Send out your heart intentions out into the world in an emPOWERing SKILLfull way!

If you have any questions about my short hand ask. I haven't been posting many blogs and some students have been asking for my notes. These are my ruff notes from Tuesday's Anusara class at metric yoga. 

Theme: let's send our heart intentions out into the world in an emPOWERing SKILLfull way by uniting our love (Anahata chakra) with our personal power (manipura chakra). 

Mantra: Aham prema = I am divine love. 

Visualization: pink flame in the heart of unconditional love and fulfillment. Remembering true fulfillment comes from being present and loving and seeing the beauty reflected in all things and acting from a place of unconditional love. Meaning you don't put any conditions on your love. (Seems simple much harder in practice) 

Anecdote: there is a lot of divide and fear in the world today. We are witnessing lots of action driven from fear. How can we act in alignment with the heart so our actions are skillful? This is how we follow our dharma by aligning our actions skillfully with the heart! This is how we empower ourself and others! 

Heart quality: LOVE 

UPA: shoulder loop + kidney loop (KL) + organic energy. Practicing shoulder loop the throats and arm bones curl back as the tip of the shoulder blades lift the heart and sternum and meet again at the top of the throat. This brings us into our heart. Into our power of love. However often when we practice this principle and dive deeply into our heart we lose our power and capacity to act. This can be seen in the physical body by the ribs sticking out, the kidneys collapsed and no tone in the belly. To connect to your power, from the heart press our through the hands ( the palms of the hands have little heat energy centers on them) as a way of initiating kidney loop which draws the floating ribs in with the power of the core and expands into the back of the kidneys. This is our manipura chakra, the energy center associated with our personal power  when this center is in balance we feel like we have the capacity to act and have confidence in ourself. 

Apex: eka pada rajakaptasana 

Warm up 

Supta blanket cactus twisting knees 

Supta blanket roll under heart sleep walking zombie arm plugs and reach over head 

1/2 sun 3x 

Half mood stretch

Basic 

Cat/ cow 

Kneeling Plank KL 

Push ups bolster KL 

L 

L twist 

Anjaneyasana 

Handstand prep hands on wall

Harder 

Handstand L 

Kick up handstand 

Pincha prep forearms on wall 

Pincha L 

Sirsasana 

Pec stretch at wall hand on wall "high 5"

W2- Lunge - twist lunge arms in T- rev Lunge- high runners twist Lunge

Ardha Supta virasana 

Supta virasana 

L.l quad 

Pigeon quad

Cool down 

Cow face 

Fish twist 

Shavasana 

What kind of lake is your low back?

I am back! 

Theme: be calm and clear like a still lake. 

Universal principles of emphasis: foundation, muscle energy, thigh loop, pelvic loop, organic energy

Apex: Dancer 

Heart quality: calm 

Anecdote: I just had my second baby 2 months ago and life with two children under three can be a little chaotic to say the least. One technique I have been using to stay calm in the chaos is by visualizing a lake. A clear, calm, still lake. When I do this I feel those same qualities in my own body, mind and spirit. This is one thing I gain from a consistent practice whether it be yoga, meditation, breath work, mantra repetition , or journaling... I am able to tap into this crystal lake experience easier and during challenges. Now if I visualize a lake that has choppy and dirty water I instantly feel chaos and anxiety. 

I like to think about the joints in the body as being like a lake. And the way we hold the joint determines if the lake/ joint will be calm, clear, steady, peaceful and grounded of if the lake/ joint will be turbulent, chaotic, stressful, and  un grounding. In this class we are going to focus on the low back. The low back tends to either have to much curve or not enough curve and be rounded. In both these situation the joint would be like the dirty lake. The alignment we want to apply is listed below and should create the feeling of having that peaceful lake in your back;)

Open to grace: get connected to the foundation. 

Muscle energy: create stability. One way to do this is squeeze the foundation toward the midline. 

Thigh loop (TL): Move the thighs back and create a curve in low back

Pelvic loop (PL): Tone pelvic floor anchor and tailbone down. 

Organic energy (OE): Extend from hips down toward earth and from hips up to crown of head and create space in low back. 

Sequence: 

Warm up:

Sun A 3x

Tadasana half moon leg lift 

Utkatasana prep cat/cow variation 

"" hands on knees TL PL OE

Tadasana half moon stretch 

Uttanasana- high runners lunge

Basic 

AMS 

Lunge 

Anjaneyasana

Anjaneyasana quad - upright twist with quad 

Lunge- eagle- standing splits - handstand hops 

Lunge - Dancer- lunge  

Harder

Eprk forearms- off to side twist- off to side quad 

Eprk quad 

Dolphin 

Hero toes tucked 

Virasana - supta virasana 

Half hanuman 

Apex 

dancer 

Cool down 

Baddha konasana 

Janusirsasana 2x 

Twist 

Symmetrical  root femurs 

Shavasana 

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

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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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

 

roses!!! self love!!! shoulder loop and kidney loop

February is the month of love and I think with valentines and the hallmark industry a lot of the emphasis of love gets put on someone else. Like the love you have for your family or your significant other, which is an important relationship to celebrate! But I think it is important to also celebrate the love you have for yourself and the relationship you have with yourself. Today in class we focus on shoulder loop, kidney loop and lip loop (smile). We cultivated physical strength to hold are arm bones, collar bones and shoulders back (shoulder loop) as well as physical strength in the core as we expanded into the kidneys (kidney loop). As we worked these refinements of alignment we deepen our relationship and our understanding of our self as we shine more brightly, celebrating the love we have for our self. (This alignment also physically create less stress, tension and headaches, how awesome is that?!)

