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