I can honestly say that the yoga classes I teach are challenging. Students sometimes are breathing heavily, struggling with some poses, and definitely sweating during the practice. My intention is not to harm or discourage my students. On the contrary, I am teaching them to believe in themselves. I show them, through the challenging yoga classes, that they have the ability to get through very difficult circumstances. Yes, they may be a little sweaty at the end, but they got through it. They learn they are able to support themselves, live with integrity, develop and practice great strength, and feel calm throughout the entire process.
There is a particular pose that can embrace this experience: Utkatasana. The Sanskirt word literally means powerful or fierce. The nickname given to this posture is Chair Pose because the physical body looks like it's sitting in a chair. While sitting in an actual chair may not produce power and strength, practicing Chair Pose can.
Because of the balancing nature of the pose, the core engagement, the arms lifted over head, lifting your toes, and sitting deeply onto nothing at all can definitely generate confidence, power, strength, and fierceness.
Utkatasana: Chair Pose
Start by standing in Mountain Pose. Be sure to have your feet about hip distance apart with your toes pointing directly forward to form a secure foundation while standing. Inhale to extend your arms into the air. Exhale and sit back and down as if you were sitting into an actual seat. To begin with, there is no need to sit down too deeply. Just bend at the knees and hips to establish the sensation of beginning to to sit down into a chair.
Before going any further, be sure to engage your core. Tilt your pelvis so you can feel you navel draw in toward your spine. Do this action with an exhale. This will help you connect more solidly to your core. It establishes a stronger base and support of self. As you're able, with core engaged, sit back and down a little deeper. Be sure to keep your arms extended over head. (Have your arms extend past your ears.) This is your posture. To make it more demanding, shift your weight more toward your heels so you can lift your toes off the floor. The challenge here is to remain stable, balanced, and calm in the posture. You want to have a full sense of supporting yourself without actual support (like sitting in a chair.) After about 5 breaths, stand up tall to Extended Mountain Pose with an inhale. Exhale to lower your arms down by your side.
The intention behind a pose like this is to remind you that you can rely on your own strength to support yourself in many difficult and challenging situations. It may not be comfortable like a chair, but you'll have the strength, power, and fierceness that the pose declares.
Namaste.
Showing posts with label power. Show all posts
Showing posts with label power. Show all posts
Monday, February 18, 2013
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Inner Strength
In my last post, I mentioned gaining strength practicing Boat Pose (Navasana). Sometimes we associate being strong with external strength. For example, having big muscles or having a nice physique may be an outward sign of strength. But what about inner strength? Being able to endure tough emotional and mental challenges. This type of strength comes from within.
A pose that can remind us of that inner strength is Boat Pose. It's a yoga posture that strengthens your core. This is the trunk of your body that supports the rest of the body. When one has a strong core - strength that is developed from within - all other types of strength are exuded: inner and outer.
Boat Pose
Start by sitting on your yoga mat with your knees bent and heels on the ground. Begin to lean back so that you're able to lift your feet off the mat. Keep your knees bent and hold on to your legs.
Flex your feet to keep them engaged. This will keep your legs engaged as well. While holding onto your legs, use that as leverage to lift and extend your spine. Imagine you're sitting in a high-back chair and you want to sit up straight against the back of the chair. In Boat Pose, the body is shaped like the letter "V" except that your knees are bent.
The key to this pose is your breath. As you inhale, continue to extend your spine. As you exhale (and feel free to breathe out through your mouth to release all of your breath), draw your navel toward your spine. Focus on the lowest part of your belly as you exhale. Here, you are engaging and contracting your transverse abdominas muscles. These muscles are part of your abdominal system and are low and deep in your pelvic area. These muscles are rarely engaged, so this pose and way of breathing will help to engage them.
Hold the pose for about 5 breaths, take a break, then do it again. Repeat the pose 4 additional times. Over time, you will gain more strength. Soon, you'll be able to do the pose without holding onto your legs and you may even be able to extend your legs.
When you build strength from the inside out, you begin to feel more confident and able to face challenges of everyday life. And not only will you build inner strength, but having a strong core contributes to building outer strength, as well.
