Monday, May 16, 2016

gods love is the electricity and we must be the lamps


Theme: connecting to a power greater then ourself. 
Anecdote: Marianne Williamsom's quote "gods love is the electricity and we must be the lamps" I love this. It's like we are all lamps with a cord that is plugged into a wall and we are powered up with electricity from a greater source. (Whatever you want to call this source Grace, Goddess, God, Spirit, Nature, Science...). And we feel so good being plugged in. But then we start doing are own thing  and we start moving further and further away from the wall and our cord gets tight and then... It unplugs from the wall! and we wonder what happened? Why don't we feel good any more? Why don't we feel connected? Loved? Joy?... This is one of the blessing we get from our yoga practice. It is a time for us to connect to something bigger then our small self and connect to something bigger. To remember the big picture. To open to grace! Practicing yoga is one of the ways we stay close to the wall and stay plugged in. Other ways I "stay close to the wall" is meditating, journaling, spending time alone in nature, being present with my children, and having honest heartfelt conversations with friends. In today practice we are going to plug back in to something bigger then ourself. We are going to move toward our heart and away from our head and our stress that keeps us wrapped up in our small self. 
Upa: this month we are focusing on upper body alignment. The first few weeks we focused on getting our side bodies long (SBL), then we added onto that broadening our collar bones. In Anusara yoga we call this inner body bright (IBB). Now we are going to add on by using our muscles (muscular energy) and drawing the head of our arm bones back (ABB). This is sometimes called melting you heart in Anusara. When we do these actions we are literally moving our shoulders away from our head and physically plugging into our heart. How lovely is that?! 
Apex: urdhva danurasana 
Heart quality: love 
Props: 2 blocks, blanket 


Warm up: 
Tadasana 
1/2 sun salutations 3x 
Audo Muka Svanasana (AMS) push ups 
Mod. Parsvak 
High runners lunge twist one hand down 
Tadasana interlace hands above head sbl, IBB, abb 

Basic 
Wall pec stretch abb 
Prone pec stretch abb 
Mod. Parsvak 
High runners lunge twist- Lunge twist - tree zombie arms sbl IBB abb reach up 

Harder 
Low lunge quad stretch- upright twist  with quad stretch 
Trik 
Half moon 
Half moon quad 
Pincha wall sbl IBB abb  
Bridge

Apex
Urdhva top of head plugging (option hands on blocks at wall) sbl IBB abb 
Urdhva danurasana 

Cool down 
Mantra missile wall foot on wall 
Root femurs 
Supta twist
Supta baddha konasana 

Shavasana 

Intention and Testimonials

Testimonials & My Intention

My Intention It is my intention as a yoga teacher to help you bring more health and vibrancy to your body, ease and alertness to your mind...