Discover your COURAGE

Theme: Discover Your Courage

Anecdote: In a Sioux Indian story about courage, the Great Creator gathers all living things together and presents them with a challenge. “I gave each of you courage,” the Creator says. “But it is something I want humans to work hard to discover. Where can I hide it?”

The eagle spoke. “I am not afraid to soar high into the sky. I will place it among the stars.” But the Creator said, “No. One day humans will fly into the skies and easily find this.”

The dolphin said, “I am not afraid to dive deep into the ocean. I will deposit it on the ocean floor.” But the Creator said, “No. One day humans will go far below the surface of the ocean and find it.”

Then a tiny gnat spoke up. “I cannot soar into the sky or dive deep into the ocean or dig into the ground. Even so, I have courage. Why not place it inside of humans? Then it will be up to them to discover it themselves.” And so it was.

Until you discover your courage, you will not be able to see how high you can soar and all of the things that you can accomplish.

I will seek the courage within me and use it to guide me in all that I do.

“Courage is only an accumulation of small steps.”

—George Konrad

Heart quality: courage 

UPA: muscle energy to the midline 

Apex: warrior 1 

Sequence: 

Warm up 

Cat /cow 

Table shalabasana 

Ams

Basic 

L - tree  L 

L- tree- eagle- L 

L twist - half moon 

W2- mod. Parsvak- rev w 

Malasana- crow 

Utkanana twist - L twist- anjaneyasana twist- add quad stretch 

Harder 

Eagle- Standing split - handstand hops 

Low lunge quad 

Active pigeon Cow face 

Apex:

W1 

L- tree- eagle- w1

Cool down 

Janusirsasana 

Janusirsasana twist STRAP 

Fish twist 

Baddha konasana 

Shavasana 

Have questions a my short hand? Just ask. These are just my quick notes some students have been requesting I post. 

Thanks for reading

Send out your heart intentions out into the world in an emPOWERing SKILLfull way!

If you have any questions about my short hand ask. I haven't been posting many blogs and some students have been asking for my notes. These are my ruff notes from Tuesday's Anusara class at metric yoga. 

Theme: let's send our heart intentions out into the world in an emPOWERing SKILLfull way by uniting our love (Anahata chakra) with our personal power (manipura chakra). 

Mantra: Aham prema = I am divine love. 

Visualization: pink flame in the heart of unconditional love and fulfillment. Remembering true fulfillment comes from being present and loving and seeing the beauty reflected in all things and acting from a place of unconditional love. Meaning you don't put any conditions on your love. (Seems simple much harder in practice) 

Anecdote: there is a lot of divide and fear in the world today. We are witnessing lots of action driven from fear. How can we act in alignment with the heart so our actions are skillful? This is how we follow our dharma by aligning our actions skillfully with the heart! This is how we empower ourself and others! 

Heart quality: LOVE 

UPA: shoulder loop + kidney loop (KL) + organic energy. Practicing shoulder loop the throats and arm bones curl back as the tip of the shoulder blades lift the heart and sternum and meet again at the top of the throat. This brings us into our heart. Into our power of love. However often when we practice this principle and dive deeply into our heart we lose our power and capacity to act. This can be seen in the physical body by the ribs sticking out, the kidneys collapsed and no tone in the belly. To connect to your power, from the heart press our through the hands ( the palms of the hands have little heat energy centers on them) as a way of initiating kidney loop which draws the floating ribs in with the power of the core and expands into the back of the kidneys. This is our manipura chakra, the energy center associated with our personal power  when this center is in balance we feel like we have the capacity to act and have confidence in ourself. 

Apex: eka pada rajakaptasana 

Warm up 

Supta blanket cactus twisting knees 

Supta blanket roll under heart sleep walking zombie arm plugs and reach over head 

1/2 sun 3x 

Half mood stretch

Basic 

Cat/ cow 

Kneeling Plank KL 

Push ups bolster KL 

L 

L twist 

Anjaneyasana 

Handstand prep hands on wall

Harder 

Handstand L 

Kick up handstand 

Pincha prep forearms on wall 

Pincha L 

Sirsasana 

Pec stretch at wall hand on wall "high 5"

W2- Lunge - twist lunge arms in T- rev Lunge- high runners twist Lunge

Ardha Supta virasana 

Supta virasana 

L.l quad 

Pigeon quad

Cool down 

Cow face 

Fish twist 

Shavasana