It is amazing how inspiration can be found in the smallest of things or smallest of people.
My day to day job is working with children with special needs. This has been a job I have held since I finished school. It has come in many different forms, but I always find myself wanting to work with children that need extra attention, extra care, and extra advocacy. I feel passionate about what I do, but it is not glamorous and success does not come easy.
Recently, I find myself working with very young children and their families. These children have a variety of different disabilities, such as developmental delays, speech delays, and autism. All of the children are under three-years-old and many of the families do not have experience with children with special needs. I found my inspiration in one such small child and his mother.
My work hosted a playgroup which is a group of two-year-olds trying to learn to talk and play together, among other things. We always had a variety of fun craft projects and learning games. Most of the kids took to the activities quickly and learned the routines. Except one little boy, who cried for most of the playgroup. His mom also seemed upset that her son did not seem to want to join in the group. This continued for weeks.
Finally one of my co-workers suggested that I start doing yoga with the group. The two-year-olds always seemed to be fidgety before story time. I agreed. I loved the idea. I had the parents sit with their child and take simple breaths in and out, raising their hands up as they breathed in and down as they breathed out. So simple. So effective.
Most of the children were immediately more focused and able to sit longer, but the little boy that had such a hard time; he was smiling. His mom was smiling, too. I felt my inspiration to help others and use yoga to help growing. I know that family had a long road of therapy to go, but just helping for that moment in that second gave me hope.