Namaste
A pose that can remind us of that inner strength is Boat Pose. It's a yoga posture that strengthens your core. This is the trunk of your body that supports the rest of the body. When one has a strong core - strength that is developed from within - all other types of strength are exuded: inner and outer.
Boat Pose
Start by sitting on your yoga mat with your knees bent and heels on the ground. Begin to lean back so that you're able to lift your feet off the mat. Keep your knees bent and hold on to your legs.
Flex your feet to keep them engaged. This will keep your legs engaged as well. While holding onto your legs, use that as leverage to lift and extend your spine. Imagine you're sitting in a high-back chair and you want to sit up straight against the back of the chair. In Boat Pose, the body is shaped like the letter "V" except that your knees are bent.
The key to this pose is your breath. As you inhale, continue to extend your spine. As you exhale (and feel free to breathe out through your mouth to release all of your breath), draw your navel toward your spine. Focus on the lowest part of your belly as you exhale. Here, you are engaging and contracting your transverse abdominas muscles. These muscles are part of your abdominal system and are low and deep in your pelvic area. These muscles are rarely engaged, so this pose and way of breathing will help to engage them.
Hold the pose for about 5 breaths, take a break, then do it again. Repeat the pose 4 additional times. Over time, you will gain more strength. Soon, you'll be able to do the pose without holding onto your legs and you may even be able to extend your legs.
When you build strength from the inside out, you begin to feel more confident and able to face challenges of everyday life. And not only will you build inner strength, but having a strong core contributes to building outer strength, as well.
Namaste
Friday, January 27, 2012
Your Entire Power (Part 2)
In the last blog entry, I introduced to you Downward Facing Dog. It is a great pose that allows you to experience your fullest potential and power. You are able to experience physical power as well as emotional and mental power from practicing this pose.
This week, let's step it up a bit. We are going to take Downward Facing Dog to a new level to really test your power and strength physically, emotionally, and mentally. The pose this week is called "Turbo Dog." It is a term and pose borrowed from Forrest Yoga.
"Ana Forrest has been changing people’s lives for nearly 40 years. An internationally recognized pioneer in yoga and emotional healing, Ana created Forrest Yoga while working through her own healing from her life’s trauma and experience. With thousands of licensed practitioners around the world, Forrest Yoga is renowned as an intensely physical, internally focused practice that emphasizes how to carry a transformative experience off the mat and into daily life." (Taken from http://forrestyoga.com/about.)
The pose really embodies what Forrest Yoga is all about. We have the power and strength within us to sustain what life hands us. When life is demanding, we must remember that we DO have the resources within us to make it through the toughest moments.
Turbo Dog
Start on your hands and knees on your yoga mat. Set your intention here. Perhaps think of situations that are more challenging than your typical situations. In these moments, we are often needing relief or strength to get us through. The circumstance can sometimes feel so overwhelming that it feels like it will never end. Can you possibly endure this? YES you can. You DO have the strength and power to survive even the most challenging of life's moments.
Move your hands forward a bit on your mat, come up onto your toes, then move your hips up and back toward the wall behind you until you have come to Downward Facing Dog. We already know that this posture helps us to tap into our entire power and strength. Now, let's take it further.
Begin to bend your elbows as if you're going to place them on the floor. But don't place them on the mat! Bend them enough so you are just hovering over your mat. To bring more stability to the pose, imagine you are holding onto a block between your elbows that you cannot drop. Or even imagine you're holding onto a beach ball between your arms. This moving in toward your center creates great strength and stability in the posture. Whenever we move toward the midline - the spine - we experience greater control, self-assurance, confidence, balance, and strength.
Be sure that your breath is also strong and allow it to help you maintain the posture. Focus on the exhale: as you release the breath, engage your Abdominal Lock (Uddiyana Bandha - oo-dee-YAH-nah BAHN-dah
uddiyana = upward (ud = "up, upwards")
bandha = binding, tying a bond, fetter; putting together, uniting, contracting, combining; mundane bondage, attachment to this world.) This connection further taps you into your inner resources needed to hold in stillness in this pose. As you are able, hold the pose for 5-10 breaths. Finish by lightly resting your elbows on the floor then come to Child's Pose.
