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