Create the Life You Want... And Tone Your Behind

Theme: create the life you want. What does this mean... To me it means I need enough freedom in my life to let opportunities, magic and the good stuff come in but at the same time I need enough discipline to not let to much good time in my life is chaotic and control to open to not prevent opportunities.

Same goes with the health of our lumbar spine. We need openness so the lumbar spine extends going in and up but if we don't have any boundaries we can have to much curve causing a collapse or we can be to stiff where the curve goes the other way and is rounded in flexion which we don't want. To create a happy healthy low back and life we need the dynamic balance of both freedom and discipline to hold the freedom.
Poe: muscle energy/midline, inner outer spirals
Props: 2 blocks, blanket, strap


Utk- utt inner spiral vs. outter
AMV prep ""
AMV L ""
AMV ""
Tad- L 3x glute work :
L
L short l time butt long lung
Lunge- standing pigeon- twisted warrior 3 butt toner
Glute firing exercises
Active pigeon
Pigeon twist quad
Active pigeon quad
Parsvotonasana- scandasana- trikonasana-
Ardha hanuman ankle loop
Uttanasana feet on blanket roll
Uttanasana blanket in hip crease
Matsyandrasana
Fish prep crunches to help create natrual cures of spine for shavasana

We first made sure everyone understood thigh loop and inner spiral. The muscles that create and hold these actions are much smaller then the gluteus muscles so they bed to be established first. Then we did lots of breaking down on firing the gluteus with outer spiral. Students seemed to really enjoy the burning bum action.

A better world

I like to think when I practice yoga I make the world a better place. Because after practicing yoga I act that much nicer to those around me and I like to contemplate how that sweetness ripples throughout the world in a positive way. 

 "entering the Heart is like coming into the centre of the sun. There is no more you; there is nothing except the iridescent force of that light. When you are in the centre of the sun, there is no way to block its light. It streams through you and around you. So by entering your own Heart, you make the whole world a better paradise." GURUMAYI CHIDVILASANANDA

So next time you are debating if you should practice yoga think: do I want to make the works a better place. If the answer is yes get yourself to yoga :)

Hip Openers with Discipline

Location: Sugar space

Time: 9-10:30am

Class: Anusara-Inspired
Principles of emphasis: muscle energy, inner spiral, outer spiral
Theme: connecting to our center Is one of the gifts we get from the practice. The longer we go without practicing the more we might experience a feeling of muck, heaviness, and just unhealthy. When we get on out mat after a break there is more work that needs to be done. But after we practice we feel so fresh, clear, healthy and connected to our center+core. It's like the inversion. When we go a long time without rain or snow all the pollution builds up and gets trapped it the valley. We quite literally live in a haze and it feels unhealthy and dirty. However when it does rain or snow we get those few days of crisp freshness. What would be nice is if people and companies made changes so less pollution is being produced so their is less that builds up between storms. Just like in our body the more we maintain some alignment in our life with our higher intentions physically (maybe you don't want to be in pain so you maintain better posture) mentally (Maybe not gossiping or talking bad about yourself...) spiritually (maybe taking a few minutes at the beginning and end of your day to sit quietly and notice your breath....) if we can maintain little actions to keep us connected then when we get back to the mat we will have less to clean up, we can connect to our center more quickly and we can keep that connection longer.

Heart quality: discipline.

Apex: eka pada galavasana
Antidote: the inversion
 

*Lunge - eagle - lunge
*Lunge twist - W2
*Mod parsvak - Half moon - Standing figure 4
*Pigeon quad
*Kick up handstand with garudasana legs
*Lunge outer edge front foot- forearms - forehead to floor inside front food clasp hands behind back -3LDD- Bridget's cross forearms- (back heel stacks over toes in these poses) forearm plank- dolphin
*Fish twist sitting on sole of back foot hook front hand over outer edge front foot clasp back hand around hip (plant hands hop switch)
*Eagle on shin eagle point toes straight back - arms in garudasana then cow face arms (plant hands hop switch)
*gomukhasana
*Baby cradle- akarna dhanurasana 1- ashtavakrasana
*Eka pada galavasana prep hands on floor bottom leg bends parallel with from wrap arm fit over knee first then arm pit over front of ankle wrap toes around ankle plan hands first activate first index knuckle finger
*Repeat above then hop back to dd variation then float leg high eka pada galavasana then take leg lower for more advanced versions. Maybe hope back vinyasana
*hanamanasana
*Danurasana
*Root femur bones

