Sadhana

Sadhana is the term for spiritual practice and literally means “that which takes you to your goal”. One of my goals is to experience less tension + more ease and life and therefore experience more happiness. Well I learn through Anusara Yoga that I can reach these goals through practicing alignment. Sadhana is something that I can practice every moment. So in every moment I can work on enhancing my alignment. The hope is to that the more you practice good strong alignment on the matt and off of it those muscles that hold you in good alignment will get stronger and your body will naturally start standing in better alignment with less awareness on your part. The problem is… it FEELS easier to stand with poor alignment. For example it seems easier to stand and roll the shoulders forward and let the head come into the front plan of the body (this posture is called forward carriage in physical therapy and comes with a whole host of injuries + pain + discomfort). So in the beginning it takes a lot of awareness and smart alignment action to retrain the body out of this “lazy poor posture” into a “efficient beaming with happiness posture”.

I love looking at the cycles that are created in nature. One cycle you can look at is the results of your posture:

Lazy poor posture -> leads to pain in the body “ouch my neck is tight and hurts” (not only will bad posture enhance old injuries it will cause new ones)-> which leads to pain in the mind “I have headaches all the time” -> which leads to UN-HAPPINESS -> which leads to not enjoying life because you don’t feel up to it… because your in PAIN!

Good alignment -> leads to the body HEALING ITSELF (not only are you not accumulating more discomfort but you are healing past injuries and pain patterns) -> which leads to your body feeling TERRIFIC! -> which puts you in a WONDERFUL MOOD -> which leads to HAPPINESS -> which leads to wanting to enjoy all that life has to offer because you feel so GOOD!

SO how cool is it that our spiritual practice can be watching our alinmgnet on and off our matt and working to make it as optimal as possible. Another cool thing about yoga is that lines blurr so easily. You start focusing just on your physical alignment to help cultivate more happiness in your life and then slowly with or without noticing it you begin to start noticing how your actions, thoughts, emotions line you up with happiness. Maybe you start to notice that a cigirate, or food, or shopping, or negative self talk, or gossipling or whatever it is, is not leading your to your goal of happiness. This was my experience I started praciticng yoga because my back hurt I wasn’t interested in a higher power, or my relationship with myself others or the world. But slowly the lines blurred. I got hooked and as a result my life is 100x healthier and I experience so much more happiness and ease as a result of looking at my alignment in all ways and forms.

This is a longer discussion for another blog… moving on

Principles of emphasis:

Open to Grace = Side bodies long: lengthening up through the sides of the torso and up through the sides of the throat, into the dome of the palate. Lift your chin to help create a natural lordotic curve in the neck.

Muscle Energy= With Muscle Energy, the upper arms set back into the shoulder sockets, and this creates support in the shoulders

Expanding spirals of arms = when the arms are in the over hand plan like in down dog, handstand, pincha, Urdhva hastasana… the inner deltoids and arm pits broaden to the back plane of the body expanding around the neck. When they are in the lower plan like tadasana, cobra, bridge… the inner deltoids broad to the front plan of the body and continue to wrap around and to the back plan of the body creating again space around the head neck and shoulders.

Shoulder Loop= Shoulder Loop reinforces the lordotic curve of the neck. It begins in the soft palate and curls the head back. The muscles of the back of the neck, from the base of the occiput flow down toward the bottom tips of the shoulder blades and into the heart.

Skull Loop = it initiates at the soft palate and flows back toward the occiput, then lifts the back of the skull up and over the crown of the head.

Organic Energy ₌ there’s an extension from the active focal point first down into the earth and then up and out. From the back of the heart extend the arms out and fully straight. I have been noticing in class bent elbows so organic energy should straighten, but not hyper extend, the elbow joint.

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Virasana hands on shoulders elbows bent. Have elbows touch in the middle. Inhaling up exhaling down. 10X circles in each directions then 3x in each directions. Without taking a break take arms out to a “T” make firsts with hands and turn palms up and down flossing out the shoulder socket with the head of the arm bone. Take the arm in front of the body for a outer lat and shoulder stretch and then take elbow toward sky for a triceps stretch.

