Happy Mindful People
Happy Mindful People is a Portland based company founded by Sheri Louis and Elissa Cirignotta. The platform is teaching kindness, gratitude, and compassion through yoga, mindfulness, and social skills. The intention is to inspire social change that will empower kids, teens, and adults to live their best life.
We offer a myriad of classes ranging from specialized Yoga and Social Skills for Kids on the Autism Spectrum to Mindful Parenting classes. Our classes integrate the newest research on brain development, a Vinyasa flow, and social skills. Kids, teens, and adults have access to meaningful tools that they can easily implement into their everyday routines.
Our hope is for all children, all teens, and all adults to have increased control of their bodies, awareness of their breath, and gratitude for their magnificent lives. Scatter seeds of kindness and grow peace.
For more information visit HappyMindfulPeople.com
SUMMER OFFERINGS:
June 23rd-27th Co-ed Social Skills/Yoga Camp
July/August Imagination Yoga Summer Camps
July Series Boys and Girls Mindfulness
July Refresher Mindful Parenting PDX Class
New Class Offerings:
Imagination Yoga Community Classes at Shine Yoga Studio
July Series Yoga for Kids on the Autism Spectrum
August 25th-29th Co-ed Social Skills/Yoga Camp
Contac happymindfulpeople@gmail.com to register for an upcoming class.
We are kicking off the summer with serious kindness and a fabulous SoulShine Tour with Michael Franti and Spearhead. Happy Mindful People is honored to be part of the yoga ambassador team for the upcoming Soulshine Tour. Meet us at Edgefield on June 29th for yoga, music, dancing, and play!!! Let your SOUL SHINE and get your tickets at http://soulshine.com/.
Summer-time Kindness Challenge!
Share your stories with us at happymindfulpeople@gmail.com and like us on Facebook to send a private message- https://www.facebook.com/happymindfulpeople.
Happy Mindful People Kindness Challenge:
Did you know that hope and optimism enable achievement? Apparently hope alters brain chemistry which influences our decisions and the actions we make.
I've been spending a great deal of my time thinking, discussing, and researching topics like hope, love, and goodness. How are they measured? Or quantified? What makes happy?
Lately my free time involves me, a yoga mat, and downward dog. I've stepped up my yoga practice in the last month and now more than ever I am experiencing this mind body connection, with my breath working as the invisible thread that links the two. I am more in control of my body than I've ever been and with that has come a sense of calm within that makes every day easier and better. Don't get me wrong, things don't always go my way and the firey Sicilian-Jewish blood makes an appearance just often enough to assure me that I still got it; however overall, I find, that I keep celebrating life.
So here are a few things I know.
The more I celebrate life the more life I have to celebrate.
The more I move from judgement to caring, isolation to connection, and indifference to understanding the more I love myself.
The more I love myself the more I love others.
The more I love others the more I experience hope, happiness, and optimism.
The dopamine pleasure surge is highest when people become fully engaged in the practice of optimism, gratitude, hope, and an overall sense of well being. What gives us that surge?
Drugs, alcohol, over-eating, participating in acts of kindness, making choices and solving problems, engaging in physical activities, enjoying creative efforts, collaborating, etc... The more consistent we are in experiencing pleasure and rewards that come from physical activity, creative efforts, social interactions and over-all positive experiences the less likely we are to engage in risky behaviors that could bring harm to us and others.
Because I strongly believe we are all connected to one another, I often experience that sense of urgency that we must immediately begin to focus on becoming the very best person we can be. It is no accident that when you look closely into the eyes of another, the very first thing you see, is yourself. We are all somehow connected.
Let's live vicariously through our own kind lives! What are you doing to scatter your seeds of kindness! Then tell us about it!
Ideas:
1. Stop by your favorite coffee shop and leave the barista a treat.
2. Drop off a handful of quarters at the neighborhood laundry mat.
3. Write a letter to a sib...ling, parent, friend, or stranger!
3. Paint love rocks and leave them around your community. (Thanks Hillsboro School District for the idea.)
4. Hand out doughnuts (or muffins) at work or on your way to work.
5. Write letters and visit an elder at local nursing home.
6. Invite someone to dinner.
7. Go to a yoga class.
8. Invite a friend to go for a jog/bike ride/ or tennis match.
9. Volunteer. Anywhere.
10. Say I love you. Everyday.
11. Write a Haiku.
12. Say a kind thing to your body every morning.
13. Take a walk in nature.
14. Buy/pick someone a flower.
15. Do something creative! Write in your journal, paint a picture, make a collage, bead a necklace...etc
16. Find a hula hoop and HOOP!
Ready. Set. Go.
Post written by Elissa Cirignotta. Contact her at ElissaCirignotta@gmail.com.