More Happiness

With a new born baby it is hard to find the time to write more thorough blog posts. Here are my notes from this mornings class.

Location: Sugar space
Principles of emphasis: 1st side bodies long + inner body bright  2nd muscle energy to the Midline. Shoulder loop + Skull loop
Apex poses: back bends
Heart quality: JOY
Theme; why practice yoga? I practice yoga to experience more happiness. I have learned through yoga that when I hold my body in certain postures I experience more joyful energy or sadder energy. We chant this in out Anusara invocation when we sing chit ananda. Chit = knowledge Ananda = happiness. Through self knowledge of body mechanics we can cultivate more happiness.

-1/2 sun 3x
-skull loop exercises 1st take to peace fingers to chin. Apply pressure to chin and slide throat straight back while pressing tounge to top of mouth hold for 5 seconds. Repeat 10x 2nd. Repeat action sliding throat back while pressing first two fingers into chin. Then tip chin up and keep pressing with fingers looking up toward sky hold 5 seconds repeat 10x
-tricep stretch - half moon skull loop repeat
-sun a 3x (cobra for a few breaths)
- table shalabasana - dancer
-low lunge quad
-High runner lunge twist - Warrior 2
-Parsvakonasana mod.
- parsvakonasana - Ardha chandrasana - eagle
-pigeon quad
-Trikonasana
- pec stretch at wall
-L handstand at wall
-cow face
-Pigeon mermaid
-Heart opener over chair (mr.ingyer does this for 10 mins a day. He says it fools his body into thinking he is young. He also does head stand for 45 mins a day. He is 93) first plug arm bones in and reach fingers to mat then bend elbows and grab the side rails of chair work biceps and squeeze arm bones back curl back more. Then start to move one vertebrae at a time over edge of chair moving head toward floor. Optional urdhva danurasana
-twist on chair
-root thigh bones symmetrically


We've never experienced this moment before and the next moment will not be the same as the be you are in now ~pema chodron

Upeksha Leads to Harmony

Heart Quality: Harmony

Theme: Upeksha (overview, big picture)

The Sanskrit word Upeksha comes from the root word “iksha” meaning view, gaze at, look upon, or reflect. The prefix “upa-“meaning over or beyond. I like to think of Upeksha meaning overlook. Not overlook as in ignore or to not see, more like a scenic overlook.

Antidote: Lets add a seasonal winter touch to this antidote… When I ride a chair lift I can see so much. I can see the bigger picture compared to when I am speeding down the mountain on my sweet tele ski’s, where I can only see what is in front of me. When I ski I love catching air over the rolling hills. However, when I am coming down the mountain I can see what’s on the other side of those hills, only what’s in front of me, the small picture. When I am on the chair lift I can see the bigger picture, I can see what’s on the other side, maybe there is a crash on the other side of that hill with multiple ski patrollers and someone on a backboard. With this bigger concept about what is going on I can more gracefully navigate the different parts and not jump off that hill.

This is true in my yoga postures too. When I get too focused on one aspect like shoulder loop. I forget that it is only one part that makes up the whole. Just because my shoulders might be integrated doesn’t mean that my ribs and my head are not way out of balance. When I pause, breath and take into consideration what is happening with all the different parts of my body I can again more gracefully coordinate myself leading to more harmony in my mind, body, and spirit.