Succasana: neck stretch

Table

Puppy pose (work rotation of upper arm bones) -> DD

Tadansana -> half-moon stretch (thumb facing toward back of room bend elbows rotate inner deltoids and elbows toward back of room plug in muscularly from hands to back of heart and extend from back of heart and straighten arms as you take the side bend)

Cobra on finger tips (manual adjustment) -> normal cobra inner deltoids go toward front of room, out to the sides and toward the back of the room

PARTNER puppy pose -> dd -> cobra adjusting expanding spiral of arms

Lunge clasp hands behind back rotation of arms -> hands by sides palms facing out thumbs toward back of room -> circle arms toward sky thumbs toward back of room

L. L repeat same alignment actions as above

Cobra on finger tips -> shalabasana clasp hands

L twist -> L.L twist quad

Eka pada rajakapotasana clasp -> quad

Virachadrasana 2

Trikonasana

Handstands at wall

Partner handstands

Virasana clasp hands wrist circles -> wrist stretch (repeat in other direction and stretch other side)

Supta twisting core + shoulder work

Supta tadanasana -> zobie arms up toward ceiling praciticng loops plug shoulders in well and organically extend arms towards back of room thumbs only thing that come to floor if you can extend fully 3x

Shavasana

 

Adhikara + yoga sequence

Principle of emphasis: muscle energy, thigh loop

Heart Quality: Steadfastness, Enthusiasm

Theme: studentship (adhikara). Remaining teachable and staying receptive. When I think I know a pose and don’t have anything else to learn, I close myself off from expanding more in that moment and growing as an individual. When I approach a pose or life situation in a way that “I don’t know it all” + “what can this teach me?” not only am I more in the moment. But I also learn more about myself and about life. From practicing Anusara Yoga I now see life through new lens. I try to take every moment and situations (both good and hard) as opportunities that teach me how to love myself more, love those around me more and surrender to the flow of Grace. When I do this life is immensely better. I feel like I am going with the flow of life instead of feeling like I am in a fight with life.  

Quote: Paul Muller Ortega says (adhikara) "it's how you tend to the ground with in. So when the teachings come they can sprout and grow from the inside out

 

1.       Uttanasana - High runners lunge- parsvotanasana- high runners lunge one hand down twist

2.       Uttanasana- ardha uttanasana 3x

3.       Uttanasana clasp hands behind back- tadasana hands clasp behind back

4.       Tadasana half-moon side stretch

5.       Tadasana interlace hands above head palms face up toward sky (strong legs, inner thighs draw in back and wide, keeping thighs back root tailbone down, draw floating ribs in and arm bones back, from hips root down through floor and from hips extend up through arms)

6.       Handstands at wall

7.       Vinyasa- cobra prep (strong legs inner thighs broaden toward sky pinky toes spread toward ground, root tail bone down toward heels, draw floating ribs in shoulders back open heart toward sky)

8.       Vinyasa- instead of cobra do salabasana arms behind back

9.       Low lunge quad stretch (up right hips over back knee, front knee at 90 degree angle)

10.   Modified parsvakonasana – parsvakonasana

11.   Vira 2 – wide leg forward fold – scandasana bend back knee – ardha chandrasana

12.   Anjaniasana quad (deeper lunge low lunge with quad stretch be very diligent about keeping back thigh lifted, root tail bone down extending from hips through back knee and front heel)- ardha hanumanasana with manual ankle loop - Trikonasana

13.   Uttanasana – Utkatasana with twist

14.   Pigeon twist away from front knee, elbow on floor hands in Anjali mudra – twist toward knee opst. forearm on floor with quad stretch

15.   Supta parsva tadasana prep

16.   Parsva bakasana

17.   Setubandha

18.   Eka pada Setubandha

19.   Supta bend knees- one knee to chest, sole of foot to sky grab pinky side of foot mod. Supta padangustasana B

20.   Supta padangustasana B

21.   Supta root femur bones

22.   Shavasana

 

Nothing to do with this post. Just an adorable picture of my doggies

Sciatic pain

I haven't blogged in forever. I'm writin today because I had such a freaking wonderful experience teaching today at avenues yoga.

My plan was to do some shoulder loop work and side body work leading to full urdhva danurasana. However I asked the students if they had any specific requests and a gentle man said sciatic nerve stuff because he has been getting sciatic nerve pain. Then other groined and nodded. One women said she just saw a massage therapist because her sciatica was bugging her so bad. Right then I throw out my class plan and my brain was going wild with universal principles, secondary principled of alignment we could do and the different mucles that are probably overly tight or weak that was could be happening, as well as range of movements that I know help lengthen or tones those muscles to create more balance.

I'm in my second semester of massage school and it is so freaking awesome or this stuff to come together in my understanding. John Friend is a serious genius I know there has been negative talk going around about Friend but my hat is off to him. The principles he created are amazing. I share some of the upa stuff with my anatomy and sports massage teacher and they say it is all very sound information.

