The Gift of Awareness

Theme: give the gift of awareness to yourself

Universal Principle of Alignment Focus: Open to Grace

Antidote: My awareness and my attention to my son is such a gift. it has always been true but I notice it even more now that he is older (he is almost 2). To be able to put all of my attention on him, in the moment, with out being on my phone, thinking of something else, or trying to multitask is truly a present for both of us. Like the quote goes "today is a gift that's why they call it the present" or I might change it to "this moment is a gift that's why they call it the present". 

We can give ourself this present of awareness. When ever we take the time to place our total attention on what we are doing in the moment.  How often is it that someone doesn't give you their attention? That is not a got feeling. How awesome that we can give ourself this gift! A wonderful place to practice giving ourself this attention is on the mat. 

One of the many things I love about Anusara is It has taught me to open my awareness and give the gift of attention to myself in a healing way. Before I found this practice I focused my attention on, what doesn't matter, my weight or appearance but more frequently I ignored myself. In my asana practice I would focus on my breath as a way to ignore my body  and go deeper into a pose, to deep and get injured. Putting attention on the breath is great and can be healing but not when all focus is on the breath and there is a conscious or unconscious detachment from the body. 

We will practice this today by Opening ourself up and detaching from the many things that pull at our attention so we can give ourself the gift of experiencing each moment in our body, in the pose and notice how little alignment actions can both expand our awareness of our body/mind/spirit while keeping us anchored into the moment. What a gift! Give it to yourself! 

Quote: "We are either a slave to the mind, or the mind serves our soul" Yogi Bhajan

Warm up 

1/2 sun 3x 

Half moon sun stretch 

Pec sterch- quad stretch- standing pigeon 

Sun A 3x 

Basic 

Dolphin 1 min timing 

W2 - rev warrior - Parsvak 

W2 - bowing warrior - Parsvak 

Scandasana- Wide leg forward fold - handstand prep tippy toes (second time hops) 

Anjanyasana quad - trikonasana 

Warrior 1

Dolphin - pincha timed

Harder

Cobra 

Pec stretch 

Danurasana 

Danurasana side to side

Fish 

Urdha danurasana prep 

Apex 

Hanumanasana 

Cool down 

Janusirsana -Matsyendrasana twist -Wide janu now over foot arm bones up 

Root femur and round spine 

Comfort Yourself

Theme: learn to comfort yourself.  

UPA principles of focus : Muscle energy and inner spiral.

Antidote: Sage was sick for 2 weeks he threw up multiple nights and got an ear infection. He wanted the comfort of his mom so much. It reminded me of when I was little and my mom would wrap he arms around me and tell me everything was going to be okay. In those moments I felt nourished with comfort and love. It has been such a gift to be the mother and the arms the wrap around Sage with comfort and reassurance. Through the practice of Anusara Yoga and learning to apply the Universal Principles of Alignment I have learned that I can create my own comfort, love and nurishment. I feel this most when I practice the second principle, muscle energy, contacting the muscles pulling the skin toward the bone evenly on all sides. It is a self embrace which we can infuse with comfort, love, reassurance or whatever we might need in that moment. How often do you want to experience comfort from someone and don't receive it? How awesome is it that we can give ourself this give? Very awesome!

Muscular energy is a terrific alignment focus when working toward hanumanasana, full splits, because the muscular engagements comforts our proprioceptors so we can go deeper into the pose while keeping our body safe. I like to think of proprioceptors as little alarms spread throughout the muscles and when these alarms monitor a stretch the alarms go off which seize the muscle up to prevent injury. However if you engage your muscle consistently for 30 seconds minimum those proprioceptors are reassured that the muscle is not in danger and the muscle can move deeper into a stretch. When I first learned this I was shocked. But through practice I have learned this is true. I go deeper and my body feels better when I engage! So get ready to give your self some comfort and some hugs with your muscles, you deserve it!

Apex: hanumanasana (the importance of  me to comfort proprioceptors so we can go deeper safely into the pose)

Sequence: 

Warm up 

Uttanasana engage muscles- ardha utt 3x 

Utt- hrl twist 

Utt- L- standing hip stretch- standing quad 

Tadasana - vinyasa - AMS 3 hops 2 utt 

Basic 

Utt blanket roll under balls of feet- Malasana blanket roll under heals- paschimotonasana blanket roll under sit bones 2x 

Hero with blanket roll btw calls and hamstrings moving from knees to heels in small increments 

Cow face 

Pigeon quad 

Dolphin leg lift 

Harder

AMS- Parsvak hop switch Parsvak 

AMS- trikonasana hop switch trikonasana 

Utt- hrl- parsvot 3x - s.s- hop 3x 

Apex

Tad- knee to chest- w3 - 3x- hanumanasana - AMS hop forward

Utt- s.s - hanumanasana - AMS hop forward 

W1- twist 

Cool down 

AMS 1 minute hold 

Double pigeon 

Supta root femur 

Windshield wiper twist