YOGA AND MEDITATION FOR A MINDFUL EDUCATION IN ALICANTE (SPAIN)

Project Management Spain Erasmus Plus
Contact: info@pmserasmusplus.com
Organization ID (OID): E10039300

• COURSE INFORMATION:
Children and teenagers are constantly developing and the changes they experience affect their bodies, minds and relationships with others. Yoga helps them to grow healthily inside and outside. Children are yogis by nature. They come into the world with a baggage full of particular talents and gifts: agile movement, good posture, presence, curiosity, openness and great capacity to learn and discover new things. The yoga and meditation for a mindful education course is a practical course to initiate children and teenagers into the world of yoga, meditation and mindfulness. This course is aimed at anyone involved in education, whether in the professional or family field.

The course is focused on dynamic and practical contents of mindfulness. The Yoga and mindfulness sessions will be presented as a game with which they can have fun, get to know their body and control their breathing consciously. Also, it will serve them to connect with their inner self, they will discover their emotions and they will be able to manage them much better. They will be able to focus their attention on a better predisposition to learn the tasks they have in the classroom. They will improve their behavior and will be more receptive to creating a better environment. In addition, respect for peace, the environment and love is promoted.

It is necessary to find a moment in the day when children can disconnect from their daily tasks, stop for a while and reach a state of clam, in which they are predisposed to learning, having activated their capacity for attention and concentration through psychomotor games based on yoga and mindfulness.

• METHODOLOGY:
This course proposes to practice mindfulness and yoga as a routine within the school day since more and more scientific research supports that the practice of mindfulness and yoga favors the development of practical skills that allow children, adolescents and adults to be in contact to what happens in them and their environment with greater wisdom and compassion. In this course we will explore 6 of these skills: concentration, quietness, awareness, redefinition, interest and connection. All of these skills form a circle where concentration is at the center of that circle, considering that constant and flexible attention is the support for the other skills.

It will focus as well in avoid, thanks to a mentally clear an d emotionally calm state, nowadays problems at school as school violence and bullying, lack of values, lack of motivation and assertiveness, inability to set goal, frustration and emotional distress that affects mood, social behavior and learning. A positive coexistence is basic in school, so each day of the course will work in that way, deepen in meditation and emotional education. Besides, teachers will be able to transmit those yoga sessions to their students. Yoga sessions are going to be run during all days of the week and will have very importance in the knowledge of relaxing education.

We will work on the yoga postures that are inspired by the elements of nature such as animals, plants, forms, which allow the practitioner to enter in harmony with his own body and also, as a reflection, with the energetic manifestations that these postures remind us of.

We will see the benefits that can be obtained through yoga: a stronger musculature and spine, a correct posture that reduces deviations and back pain, an elevation of the immune defenses and a more serene and balanced state of mind.

Mindfulness and the practice of meditation will impact positively in their intellectual activity and developing personality, intelligence, self-confidence, and increase in personal satisfaction and self-esteem and to acquire greater tolerance and control in order to face stressful situations.

• MAIN OBJETIVES:
We will try to make it easier for adults to puzzle out the ideas of mindfulness, meditation and yoga and to simplify them enough so that they can be passed on to children and teenagers.
We will manage to connect play, relaxation, concentration and balance as well as allowing them to know themselves and communicate with their environment. In addition to the above benefits, we will also see how it favors their creativity. It has been demonstrated that yoga strengthens body awareness, increases concentration and help to manage emotion. Furthermore, it promotes a strong, flexible and healthy body; improves body posture; promotes coordination and balance; increases motor skills; and it makes you enjoy! Great discovery, which helps everyone with the lack of attention, stress and relaxation.
Through mindfulness and yoga, children will exercise their breathing and they will learn how to relax in order to cope with stress, conflict situations and lack of concentrations, problems so evident in today´s society. Yoga will help them on their long journey towards physical and psychological mastery.
These are some of the main points that children will achieve on a physical and mental level with the practice of yoga and mindfulness:
1. Improve of the postural habits of the spine
2. Massage of the internal organs
3. Improved breathing habits
4. Stimulation of blood circulation
5. Improved self-esteem
6. Reduce the number of students with emotional distress
7. Help students to know how to manage emotions such as impulsivity and induce states of serenity and tranquility.
8. Perfection of the senses
9. Agility and strength
10. Calm and Relaxation
11. Better development of attention, concentration, memory and imagination
12. Harmonization of personality and character
13. Timely channeling of physical energy
14. Better understanding and interaction with others
15. To deal with discrimination, bullying and violence prevention.

• DAYLY SCHEDULE:
In the sessions proposed in this program, mindfulness games, yoga and meditation will be alternated. Each session will be divided into theoretical part and practical part. Therefore we will need to wear comfortable clothes and comfortable shoes. We will take our shoes off when we do the Yoga exercises. All the proposed activities can be adapted to the age and needs of the students. The sessions will be motivating and entertaining. So that you can put into practice everything you have learned once you return to your schools. To do this, we use a funny and participative methodology. We will watch videos, play games, share emotions and thoughts, and have the opportunity to bring out the children in us.