Anyways continuing on with my class. We focused on the loops or the lower extremity: ankle loop, knee loop, femur loop. Most of te students had there thigh bones going forward, were hyper extending and some had the majority of their weight on the inner/medial edge of foot. So we worked leg loops, spreading the toes, tops of shins forward enough not to hyper extend and tuns of femurs rooting back to the hamstrings. We also did lots of inner spiral. I learned in massage school that  our sciatic nerve is the size f your pinky and it gets pinched when you laterally rotate thigh so medial rotation of thigh is amazing thing to do.

I told a silly story I've made up about the love life of my quadriceps femur bone and hamstrings. You see ms.Hamstrings is married mr.femur However mr.femur has a little afair going with ms.Quadriceps. So he likes to go get with her (moving the head of the femur bones forward) and that is an atrocity. It ruins everything. Everything being your body and that is probaly a little exateration but you get the point. So in yoga we get to really practice rooting the femurs back. It's marriage counseling!!!
Got to go to shook


Sent from my iPhone

Curiosity

I love reading but I haven’t read a purely fiction book in quite awhile. The closest book I haven’t gotten is The Prophet, The Gita, The Buddha, and Siddhartha…That was until last week when I bought The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. It was so fascinating I finished it in a few days and bought the second book of the trilogy Catching Fire, which I finished last night. I loved that when I was reading these books my attention was so focused. I was so curious, interested, and fascinated that I read and read for hours.

When I taught at Avenues Yoga on Thursday we talked about this (more than half of the class also read this pre-teen trilogy and were very excited when I referenced it).  These qualities of curiosity are wonderful for getting me in the moment fully with attention. We can use the same qualities same qualities in our asana practice to help cultivate attention. Being curious if the body is doing what we are asking it to do. Inquiring to see what will happen in the next breath. Being sensitive to our experience noticing the difference of stability and erratic. This was a great get to know and feel your body class as the students worked toward trikonasana (triangle pose). The principle I focused on was muscular energy and it is so fun to watch students as they examine and feel their muscles to see the slightly let down look on their face when they realize their muscles are not engaged (been there done that) and then see their delighted face after poling their muscle and finding it firm.

I taught lots of hip openers leading up to trikonasana. I explained the importance of using muscle energy when working hip openers because if the muscles aren’t engaged the part of the leg that will be getting flexible is the knee, we don’t want to get our knees more flexible. But when the legs are engaged and you rotate the leg it is the hip that will be getting more flexible. This is particularly important if a student has a history of a injured knee.

Trust Yourself

I have been thinking about how important it is for me to trust and believe in myself. Yes, it is important for me to listen to other opinions and take suggestions but ultimately I am the one who has to live with my decisions. Trusting myself is also a big way I build up my self confidence.

My yoga teachers give me ques but they are not commands they are suggestions. Some of these suggestions don't feel appropriate to my body and I trust that I know best. For example, lotus pose (padmasana). If I fold my legs placing each ankle on my hips with my soles of the feet facing up I am pretty confident that I will be doing more harm to my knees then I would be doing good for my hips. So I trust myself to go just far enough that I can work toward the pose safely for me.

In yoga asana classes we get to sequentially move through poses. Training our body to hold the alignment with stability. We learn to trust our self in simpler poses and then over time we find our self doing more complex poses with confidence and ease.

Yoga is an invitation to deepen our relationship with our self. Learning to become receptive, listing, and trusting our self. In my experience when I trust myself, its easier for me to trust others and trust in the universe, even when a situation feels incredibly challenging I try to have faith that it will work our and help me heal. However when I fall into doubting myself pretty soon I am doubting everything and I live from a place of fear.

I used trust as a theme for this morning class at Avenues Yoga working up to handstands. Focus was on alignment for hands and arms, mainly expanding spiral. The picture on the right is my class plan and a picture of Chin mudra, which is the hand posture of index finer nail to the thumb. The index finger represents the individual bowing to the thumb representing supreme consciousness/ higher self. When I catch myself feeling scared or full of doubt I will (if i remember) take this hand posture to remind myself that I can trust my higher power.

Beauty and The Beast

Last weekend I went to see Beauty and The Beast in theaters re-released in 3D. (I laughed as I paid 8.50 for a matinee movie that I own in VHS.) I love this classic Disney movie. I love being remind of the teaching that beauty is inside. That I should work on connecting to the beauty that is inside of me instead of on the surface. That I should look for this inner beauty in lovers, family, friends and strangers. I am reminded that my yoga postures and my students have so much beauty inside even if it isn't the full version of the pose.

In the movie the beast is so disconnected from his own inner beauty that he can not even look at himself in the mirror without flying into rage. Being a lover of alignment I made a few observations... The Beast is hunched over, with his shoulders rounded forward and unplugged from his heart. However when he can love someone and they can love him and he becomes a prince again, he stands up tall (side bodies long) his shoulders are drawn back (head of arm bones back) his shoulders are broad (inner body bright) and his heart is lifted (shoulder loop).