Shoulder loop. One of the seven loops (or eight if you count lip loop) in Anusara yoga where we energetically and physically draw the arm bones, collar bones and scapulas back and into the back of the heart. When I was learning shoulder loop I was so excited. I tend to be a very enthusiastic yogi. With this enthusiasm for shoulder loop I didn’t realize that I was also sticking my floating ribs out tremendously. This not only allowed my core to miss out in the heart opening experience but it also compressed my kidneys. Now as I practice opening my heart with confidence and strength I also make sure to practice another loop, kidney loop, where I pull the floating ribs in and expand into my kidneys. This action invites my core to join into this celebration of opening the heart while providing a more stable base.

As I was thinking about teaching a class where I wanted to do back bend asanas, I wanted to work on shoulder loop and kidney loop I was trying to think of some good metaphors. Since it is Valentine’s Day I have been inspired by the beautiful roses I have been seeing I wanted to talk about opening up like a rose, the uncurling of the peddles. Going from a place of contraction like the bud of the rose, or the shoulders rounded forward, to a place of expansion and an opening of genuine beauty. I love how when a rose or any flower is open I don’t think “that flower would be more beautiful if that pedal was a different color…” I just think “wow pure beauty!” I wish I could look at myself and not pick at things I wish were different and instead just see the pure natural beauty. So this opening is how I am going to link shoulder loop. But how will I get this metaphor to work for kidney loop?…..I thought when a flower is in a bud the stem is straight and when the flower opens it does NOT all of a sudden put a kink in the middle of the stem. If it did that it would snap the stem in half which would cause the flower to die. No the stem stays strong which supports the opening of the bud. SO as we work shoulder loop we to need to maintain the integrity of our core by practicing kidney loop.

Ta Da!! That is how I am linking shoulder loop and kidney loop into the theme of self love celebration + our relationship with our self + roses...

The class went great. I wrote this blog before and fine tuned it after. But one thing I realized while teaching the class that was wonderful and not fully planned. Was that the loops are really a refinement of the practice. Asking the students to really observe where they are in the pose and what their shoulders and ribs are doing and based off that non judgmental observation make these refinements to experience more of an opening… that focus, patience and awareness really helped deepen the relationship each student had with themselves. (it was wonderful to be a part of that)

The Loops

One of the refinements we use in Anusara yoga has to do with loops. The loops are a series of specific, interconnected trajectories of energy in our bodies starting with the feel and going all the way up to the skull. I like to think of them as bike gears that intersect and move in opposing directions from one another.

The seven pairs of Loops are:

Ankle
starts at the base of the shinbone just above the ankle. It moves down the back of the heel,forward along the bottom of the foot, then back up through the center of the arch to the front of shin base.

Shin
starts at the base of the shinbone just above the ankle. It moves up the back of the calf muscle to the top of the shins just below the knee, forward through the top of the shin, then down the front of the shin back to the base of the shin.

Thigh
starts at the top of thighbone in the core of the pelvis (pelvic Focal Point). It moves down the back of the leg to the top of the calf muscle, forward through the top of the shin, and then up the front of the leg through the lower abdomen back to the Focal Point.

Pelvic
starts in the core of the abdomen in line with the middle of the lumbar and a place just below the navel. It moves down from the middle of the lumbar to the middle of the buttocks in line the bottom of the sacrum, forward through the floor of the pelvis (pelvic Focal Point) to the top of the pubic bone, then up the lower abdomen to just below the navel. The Pelvic Loop has the same direction of rotation as the Thigh Loop. However, they have opposite effects on the alignment of the body. The Thigh Loop moves the top of the thighs backward, while the Pelvic Loop moves the top of the thighs forward.

Kidney
starts in the core of the abdomen in line with the middle of the lumbar and a place just below the navel. It moves up the back from just below the kidneys to the bottom of the shoulder blades, forward through the top of the diaphragm (heart Focal Point) to the base of the sternum, then down the solar plexus to just below the navel.

Shoulder
starts at the center of the upper palate (skull Focal Point). It moves down the back of the neck and the upper back to the bottom of the shoulder blades, forward through the bottom of the heart and the top of the diaphragm, then up the chest and throat from the base of the sternum to the upper palate.

Skull
starts at the center of 7. the upper palate (skull Focal Point). It moves back and up along the back of the skull, forward over the top of the head, then down the face back to the upper palate. The Loops interconnect with each other and so influence each other as they are independently activated. For instance, as you Outer Spiral the legs the Pelvic Loop is activated, which in turn will help to increase the Kidney Loop.

As we get older our body through bad alignment starts to go against the loops. Coroners used to identify the age of a dead person by looking at these loops and the more they were out of alignment the older they are. After learning about these loops it is very interesting to people watch. I am a student and one of my professors has the loops way out of balance I want to go to go align he all class.

Reference:
Anusara Teacher Training Manual
Anusara Master Immersion
Awesome loop photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sharonfrost/26593683/