Here you have below the general programme of the course:

DAY 1 – SUNDAY.
- Meeting and greeting.
- Individual orientation and information about the venue and the city.
- Round up presentation and networking between all participants.
- Guided and educational activity to discover the city.

DAY 2: MONDAY.
- Yoga session (Hatta and Kundalini Yoga)
- Presentation of your own school and your Erasmus project.
- What is mindfulness?
- What is meditation?
- Who can practice it?
- Mindfulness games

DAY 2: TUESDAY.
- Yoga Session (Hatta Yoga)
- Presentation of your own school and your Erasmus project.
- Living in the present
- Mindfulness and the senses
- Mindfulness activities for kids and teenagers using our senses
- Yoga in the classroom with chairs
- Meditation
- Mindfulness activities for children and teenagers

DAY 4: WEDNESDAY.
- Meditation for memory
- Easy mindfulness games
- Relaxation Techniques
- The chain of appreciation
- Emotions
- Yoga for different ages
- How long should a yoga session last?
- Yoga practice with games and relaxation with music

DAY 5 : THURSDAY.
- Yoga practice and relaxation with music (yoga for teenagers)
- Mindfulness game for concentration and patience
- Mirror law
- Meditation in pairs
- Communication
- Communication games

DAY 6: FRIDAY.
- Yoga practice (Anusara Yoga)
- Walk through the fairies forest
- Mandalas
- Recommendations for a yoga class for children of all ages
- Objects of meditation
- Meditation (using imagination)
- Gratitude Games
- Line of life

DAY 7 – SATURDAY.
- Course evaluation.
- Releasing official course certifications.
- Participants departure.

COMPLEMENTARY ACTIVITIES :
- Networking activity: Presentation of your own school and your KA1 PROJECT.
- Free cultural activity: discovering the city and its cultural heritage. Visit to Alicante city and Santa Bárbara Castle. Free activity included in the course.
- Optional Spanish cooking activity: buy local ingredients at the Market and cool your own paella. Sangria included.
- Free cultural activity: Discovering the city and its cultural heritage. You will visit MARQ Museum, archaeological and historical site awarded as Best European Museum in 2004. Visit included in course fees.
- Optional cultural activity: trip to Tabarca Island in Alicante with all participants from the course and other structured courses of the company. Guided tour with historical and cultural inputs.

• DATES:
YOGA AND MEDITATION course will attend editions during 2022 & 2023 in the following dates:

2022:
ICELAND – REYKJAVÍK:
From Sunday 13th February to Saturday 19th.
From Sunday 24th April to Saturday 30th.
From Sunday 17th July to Saturday 23rd.
From Sunday 24th July to Saturday 30rd.
From Sunday 21st August to Saturday 27th.
From Sunday 16th October to Saturday 22nd.
SPAIN – ALICANTE:
From Sunday 20th February to Saturday 26th.
From Sunday 10th April to Saturday 16th.
From Sunday 10th July to Saturday 16th.
From Sunday 7th August to Saturday 13th.
From Sunday 11th September to Saturday 17th
From Sunday 9th October to Saturday 15th.
From Sunday 30th October to 5th November.
From Sunday 27th November to Saturday 3rd December.
FRANCE – MARTINIQUE:
From Sunday 17th April to Saturday 23rd.

2023:
ICELAND – REYKJAVÍK:
From Sunday 12th February to Saturday 18th.
From Sunday 23rd April to Saturday 29th.
From Sunday 9th July to Saturday 15th.
From Sunday 16th July to Saturday 22nd.
From Sunday 23rd July to Saturday 29th.
From Sunday 20th August to Saturday 26th.
From Sunday 15th October to Saturday 21st.
SPAIN – ALICANTE:
From Sunday 15th January to Saturday 21st.
From Sunday 12th March to Saturday 18th.
From Sunday 2nd April to Saturday 8th.
From Sunday 21st May to Saturday 27th.
From Sunday 9th July to Saturday 15th.
From Sunday 30th July to Saturday 5th August.
From Sunday 10th September to Saturday 16th.
From Sunday 8th October to Saturday 14th.
From Sunday 29th October to Saturday 4th November.
From Sunday 26th November to Saturday 2nd December.
FRANCE – MARTINIQUE:
From Sunday 9th April to Saturday 15th

• COSTS AND ERASMUS + FUNDING
The cost of the seven day course is 560€, and includes course fees, support free cultural activities in the city during the week and certification of attendance. The company offers an Optional cultural package to deepen the relationship between all participants.

The training course is tailored to be fully funded by Erasmus + to teachers, trainers, headmasters and any other staff of education organizations. Furthermore trainers can help in Key Action 1 application to ensure that participants can get the grant and could be eligible to receive an Erasmus + grant that covers all the costs of the course.