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| Frolicking with Butterflies |
A few weeks ago, on the school holidays, my rainbow family decided it would be nice to go on a walking meditation in the Perth hills. We decided to go down a gravel track to rest under some trees when we discovered a large open paddock filled with Monarch Butterflies.
It’ll come as no surprise to you that my first thought was to incorporate yoga into this experience.
A few days before, the children had made nets from sticks and netting at a Nearer to Nature dragonfly workshop. We had taken the nets on our walk just incase.
All across the field were these very interesting plants with large, green, spiky balls all over them, that we later discovered were unusual seed pods. As we were investigating them with magnifying glasses we found the tree was housing black and white striped caterpillars.
Asclepias physocarpa (balloon plant) it turns out, is a favorite food of the Monarchs, as well as fantastic place for laying their eggs.
We had stumbled across a huge butterfly breeding ground.
It was so much fun chasing and frolicking with the butterflies playfully in the field. I watched the excitement in our bubbins eyes when their dad caught one in the net they had made. We had managed to have a little look at the patterns and colours of the butterfly before we released it back into the air.
A wonderland of playful discovery and learning.
After we set the butterfly free, the children found somewhere to sit and draw there experience among the butterflies in their visual diaries.
Baddha Konasana (Butterfly Pose)
We sat sat down with knees bent and pressed our soles together. Kept our spine straight and tall and pulled our heels in close to our body. Then we flapped our legs up and down just like butterfly wings and imagined what colour butterfly we would be and where we would go.
We enjoyed our imaginative play whilst reaping the benefits of opening the hips, stretching the inner thighs and strengthening the back with Baddha Konasana, the Butterfly Pose.
Yoga can be apart of any experience, all you need is a little imagination.
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