Coming to this resting posture is a reminder, also, of the necessary rest after something very strenuous. It is the time to take care of yourself after enduring strain and stress on the body. Yes, you have the strength to endure, but you also have the strength to nurture. That is the balance we all want to achieve.
Namaste
This week, let's step it up a bit. We are going to take Downward Facing Dog to a new level to really test your power and strength physically, emotionally, and mentally. The pose this week is called "Turbo Dog." It is a term and pose borrowed from Forrest Yoga.
"Ana Forrest has been changing people’s lives for nearly 40 years. An internationally recognized pioneer in yoga and emotional healing, Ana created Forrest Yoga while working through her own healing from her life’s trauma and experience. With thousands of licensed practitioners around the world, Forrest Yoga is renowned as an intensely physical, internally focused practice that emphasizes how to carry a transformative experience off the mat and into daily life." (Taken from http://forrestyoga.com/about.)
The pose really embodies what Forrest Yoga is all about. We have the power and strength within us to sustain what life hands us. When life is demanding, we must remember that we DO have the resources within us to make it through the toughest moments.
Turbo Dog
Start on your hands and knees on your yoga mat. Set your intention here. Perhaps think of situations that are more challenging than your typical situations. In these moments, we are often needing relief or strength to get us through. The circumstance can sometimes feel so overwhelming that it feels like it will never end. Can you possibly endure this? YES you can. You DO have the strength and power to survive even the most challenging of life's moments.
Move your hands forward a bit on your mat, come up onto your toes, then move your hips up and back toward the wall behind you until you have come to Downward Facing Dog. We already know that this posture helps us to tap into our entire power and strength. Now, let's take it further.
Begin to bend your elbows as if you're going to place them on the floor. But don't place them on the mat! Bend them enough so you are just hovering over your mat. To bring more stability to the pose, imagine you are holding onto a block between your elbows that you cannot drop. Or even imagine you're holding onto a beach ball between your arms. This moving in toward your center creates great strength and stability in the posture. Whenever we move toward the midline - the spine - we experience greater control, self-assurance, confidence, balance, and strength.
Be sure that your breath is also strong and allow it to help you maintain the posture. Focus on the exhale: as you release the breath, engage your Abdominal Lock (Uddiyana Bandha - oo-dee-YAH-nah BAHN-dah
uddiyana = upward (ud = "up, upwards")
bandha = binding, tying a bond, fetter; putting together, uniting, contracting, combining; mundane bondage, attachment to this world.) This connection further taps you into your inner resources needed to hold in stillness in this pose. As you are able, hold the pose for 5-10 breaths. Finish by lightly resting your elbows on the floor then come to Child's Pose.
Coming to this resting posture is a reminder, also, of the necessary rest after something very strenuous. It is the time to take care of yourself after enduring strain and stress on the body. Yes, you have the strength to endure, but you also have the strength to nurture. That is the balance we all want to achieve.
Namaste
Friday, January 20, 2012
Your Entire Power (Part 1)
Downward Facing Dog is a very popular yoga pose. It is seen and performed while flowing through the Sun Salutations. It is a great pose because it physically stimulates the entire body. I would add that it provides strength to the entire body.
The posture, as said, is typically done while moving through a yoga sequence, but the pose itself can be done as an entire practice.
So what intention can we bring to this pose? Since "Down Dog" works and brings power to the entire body, how about set your intention as experiencing the fullness of your own power and strength.
Sometimes when we workout at the gym, for example, we work specific parts of the body: the arms, the legs, the chest, etc. How about doing ONE pose that works EVERY part of your body. Step into this pose acknowledging ALL of your power and strength. Remind yourself that this energetic power flows through your entire body. It doesn't necessarily have to settle in one place. Why not be strong in your entirety. As you come to Downward Facing Dog, remember that energy.
Because it is an inversion pose (your hands are on the floor and your head is pointing down toward the floor) we build strength in the hands, arms, shoulders, and back. You build core strength, flexibility in your legs, feet, and toes.
Downward Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana)
Start on your hands and knees. Here, set your intention of finding and feeling the fullness of your entire strength. Move the hands forward a bit on your mat. Be sure to make a full and strong connection to the mat with your hands. Spread out your fingers, grip the mat with your fingertips, and press more toward your inner palms so that not too much pressure moves to the outer wrists (potentially causing harm.)