I used this as a theme for a few classes. Doing strong shoulder work leading up to some big heart openers. Lots of side bodies long, head of the arm bones back, tips of shoulders into heart, and hyoid bone back. In my Monday class at The Yoga Center we partnered up for Urdhva Danurasana holding onto ankles. In my Tuesday class at Avenues Yoga. We went a bit deeper in Urdhva. After watching and observing the students urdhva's, I showed a quick demo on how rolling further forward onto the forehead (after pressing up to the top of the head) gives a greater ability to lengthen the side bodies, plug the arm bones back, and shoulder loop. This combo takes me into such a powerful place to press up. I let them know they were all doing the actions of lengthening and plugging the arm bones back, they were doing it so well I offered another refinement.

Images: http://www.usdvdsale.com/Beauty-and-the-Beast-Special-Edition-DVD-(Disney)-107.html

http://www.mousecomedy.com/2010/10/beauty-and-beast-return-of-curse/

Avenues Yoga

Spent most of my day being a part of the lovely Anusara Yoga community.

First I taught the free intro yoga community yoga class. The turn out was small only two students, I really enjoy teaching smaller classes I can refine the practice specifically to what the students need/want and in my experience when the class is smaller the students will ask more questions then if it was a bigger class. We focused on having a commitment to look for the good in all situations and in our self. Lots of muscular energy work especially in hands, arms and shoulders. After class I walked with one of the students, R, down the street toward the street fair and she shared with me some of her personal challenges and how yoga and shadow work has helped. I love hearing peoples stories about past pain and how they are learning and growing from that opportunity.

After wandering down and being in awe at all the beauty in the booths and the peoples faces walking around the street fair I found the Avenues Yoga booth and worked there for a few hours. It was really great we got to spread the word about this wonderful yoga studio by handing out free yoga passes. I also got a chance to chat more with the other yoga teachers and we even busted out some partner yoga in the middle of the street fair. Thank you Erin, Paul, Shannon, Sarah for playing with me :-) Before leaving the booth Shannon gave me a phenomenal Thai body massage, it was wonderful to receive and wonderful to watch, she moved with such fluidity and easy.

Now I am going to walk my dogie, review some yoga notes, and then head to a teacher training with Adam.

Updated bio

Here is an updated bio I made for Avenues Yoga in Salt Lake City Utah: http://www.avenuesyoga.com/

Kim’s intention is to help others recognize their own greatness on and off the mat. Yoga is a process of inner exploration, in which we learn to integrate heart, mind and body to experience our natural state of awareness and love.

Kim Achelis Hoggan a student of yoga from the age 16 is also a Registered Yoga Instructor through Yoga Alliance with over 500 hours of teaching experience. Kim has seen firsthand that the practice of yoga offers a way to move through the pulsation of life with grace. Yoga has helped Kim heal her injured body, calm her mind and help overcome addiction, as well as open her heart so she can better love herself and others. Kim’s classes offer clear instruction on alignment, yogic wisdom, a heart based theme, and a sense of adventure. With her vast understanding of anatomy and kinesiology she helps her students find a therapeutic experience in every pose. Often we need to work on getting the body to a place where it is in less pain so we can travel more deeply into the heart.  

When Kim isn’t teaching or practicing yoga you will probably find her working in the garden or on an adventure with her husband and dog.  Her heart is full of gratitude for her teachers and students.

why practice yoga? a section I love from Anusara Teacher Training Manual

I am teaching a class at Avenues Yoga tomorrow! 8:30-10:00am I am very excited I have been wanting to teach at this beautiful studio for so long but told myself when the time is right it will happen. And it did my good friend and teacher Jen Hech suggested me to take over her class and I am so grateful for this :). I was looking through the Anusara manual as I gather my ideas for the class and I was reading this and it made me smile so I thought I would share it.

"there are two central spiritual purposes of hatha yoga:

1. Co-participating with God in making a spiritual art with the body.
2. Realizing our divine nature through the temple of the body.

The main intention of class is derived from these purposes. For example:

• Experiencing our innate goodness, joy, love, worthiness, or divine power through the poses.
• Doing the poses as artistic expressions or celebrations of one's spirit.
• Purifying the body/mind through hatha yoga in order to create a better vessel for god's love and grace.
• Preparing the body to sit more easily for meditation.
• Practicing hatha yoga just for the fun and enjoyment of it"

(Anusara Yoga Teacher Training Manual By John Friend pg60)