Lauren Hoffmeier takes Mula and the Fly to the Brooklyn Book Festival
This year has been tremendous from a creative standpoint, as the story that popped into my head over 2-years-ago was given life and has transitioned from the wellspring of my mind to the hands of children around the globe thanks to the brilliant team over at Sweet Cherry Publishing.
As a debut author, I was honoured to have been asked to participate in the prestigious Brooklyn Book Festival – which is New York City’s largest free literary festival – in order to feature the first in my yoga-for-kids series: Mula and the Fly. The astonishing thing about the reading was seeing Mula and the Fly in action, as the children took to the breathing and movement cues effortlessly with pure fun and focus.
Mula and the Fly is a book that promotes the benefits of mindfulness for children through the power of story and humour, and the mindful cues to breathe allow the children to direct their attention to the story in a profound way. So much so that I had parents come up to me after the reading to relay that they had never seen their child focus so well. This was not just touching to hear, but spoke to what I had personally experienced about mindfulness first-hand, and was in fact the very reason I wanted to write the book.
The children were so excited to share what they knew about yoga before the reading even started, and shared a pose or two with the group. The end of each book in the series provides a mini yoga-for-kids class, which of course was a feature in the reading, and with so many children interested in the book, I ended up giving the reading 3 times!
The biggest takeaway from all of this were the connections made with each child who came to the reading. Mindfulness is the simple practice of focusing on the breath in order to allow oneself to focus on the present moment without judgement. It’s that focus that I think is the reason the children took to the story so well because they were being seen. After all, a focused breath is a moment of profound respect for oneself and a way to create community and connection.
Lauren Hoffmeier was raised in the heart of New York City with a performance background in opera and musical theatre. She is a certified vinyasa yoga instructor and graduate of Boston University. In this brilliant world of oddballs and misfits, she aims to inspire positivity by encouraging an international mindset of joy and uniqueness.
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