It’s a great concept to ponder and practice. Stress, chaos and/or mundane tasks pulls us into the “the small picture” and our ability to choose the highest or best course of action is often diminished. This larger perspective allows us to meet the world, or yoga pose, from a calmer + more loving + more capable place. This pausing, taking a breath and trying to see the “scenic overview” can be a magical strategy for navigating just about every situation in life… especially during the holidays.

Sequence: 

Sucasana viloma Pranayama
Cat/cow
High runners lunge twist - lunge
L.L twist - anjaneyasana
Utkatasana exhale arms forward down and up inhale stay low reach up 3x
Lunge exhale sweep arms forward down back and up inhale tailbone teach up - Lunge twist Anjali mudra - standing Lunge twist T arms- rev - one hand down high runners lunge stretch arm over ear
Pigeon
Leprechaun tapping from DD
Modified Parsvakonasana
Clasp blow Warrior 2- Parsvakonasana hand outside foot
Dolphin – Leprechaun tapping from Dolphin or Pincha Mayurasana
Ardha Chandrasana- Chapasana - Trikonasana
Trikonasana
Handstands at wall
Janusasana  
Paschimottanasana
Sucasana viloma pranayama 3x

I have been studying Anusara Yoga going on 6 years now and have been contemplating applying for Certification in Anusara. Currently I am Anusara-Inspired which is often compared to a BS and Certification is often compared to a Master’s Degree. One part of the certification process is submitting filmed classes to a review board. This really terrifies me so I have decided to start filming my classes and beginning watching them and refining them before I start thinking about giving it to a certified teacher to review. Today was my first day filming, which was all about figuring out equipment… Will my battery last? Do I have enough memory? Do I need a mic? Does it capture the whole class room? Everything worked accept the sound. I am excited to start refining my teaching skills, even if it takes a while for me to submit my application.

Inner Spiral Class + Gratitude

I had a request for expanding (inner) spiral for my class at Sugar Space.

Principle of emphasis: muscle energy, inner spiral, outer spiral
Inner spiral is a rotation that happens on the vertical plane that creates an expansion on the horizontal plane. In Anusara we incorporate heart qualities and feelings into the alignment based practice.  In the beginning of today's class I encouraged my students to reflect on three blessings in their life for which they are grateful. So as they experience the expansion and widening that is created from the action of inner spiral they can fill themselves with the feeling of gratitude. At the end of the class I had them again think of three blessings either the same or new whatever came to mind first and I asked them to add themselves to the list. It was a great class. I had 2 students that were new to me and one of my students had a birthday so she demoed + rocked a handstand and we sang her happy birthday.

Dd-utt-urdhva hastasana-dd-vinyasa (lift one leg inner spiral pinkie toe to floor repeat)-cobra
Through utt:
High runners lunge- parsvot
High runners lung twist
Anjaneyasana
L.L twist quad
L.L quad - half hanumanasana
Pigeon (Inner Spiral to square off hips)
1/2 hanuman twist- twisted trik variation [block]
Anjaneyasana
W1
Handstands at [wall]
W3- twisted W3 foot on [wall]- s.s
Partner S.S - handstand
Twisted trik at [wall]
Twisted trik
Virasana/Supta Virasana
Hanumanasana
Partner janusirsasana [strap]
symmetrical pose
Shavasana

Poerty how I LOVE thee

I love using poems in my yoga class time to time.  In Anusara Yoga all classes have a theme, antidote, heart quality, and an alignment principle of emphasis. Brilliant poetry that speaks to my heart inspires me to weave all these elements together. I don’t use poems all the time, I think they can become over used and I try to use them sparingly so they stay extra delicious and not something that is expected.

