A special education class at Portage High School has found a relaxing approach to helping students find better ways to cope with life’s everyday struggles.
During an interpersonal relations (IPR/Affect) class about a month ago, Lisa Casimer, an instructor at the Portage Township YMCA, guided the class in traditional yoga exercises as an outside-the-box way to start their day.
“The vast majority of students were really attentive and participated - I think they got quite a bit out of it,” said Casimer, who has been a YMCA instructor since 2006 and has been teaching yoga for the last year and a half. “I feel like with some of them it touched on something that meant something to them. It resonated with them.”
Class teacher Kristin Wiesjahn said the exercises made some of the students “more interested in attending the Y or going to yoga classes outside the school,” expressing interest in setting up a time for Casimer to come back for similar sessions perhaps as often as once a month.
“A lot of our students struggle with letting things go, have some anger problems and need better coping skills,” Wiesjahn explained. “I wanted to get them into more of a routine and Lisa went over a lot of breathing routines and some yoga moves too.”
Some basic Warrior 1, 2, and 3 practices were touched on,said Casimer, who took up yoga only six years ago herself.
“I get sore - so I felt like I needed to take some time to do something more low-key that would relax muscles and mind,” she said of how her interest began. “In the practice of yoga, as you are going through the exercises and slow yourself down, you can be more reflective of life.”
For the kids, the goal is to install that same mindset to help them cope a little better.
“The key is why it was relevant to them,” Casimer said. “I talked to them about how Michael Jordan gave most of the credit to him not being injured often to Phil Jackson having the team meditate before every game They may not be in control of how other kids treat them, but they can be in control of that they choose to think about. They were very responsive to that. I enjoyed that and look forward to going back.”