful um it i would say don’t do anything that hurts if it hurts um then i would do that same position but you can do it on your back on the floor and that pose would be called i think it’s happy baby yeah i almost said bug pose it’s not bug it’s happy baby so you’re laying on your blood happy baby is the best if you have any indigestion um lower back pain um and i like to even practice that malasana squat on the bottom of my stairs like i’ll be putting my shoes on and i’m like oh i’m gonna get in my deep squat right now as i’m putting my tennis shoes on so i’ll sit down and i like i can feel that deep stretch in my lower back as i’m putting my tennis shoes on um but yeah for happy baby lay on your back and then put your feet straight up in the air and then grab for the outsides of your feet bend your knees and then just grab your feet and then you can rock back and forth it massages your spine i’m saying all of these very very quickly but look up happy baby pose um happy baby pose and then figure four and forward fold for anybody with lower back pain and just type in yoga pose happy baby would probably be the safest for anybody that’s achy at all um yeah and if you have any i’ll go ahead it’s good to know i said it’s i’m actually like writing things down mentally um and you know what while we’re sitting here we had a good question come in i’m hoping you can help so um i think back to the question we had and the comments we had about you know breeding techniques with children and trying to help them someone had a great question said do you have any recommendations for parents trying to learn um a lot of these new techniques

just like a site resource well yeah or a book i mean i know you’re a big reader i know that absolutely yeah so is there any books that you would recommend someone that’s trying to like understand the techniques of how do i um teach mindfulness to my family do you have any books that you would recommend yes oh my gosh i don’t even know the title of it but i can see that um the cover in my mind and i don’t want to be rude and pull up my phone right now but i would say um gosh there’s anything i would say kids as long as it’s like if you see it on a bookshelf at like your local independent bookstore and it’s talking about yoga i’ve seen them i don’t know any exact titles off the top of my head but there’s one that says like let’s do yoga as a family do that i would say like and yeah if and that’s like to me double whammy you’re getting your kid to read learn about the structure of a book the title the pages reading from left to right top to bottom and they’re learning about yoga that’s perfect um but anything typically the books that i see for youngsters are involving yoga with animals because a lot of the poses are named after animals look at my fam look at my family we’re practicing yoga which is awesome um if you want to make it like a game depending on how many kids you have in your family i like to i use this with classrooms there’s a a yoga flash cards game and so you can make it a family activity it’s called i want to say it’s called um yoga for the classroom um so it is like an educator’s tool but you can get it for your family and for your kids i think it’s like 20 or 30 bucks none of this is an ad or indoors these are just things i use um but i love that

yeah and you don’t even have i mean like now that i think about it you don’t even have to buy it if you don’t want to you could make it a game if your kids are a little older where they can fully communicate and whatnot i would say like six or older you could say okay i’m gonna do a pose or guess the animal and so as long as everybody in the family knows the animals and knows the names of the poses you can like kind of do charades um so any yeah yeah so i love the fact that we’re just explaining that this is like a family thing because i know a lot of parents like feel like you know like they go to their kids games they do things with their kids but they’re not really like it’s hard to engage with their kid and i think like family yoga i just never thought that was gonna be part of our conversation today so i’m so happy to hear that because maybe this will have parents thinking another way how can i get my kids to be you know do something active with me or something that’s outside of their routine and and then they’ll learn mindfulness in that because i i think what you said earlier was so important i don’t think i learned what mindfulness was until probably um yeah like into my 20s maybe um early 20s even like because you don’t really have a lot of exposure to at least i didn’t and i don’t think a lot of kids i can’t speak for all the kids but i would think that every kid knows what that is or even what involves so yeah it’s really cool to know that there’s educational resources out there to kind of get your family to try something new yeah it’s it’s definitely a different world than when you and i were like in primary school years i would guess um i mean like i know so but um yeah in state of illinois there’s a social emotional learning like mandate now especially coming out and re-entry after the pandemic a lot of schools i think illinois as a whole um is making it a requirement for kids to have more social emotional time so you know parents out there i know that academics are important but especially during this time where kids were so dysregulated for so long kids don’t understand the gravity of what we all have just gone through and so just i know this is very cliche and very generalized but having patience and talking about them with your kids if you have listened to any podcasts with um esther esther perrell or brene brown start there brene brown is amazing but she talked about how you know when i got back to work my the school i was at was went back in person in a hybrid fashion last october and you know i got back to work and i thought man this is so weird like we’re not talking about what we all just went through and just like seeing people like i can’t imagine how the kids are we didn’t take a second to say someone someone in the class tell me a happy moment that happened with their family during the pandemic and just really taking that time for them to reflect i think it’s gonna it’s gonna be so interesting to see what how the kids turn out as adults because i think we’re really taking that time to invest in kids social emotional skills and they’re going to be so much more well equipped then i’m going to be honest like just sharing my own life it’s like i’m getting older and i’m like man i got to figure out a whole bunch of stuff in terms of my social emotional skills and thank god i mean like i was like i’m gonna take this deep dive and do this yoga instruction thing but yeah they didn’t teach us this when we were younger and so adults out there you know yeah if you’re a new parent or just like adult being like you know i need to learn more about myself and where i’m at and um get in touch with my social emotional self yoga and mindfulness is a great place to start i think the scary part is just showing up and that doesn’t mean you have to go to a public class you can start at home you can start with youtube um just carving out that time and creating that routine for yourself is step one yeah absolutely so it’s such