Some of my favorite poetry books:

·         Your Other Names, by Tara Sophia Mohr

·         The Gift, Hafiz (I like the translation by Daniel Ladinsky)

·         The Essential Rumi, Rumi

·         The Prophet, Khalil Gibran

·         How We Became Human, Joy Hario

·         Why I Wake Early, Mary Oliver

·         The Leaf and the Cloud, Mary Oliver

·         Love Poems, Pablo Neruda

Alignment of knees = more Harmony

In massage school I learned that the joints of the body represent our flexibility in certain areas of our life:

• Feet: Your ability to move forward in life.
• Knees: Your willpower.
• Hips: Your ability to stand and hold yourself up in life.
• Shoulders: Your ability to handle difficult situations.
• Hands: Your ability to handle the details in life.

I thought this was interesting. Lately a lot of new students have been coming to my classes with knee injuries as a result of lateral movement or hyper extension of the knee. In my Friday 4:15-5:30 class at The Yoga Center I focused on knees this week. When the knees (or any part of our body) are in pain or discomfort it is distracting and makes it much harder to experience harmony. However by using our will power to align our knees (or any part of body) optimally over time we will experience more and more agreement in our body/mind/spirit.

http://www.womentalksports.com/items/read/651/1269909

The knee is a hinge joint and thus only meant for extension (straightening the leg) and flexion (bending the knee). A hinge joint does not assist in lateral moment of the knee. We do not want our inner or outer knees to get flexible, and that is what happens when we move the knee joint medially (to the mid line) and laterally (away from the mid line.)Me and my sister both played a lot of soccer and so many friends have blown out there knees (ACL, MCL..)  In the picture on the left you can see that if the girl in the red kicks or moves the blue players knee to the right that lateral movement will most likely tear her ACL ligament.


One of the many cool things about asana practice is we can use our will power to align our bodies to move in optimal therapeutic ways and practicing these alignment principles over time will retrain the body to function. Harmony is different than instant gratification. Although I often feel a little better and less stressed after a yoga class. I think when we practice steadily over a long period of time with alignment and intention that we expeirence more harmony to our body/mind/heart. For example, taking one yoga class might not make your knees feel instantly better or if it does that feeling wont be permanent, however if you tend to laterally rotate your knees and you work strong Shins In Thighs Out in your practice to stabilize your knees, over time with this your knees will feel better more often and for a longer amount of time. Same goes if you hyper extend your knees letting them bow backwards past optimal extension. If you practice strong Muscular Energy especially in the back of the legs (I like to press into the ball of my foot like I'm pressing on the gas pedal this engages my calf muscles then I isometrically lift and curl my heel up towards my sit bones, the heel doesn't move but the back of my knee and hamstring engage). When the back of the leg is toned you learn to straighten the leg keeping the stability and over time this alignment will probably make your knees feel better more ofter and for longer amounts of time. Since the knees contribute to the positioning of feet, hips, and shoulders all these joints will either find more optimal alignment or less optimal alignment depending on the position of the knees. (this stuff fascinates me) 


Harmony
When tones, thoughts, or feelings, individually different, combine to form a consistent and pleasing whole, there is harmony. Harmony is deeper and more essential than agreement; we may have a
Synonyms: harmony, accord, concurrence, consistency, uniformity, accordance, conformity, consonance, union, agreement, congruity, symmetry, unison, amity, consent, unanimity, unity, concord
Antonyms: antagonism, contest, discord, hostility, schism, battle, controversy, disproportion, incongruity, separation, conflict, difference, dissension, inconsistency, variance, contention, disagreement, disunion, opposition, warfare

Celebration!

This past weekend it was my Grandpas 80th birthday and we 100+ family members and fiends came together from across that nation to celebrate his wonderful life. It was a superb hilarious crowd. When I was driving home I reflected about the day of festivities and reflected on how fascinating it is that celebrations bring so many people together.
 

This is similar to engaging muscles, in Anusara lingo, using muscular energy. When we engage our muscles it unites pats of our bodies into units. Instead of having a foot, shin, knee, thigh bone, hip… when muscular energy is engaged drawing from the periphery to the core it draws the leg and all its body parts into a unit. Sometimes when I practice and I am engaging my muscles and my body stats shaking, I smile and tell myself that my muscles jumping for joy in celebration for being used and getting to unite with its fellow body parts (which are often separated do to poor alignment and laziness).

