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 

Cervical Curve Support

 I love this DIY trick with a swim noodle. Cut it short to about a foot long. Then cut in half lengthwise. If you are smaller make it a little thinner if you are bigger make it a little thicker. Then lay it under your neck. Instant cervical support. So often we stick our head forward causing our cervical curve to flatten. This causes lots of dis-ease in the body. I sleep on this when my neck, shoulders feel out of alignment. I will have conversations laying down so I can get my #alignment on. This has been great being a new mom, all the holding, nursing, pushing causes my shoulder and head to come forward, this is a great re alignment fix that I am in LOVE with

I have also loved wearing my baby with a woven wrap on my back. Wearing Sage like this is actually helping my, by moving my arm bones back, as opposed to wearing him on my belly or pushing him in a stroller, both which draw my arm bones forward.