i just love that um and we actually have a couple of viewers that just joined us so i’m going to recap for those of you that just joined us um as you know my name is stephanie garces donat i’m the founding partner and owner of garces law firm in arlington heights where we help parents secure their legacy and help with their life’s transitions i’m including protecting your children um and their families so i’m here with jessica scharf who’s an amazing friend of mine but also a really respected certified yoga instructor and school psychologist that knows a lot about children a lot about um really the struggles that parents are facing and so she’s going to give us great advice today she also does um specializes in mindfulness for k-12 and happens to also practice self-care and preach us about that which we really appreciate i know you’ve taught me a lot even outside of this uh pink mic legal confessions um episode but last year and her yoga certificate at uh yoga buzz in st louis and so she also teaches outdoor yoga classes so the the topic today is the benefits of yoga and mindfulness with jessica scharf on you know are our expert in all of this today so in case you’ve missed the last episode we covered a very interesting topic it was the sport of horseback riding and the local equestrian community um you can watch it right here on the facebook page or my youtube channel but it’s really good we have these episodes on tuesdays at 1pm and we welcome everyone to share and to attend and if you have any questions about what we’re talking about feel free to drop the comments below i love seeing your comments because it’s it’s important for us to engage inside of you know the normal like facebook role that you guys are doing every day hopefully you stop here and learn something they didn’t know before so i’m really quick to transition we have a couple questions that came in from the audience one of them is um to you jess they’re asking do you offer any private lessons or do you do any yoga parties

yes so um right now i’m pretty much doing exactly that i’ll do one-on-one sessions with adults um or small group classes where you know if a husband and wife is like hey we want to do private classes but like just the two of us um i don’t have my own space right now because i used to do space or classes on the farm but since we relocated on the farm anymore so um you know with clients permission i would come to wherever their outdoor space is but then the nice part is you have your own private space um and so we work on what you want to work on either in one-on-one a small group or i do you know birthdays bridal showers um prenatal yoga things like that any special occasions if there’s a retirement and the retiree loves yoga that’s the perfect gift so yeah specifically small parties at this time awesome awesome what about wait another question what about like mom and child yoga are those classes available anywhere or with you i mean because i think sometimes people want to get their kids to come with them so where would they do that

yeah yes so um i listed some links um on uh my website um just for like introductory youtube sessions if they want to send i would say you never land areas fast that with your local park district all the places will have um mommy and me classes um at the local park district at your local ymca maybe at a local studio a lot of places are starting to interesting yoga as like a special event so kind of keep your eyes on the calendar videos um

yoga classes it’ll be

like that family yoga is something that a lot of places are

okay well i i think we might have gotten a little bit stuck with the technology but no worries oh there you are okay perfect sometimes it freezes a little bit um okay so basically the park district seems to be a place where you could certainly go and so that works too um but otherwise it can contact you which you already talked about so which is great um but this is good to know again i just hope that parents that are watching today really are thinking about yoga in a different way mindfulness and really practicing it and you talked about it being a practice because it truly is a practice i know that i’ve um started doing my own mindfulness within during the pandemic even a little bit before you really start to realize how much benefits it has um in your personal life and in your everyday um with your family so you know they always say you can’t take care of others if you don’t take care of yourself first and so that’s how i feel about mindfulness and and that sort of topic so that’s great um well where can i contact you just if anybody wants to contact you for lessons um or for any other questions they have yes so you can contact me at d2e that’s down to earth d2eyogastl at gmail.com and then my website where you’ll find all this information including my contact and a list of resources about everything we’ve talked about today is d2eyoga.weebly.com listed there on the bottom of the screen um but yeah if you have any questions interested in uh instruction or just want a little bit more direction about like what to do with this information you can contact me at my email or on the website awesome well thank you so much um for joining us today you gave us so much more information that you know i certainly didn’t know before and just to kind of wrap up everything together it’s mindfulness and your family and pandemic and there’s so many things that that we can benefit from so just thank you for sharing your knowledge with all the viewers i always love i’m empowering everyone so they can understand what self-care means and what it means for your family which is really important so um also thank you to the viewers for all your questions i always appreciate you guys and your support here in pink mike um and as always if you have any questions regarding retirement planning or how you protect your legacy how do i leave a guardian for my children if something ever happens to me these are really really important topics to discuss now and you want to start now sooner than later is better because i always say later never comes so make sure that you guys are thinking about that um i always cherish the opportunity to work with any of our viewers if you need help with anything but i invite you to join me here next week for our next pink mic legal confessions episode and as always our recordings are on the facebook page and youtube so again thanks jess so much for your time and i look forward to attending your next yoga class awesome thank you much so much stephanie it was a pleasure and everybody take care of yourselves out there thanks so much take care guys