I used this idea as a theme for my class at The Yoga Center class on Monday and at Avenues Yoga for my class on Tuesday. The student’s practiced great adhikara (studentship) as I encouraged them to prod and gab at their muscles throughout the class to notice if their body was doing what they were asking it to do.  This is something I have been observing in my own practice, when I poke my thigh to check that I am firming my muscles I realize that they are not engaged. In both classes I taught basic standing poses and seated postures. After my Avenues yoga class a student told me “wow the poses weren’t advanced but I worked so much harder then normally” another interrupts “because she kept telling use to squeeze our body parts”.

I remember when I was starting to practicing from Adam Ballenger and he was getting me to  engage my body in every pose I was shocked, even in poses that I used to completely relax in like eka pada rajakapotasana (pigeon pose) and forward folds I was being taught to engage my muscles. I used to go to basic yoga classes and practice engaging my body like Adam was teaching me and I would leave class feeling like I worked so hard.

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/

heart based theme mindset

For the past two weeks in the mentorship program Christina Sell has been teaching us how to cultivate heart based themes going from the universal to the personal, or the personal to the universal. She encourages us to take a challenge in our life, any of our experiences, definitions of words, and poems to help us take a big idea (universal) and make it more relatable to our students (personal). She said that what is so great about Anusara is that it is a philosophy of totality. So really anything!!! can be turned into a heart based theme if you keep looking. She said because it is a system of totality anything can lead you back to the heart even the deepest sadness.

At first when I learned how I could use all these different aspects of my life to develop a heart based theme I felt overwhelmed. But now I feel like part of my brain or maybe it is my heart is getting rewired toward “heart based theme”. Now multiple times throughout the day something will happen and I naturally go “ah ha this could be a theme”. This is really cool because it reminds me of the universal, of the non-dual life affirming philosophy of Anusara yoga. I then run it through the 5 principles thinking how I could relate that experience to each principle. It makes me wish I had more classes to teach. I feel like themes are pouring out of me and I don’t want them to go to waste.

Last night I was with a good friend and he told me that mosquitoes when they bite you they also inject an anticoagulant/lubricator as part of their saliva. This keeps the blood moving and you don’t die. And that the bump and the itching sensation we get from mosquito bites aren’t actually from the bite but from them injecting there saliva into us in order to save us. He told me that and I thought, this could possibly be a theme. Haha haven’t thought the theme through and as I write this I don’t know how accurate it is that this injection it to stop us from dying, but thought it was funny that this random fact(?) he told me made me think heart based theme and remember my inner divinity! Leslie Salmon told me when she did this mentorship program with Christina Sell she felt like she had been given the keys to the kingdom. I feel like I have been given a key to look at everything as a reminder of Spirit and of the heart.

a drving metaphore

I have been thinking the about the different attitudes we take out of our freedom when we drive. We can distract our self with radio, friends, phones, thoughts... When we drive like this we can easily get lost or in an accident. We can agitated our self as we drive getting angry, stressed, and in a reactive mode, possibly flipping or yelling at other drivers. When we drive like this it is hard on our heart and we could possibly cause an accident. We can choose to drive mindfully being aware of what is going on around us. When we drive like this we can consciously choose where we want to go, how we want to get there, and we can choose how to respond to a situation in the most appropriate way. This is just like our life! We are given a vehicle=our body and the road= the path we are on in life. We also have the same options to distract our self, to contract and get agitated, or being mindful and present. I have found the more I practice being mindful on the mat the more able I am to be mindful in other parts of my life, even when driving. The Anusara philosophy teaches us that at our core we are intrinsically good and when we are mindful and present we can more easily experience our own goodness and the goodness of others.  From this connection to our innate goodness we can express more patience and compassion to our self and others.