Come up on your toes, and while keeping the knees bent, lift your hips up and back toward the wall behind you. As you make this transition, you will be lengthening through your spine (one of the physical intentions of this pose.) Feel free to keep the knees slightly bent. That will allow you to have mobility in your hips and push them farther back toward the wall behind you further extending your spine. At the same time, press your hands into the floor as if you're trying to push the floor away from you. This will provide more length as well as bring opening to the shoulders and chest.
While in the pose, feel the inner arms move toward one another. This draws your strength and stability inward. If you start to feel you elbows bend and move AWAY from you, or even feel yourself roll to your outer wrists, you may experience a loss of that powerful connection. I often say in class "hug in toward your midline." Your spine is the middle of your body - your midline. If you continue to move energy toward this midline, you develop and maintain your strength.
As mentioned, it is ok to keep you knees slightly bent, but you can also begin to press your heels down toward the floor. You may experience a nice stretch and lengthening feeling in your calves. Yes, the legs can be absolutely straight in this pose, but just be careful that lengthening the legs does not compromise the extended spine you've created in the pose.
Hold the pose for at least 10 breaths. Feel your power. Feel your strength. Yes! It takes EFFORT to hold this pose. But as you stay in sensation - stay in the pose - you DO BUILD POWER!
Once you are done, slowly return your knees to the floor and sit back into Child's Pose. Here, reflect on the fullness of your Self - the Fullness of your Being.
Next time, we'll focus on a variation of Downward Facing Dog: "Turbo Dog."
Namaste.
The posture, as said, is typically done while moving through a yoga sequence, but the pose itself can be done as an entire practice.
So what intention can we bring to this pose? Since "Down Dog" works and brings power to the entire body, how about set your intention as experiencing the fullness of your own power and strength.
Sometimes when we workout at the gym, for example, we work specific parts of the body: the arms, the legs, the chest, etc. How about doing ONE pose that works EVERY part of your body. Step into this pose acknowledging ALL of your power and strength. Remind yourself that this energetic power flows through your entire body. It doesn't necessarily have to settle in one place. Why not be strong in your entirety. As you come to Downward Facing Dog, remember that energy.
Because it is an inversion pose (your hands are on the floor and your head is pointing down toward the floor) we build strength in the hands, arms, shoulders, and back. You build core strength, flexibility in your legs, feet, and toes.
Downward Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana)
Start on your hands and knees. Here, set your intention of finding and feeling the fullness of your entire strength. Move the hands forward a bit on your mat. Be sure to make a full and strong connection to the mat with your hands. Spread out your fingers, grip the mat with your fingertips, and press more toward your inner palms so that not too much pressure moves to the outer wrists (potentially causing harm.)
Come up on your toes, and while keeping the knees bent, lift your hips up and back toward the wall behind you. As you make this transition, you will be lengthening through your spine (one of the physical intentions of this pose.) Feel free to keep the knees slightly bent. That will allow you to have mobility in your hips and push them farther back toward the wall behind you further extending your spine. At the same time, press your hands into the floor as if you're trying to push the floor away from you. This will provide more length as well as bring opening to the shoulders and chest.
While in the pose, feel the inner arms move toward one another. This draws your strength and stability inward. If you start to feel you elbows bend and move AWAY from you, or even feel yourself roll to your outer wrists, you may experience a loss of that powerful connection. I often say in class "hug in toward your midline." Your spine is the middle of your body - your midline. If you continue to move energy toward this midline, you develop and maintain your strength.
As mentioned, it is ok to keep you knees slightly bent, but you can also begin to press your heels down toward the floor. You may experience a nice stretch and lengthening feeling in your calves. Yes, the legs can be absolutely straight in this pose, but just be careful that lengthening the legs does not compromise the extended spine you've created in the pose.
Hold the pose for at least 10 breaths. Feel your power. Feel your strength. Yes! It takes EFFORT to hold this pose. But as you stay in sensation - stay in the pose - you DO BUILD POWER!
Once you are done, slowly return your knees to the floor and sit back into Child's Pose. Here, reflect on the fullness of your Self - the Fullness of your Being.
Next time, we'll focus on a variation of Downward Facing Dog: "Turbo Dog."
Namaste.
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