Mallika Chopra: Just Breathe
MALLIKA CHOPRA: This one I’ve had so much fun with. This one is again traditional, breathing yoga exercise, which is curling your tongue, which many people can’t curl their tongues, so we had much fun just laughing and giggling. You can do this exercise by curling your tongue or keeping your tongue flat and taking a deep breath in through your nose and then breathing. You are breathing in cool air and then breathing out through your tongue. Taking a deep breath in, and then with your curled or flat tongue breathing the air out. What that does, again, brings the cool air in and then the warm air out.
VICTOR FUHRMAN: What about meditation for Falling asleep?
MALLIKA CHOPRA: This is another traditional yoga exercise because you often know racing thoughts cause insomnia. In this one we use breathing into the count of one, breathing out to the count of two, and then breathing into the count of two, and then breathing out to the count of three and just increasing the numbers. That helps to slow down our breath.
VICTOR FUHRMAN: Mallika, were these designed to help kids through everyday life and the challenges they face in school and with friends and family?
MALLIKA CHOPRA: I’ve wanted to write this book since forever. Because I grew up with these techniques, I think they were the gifts that my parents gave me. As I became a mom and watched my daughters grow and watched their friends and my daughters have their struggles and anxieties, I started to teach fellow parents, people in my community, and I saw from a different side the effects that it was having. This book is a way that I can serve by sharing those with a bigger audience. I’ve been so humbled to hear from people, whether it’s parents or teachers in the classroom, or librarians, about how this is helping kids to slow down and connect.
VICTOR FUHRMAN: What about the rest of the country? Do you think that this is something that the schools can adopt?
MALLIKA CHOPRA: I think it’s happening, I really do, and I think again that there’s controversy around this, but once we strip away any religious type of language or making the too spiritual type of language, school districts seem more open to it. Again, what we are talking about with these techniques is finding your breath, pausing, and movement. We can provide tools that deal with the physical and emotional realms of this, and then I think the spiritual comes with it as we connect more. I completed recently at Teachers College a Masters in Clinical Psychology and Education. The reality is that school districts have a lot of rules and regulations and committees, so it’s not necessarily so easy. If we strip it down to the basics of breath and movement and take away the Mantras and some of the things that schools and communities that aren’t familiar with this that they might find threatening, we can still provide these tools for kids.
VICTOR FUHRMAN: Have you authored, or been approached, to create a curriculum?
MALLIKA CHOPRA: Goldie Hawn has a great organization that has taught many schools, and some so many great teachers are doing this. I realize that I love going into schools and doing stuff, but I really would want to work with an expert on curriculums, so I am in discussions with some people. I’ve been trying to spend my time right now focused on the next book that I mentioned Just Feel, which is social and emotional intelligence, and hopefully, this can all come together in some curriculum. One thing I have realized, being at many schools, is that every school has its unique flavor and culture, and so I feel reticent about going in and just creating a blueprint that will work everywhere. I think it has to be something that the school and the community find right for them.
VICTOR FUHRMAN: You have a wonderful section on imagining who and what a person can be. Children are wonderful at imagining. However, it sounds like that part of the book is really for adults because it talks about how we dream as kids, but we lose those dreams as we get older. Is your book for adults, too?
MALLIKA CHOPRA: It’s so funny, because I wrote this book for kids and it’s Breathe, and it has very simple exercises, but as I mentioned in the beginning. Meditation was about discovering whom we were or asking questions. Who am I, what do I want, how can I serve and what am I grateful for? So, meditation is, in my family tradition, about self-discovery and thinking about how we can contribute back to our communities. For me, that was obvious to be included in the book, and I’ve talked my whole life about intention and helping people think about intention.
So, yes, I’m hearing from so many adults how much the book is helping them because it has stripped it down to be written for young kids, but the techniques are the techniques. It’s the same thing whether you’re an adult or a kid.
VICTOR FUHRMAN: What would you like readers of all ages to take away from Just Breathe?
MALLIKA CHOPRA: Hopefully, just as I’ve been given this gift by my parents, to be able to manage my own life, they will find tools in there that will help them for a lifelong journey.
VICTOR FUHRMAN: Wonderful. Mallika Chopra, please tell our listeners one more time how to get your book and find out more about you and this wonderful work.
MALLIKA CHOPRA: So Just Breathe is available everywhere, and I’m so grateful for that, and whether you look online or at your local bookstore, they should have it. Then, for me, the best place to visit is www.mallikachopra.com, and then I blog at intendtoblog.com and, of course, I’m on all social media. That’s often the best places to find me.
