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Simplicity
/Clean air …. yay! Fires being contained … yay! Cooler temps …. yay! I hope you’re hanging in there. What I’ve needed during this time is: simplicity. We brought simplicity to our practice this week by including a few longer holds.
Lots of benefits to longer holds, especially that they allow us a moment to simply let life flow through us. They provide strength and endurance. They help the mind slow down which helps us be less reactionary. So we get this luxury to simply hang out and drop in and do warrior 2 or dolphin pose or plank for a minute or sometimes a little longer :)
Students were reminded that there is no pressure to be extraordinary…. simply feel, be, enjoy. just listen to your breath. Feel your intention moving through your breath as you move through the asanas. We tapped into the simplicity of quiet with a minute in childs pose. In warrior 3 to revolved half moon, we playfully embraced the simplicity of only balancing!
Yogis were asked, “What do you need to do in this moment, to sustain this hold?” Students drew on their breath, their intentions and their gorgeous smiles :)
Simple and clear. Stop, pause, and feel … let energy and magic enter your day.
Thanks for joining me here and on the mat.
Jai and Namaste, Lynn
Register and recharge
/Its good be home from San Diego and back teaching. Thanks for joining me this week. I love hearing your stories of healing and seeing your pets :)
We stepped on the mat mindfully offering up the work we do here: may it be meaningful and beneficial. Throughout the vinyasa practice, the work was in service of registering the moments as they arise. This builds the skill of being present. We allowed the poses to help us practice being in the moment. By focusing on one moment, you relax the brain. When we are distracted, it drains us.
Students had fun with a variety of poses. Standing sequences were interspersed with twists and boat pose, crow, and a moment of kneeling with eyes closed to feel the subtle sensations in the experience of stillness. We continued on into Pigeon pose, camel pose and a twist in janu sirsasana. Yogis made the shifts and modifications they needed, knowing they were doing the important work of registering the moment. Students learned to observe and listen, no judgment. To take in the moment just as it is; to let it be as it is with a sense of ease and space.
By simultaneously noticing their breath and their hamstrings, their hands and their feet, their spine and the warmth on their skin . . . students created a deeper connection to themselves and their experience, and we all walked away recharged!
The light in me sees the light in you. Namaste, Lynn & Spirit (our black lab and Zoom mascot )
Connection to Core
/As I reassured my students this week, this class was not all core work :)
What we emphasized was drawing your navel to your spine on every exhale - that’s the core connection! I’d like to thank one of my teachers, Elena Brower, for the inspiration behind this theme.
Each time you create that connection in your core, you are fortifying a sense of safety and trust in yourself. And that alignment work benefits you physically: it strengthen your abdominal muscles, it brings ease and health to your low back, and it creates a nice long spine.
In addition, we wanted to give that action, that connection a meaning. And the meaning is a returning to yourself, an arriving: “here I am”. It also creates a sense of presence that fortifies your body and mind. And that sense of presence lends itself to a sense of trust in yourself. I invited students to notice a sense of presence building, and especially during challenging poses or longer flows to focus on that deep connection to themselves physically and spiritually.
So my instruction throughout was “with every exhale draw your belly to your spine and solidify that core connection”. In some poses like cat-cow and Warrior 1 it was easier to access this action. Other poses like cobra it was harder to feel the work. As practice deepened into crow and dolphin and revolved triangle, I encouraged the yogis to feel all the openings they had created already, and to notice what had changed for them so far? What was emerging?
We finished our asana practice with pigeon, tree backbend and seated twist. Thank you yogis for your hard work and your beautiful focus. From my heart to yours, Lynn
Goodness
/Sometimes goodness is getting into the great outdoors. We were lucky enough to get up to Tahoe for a weekend of kayaking, river rafting and biking and some lovely R & R.
Our theme this week was goodness and it included a very classic-style flow. It was all about going back to a classic, simple, good place. Just like your favorite comfort food, be it tuna noodle casserole or a homemade garden burger :)
Often all we need is to go back to what drew us to the practice in the first place. Remembering that getting on our mat is always a good choice! We started with meditation. I led students to take time to fully arrive. To feel their whole self showing up for practice. To feel the potency of their whole self bearing witness to each and every breath. Students set intentions around what basic goodness they wanted to get back to. What one thing could they allow themselves to welcome in.
We started in mountain pose and felt how fortified you can feel standing in alignment. Our flow started with a few gratitude salutations. We fired up a few dog to planks because plank is good :) It is good for you and it awakens you to feel how strong you are in body and in conviction. We used our core in a no arms flow between extended side angel pose and exalted pose. Messy dog made us laugh. Tree steadied us and Hanumanasana stretched our hamstrings and our imaginations.
In savasana, our skin was soft like moonlight. We rested into our center …. that place untouched by the external world. We allowed everything to be restored. Thank you for practicing. Namaste, Lynn