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

What stories have you been telling yourself?

Jen and I got together yesterday to continue our mission. We are working towards maksikanagasana 2 (dragonfly 2) its going to take multiple practices to get there. To do this pose you bring a leg behind your head, twist your body over the other leg and balance on your hands, simple right ;). To see Kathryn Budig gracefully demonstrate this fierce pose visit: video.  So yesterday Jen, her dog Bo, my dog Dharma, and myself gathered in a park and played. I have so much fun practicing with friends, I work harder and go deeper then I would if I were alone. Thank you Jen.

Last week we were able to get our foot behind our head but couldn't get the foot to stay. For example I would take my right leg behind my head and then I would hold my food in place with my left hand. We watched Kathryn's video and admired how she could take both of her hands in front of her heart and the foot stayed in place behind her head. When I tried to bring my hands in front of my heart my leg would fly back down to the ground like a rubber band shooting across a room. I thought "I will never be able to do that, ever, impossible". Even as we practiced yesterday I kept telling myself unconsciously and consciously this story of not being able it. Funny that I was right back to telling myself I wouldn't be able to do a pose after having just posted a blog on the subject. Anyhow a lot of shoulder work, and skull loop, and tada my foot stayed!!! Jen snapped a picture of it.




What stories have you been telling yourself that are not true and are holding you back? Tell yourself good stories, reach for the stars and keep reaching :)
                                                                                                                                                                               

eka pada sirsasana

Ankle loop and Skull loop

Recently I have been playing with the loops. The “loops” are a series of specific, interconnected trajectories of energy in our bodies. Just like the universal principles of alignment, we want to be practicing all seven loops in every pose we do. By being aware of these interconnected loops in the body we can start to notice how we hold our body while practicing yoga asana or the way we habitually hold our body in life. With this awareness we can use the loops so we my create more health, stability, longevity and freedom in the body. Although it is important to focus on all seven loops, recently I have been focusing on the ankle loop (base of the shin bone back) and skull loop (pallet of the mouth back and up).

Ankle loop is very important because if you don’t have the base of your shin bones anchored back toward your heel, you will be ungrounded and you will mess up the foundation thereby throwing all other loops out of balance. Here is a brief summary of how not having a good ankle loop you will throw off the six other loops above it.

If the base of your shin bone is not back (ankle loop) you will set off a dominoes effect of imbalance all the way up toward you head…The top of your shin bones will probably be pushed back (opposite of shin loop=hyperextension at knee)..The top of the femur bone will be pushed forward (opposite of thigh loop = hurting hip muscles, psoas, iliofemoral ligament and causes low back pain and Sacroiliac joint pain)….The pelvis will rotate forward sticking the belly out (opposite of pelvis loop= removes the low dorsal curve in the back pushing sacrum down and out causing compression in low back)….The bottom ribs will push forward (opposite of kidney loop= compressing the kidneys)…the shoulders round forward as if you were protecting the heart in battle (opposite of shoulder loop= causing lots of shoulder and neck problems)…lastly the pallet of the mouth will move forward (opposite of skull loop= compresses the neck + shoulders forward and chin forward is just plan painful). You can see by just rooting the base of the shin bones back toward the heel you can help create a lovely dominoes effect up the loops.

I have enjoyed focusing on ankle loop and skull loop at the same time because the skull loop is like the cherry on top. Skull loop starts in the upper palate and flows back to the base of the occiput, where it then lifts up the back of the skull, creating lengthen in the neck. Whenever I add a good skull loop to a pose I feel confident and radiant. Adding skull loop also helps maintain shoulder loop, keeping the shoulders integrated behind the heart.

Try this for a moment. Sit up or stand up and look forward as you draw the tips of the shoulders toward the back of the heart, really “plug in”. Notice how this feels in the shoulders and in the heart (shoulders probably feel integrated, heart probably feels open). Now drop you chin toward your chest, this is the opposite of skull loop (I like to do the completely wrong action sometimes so I know what the results feel like). After dropping your chin toward your chest, did you feel the shoulders slightly lose the integration and the heart slightly sinks? Even if you use really good muscular energy when you take your chin toward your chest you will lessen your shoulder loop. Try this now, plug in and then pull the pallet slightly back and up and lift the ears up. Do you feel how the shoulders stay rooted, the heart stays lifted, and maybe you can experience more inner body bright?

I really like focusing on ankle and skull loop together because it reminds me to stay grounded and reminds me to create space confidently. I said this earlier but it is important to practice all seven loops all the time. Even when I am focusing on ankle loop and skull loop doesn’t mean I stop doing shin loop, pelvis loop, kidney loop, and shoulder loop. Here are some fun poses I have been working with: handstand, headstand, forearm balance, side crow, titibasana, trikonanasan, urdhva danurasana, chaturanga, half moon, parvrita Parsvakonasana, Parsvakonasana, arm balances, Setu Bandha Sarvangasana, side plank with extended leg….

Hope you have a nice day