Spring detox

So as part of the body cleanse going on right now, twists, inversions, back bends are all great tools. Apart from these there are subtle practices that you can work with to engage good health. Bandhas and mudras. I recently worked with these in my own classes and the feedback from my classes were very encouraging. From jnana and anjali mudras, to padma, uddiyana and mula bandha (as well as the armpit and groin locks). There are so many subtle practices that you can add to you practice that accentuate the energy in and waste out. 

Spring into Spring - Your yoga practice in spring

So spring is the time where we start to feel like being active. We stop feeling the lethargy of winter and come out of our hibernation so to speak. We get a spring in our step and start to really want to move.
So why is this the case?
In terms of chinese medicine, spring is the season of wood. Wood represents new plants growing and existing plants growing new shoots. The colour is green. Food starts becoming lighter as well. We stop eating high energy/carbohydrate foods that we crave over winter that give us the energy to convert into heat, and we crave fresh salads etc. We start to detox as well as lightening up the food that we eat, we start to use flavours such as onion, garlic, chilli, lemon, lime, lemongrass, ginger. Often these are sour foods.
In terms of yoga asana we start to complete more twists, backbends, side openings and forward bends. We work on opening up the side and middle of the body, to create more agni (ie digestive fire).

Understanding yoga a to z - "b" is for bandhas

so bandha means lock in sanscrit.
And what are we locking - well glad you asked. We are locking energy within the body, instead of letting it escape out of the body.
There are 3 primary bandha and also other secondary bandhas that can be utilised in your yoga practice.
The three primary bandhas are:

• mula bandha - the root lock that exists at the base of the spine near the perineum to catch energy as it flows down the body and shifts it back towards the torso. You can engage this bandha in standing and balancing poses, as well as backbends and forward bends.
• uddiyana bandha - or upward flying lock that exists from the base of the lungs/diaghpragm/belly button to the breastbone/collarbone and draws energy in and upwards. You can engage this bandha in twists,  backbends and pranayama (breath practice) 
• jalandhara bandha - the "net" lock that sits at the throat that 'catches' the rising energy and shifts it downwards back towards the torso. You can engage this bandha in backbends, and standing practices 

Secondary bandhas include:

• hasta bandha - hand lock. You engage this lock when you use your hands in poses eg anjali mudra, downward dog, warrior 1 & 3
• pada bandha - foot lock. You engage this lock when you use your feet in a pose eg standing and balancing poses especially
• armpit bandha. You engage this lock when you lift the arms or bring the arms next to the body
• knee bandha. You engage this lock when you kneel, lift your leg etc

Now also part of the bandha is the active and passive engagement of the bandha. We call this ha or tha bandha, but more of this in a future post.

For now, start to be aware of and understand more about these fantastic tools that can help deepen your practice.

Practising Yoga A to Z - "a" is for Alignment

So alignment is one of the key principles in a yoga practice. Why? Because you have to know your body and understand your body to be able to align it in a pose to ensure that you are practising safely.

So what is alignment? Alignment is how your body moves and appears to yourself and others as you practice an asana pose.

So why are there two viewpoints - ie yourself and others ? You will always see your practice differently to how your teacher and others in the class will. You might see your arms straight, but your teacher might see that you favour one side, one arm may be higher than the other etc. While your teacher can look at your alignment and see signs that the body is different on each side, you on the other hand might not see it at all. This is likely to be something that you are not even aware of, not concious of.

While many teachers will instruct students on how to move a persons body into the perfect pose, I prefer to instruct yoga as a way to understand how your body is and how unique you are and how unique your yoga practice must be to be true to yourself. I prefer to guide you through the asana in a way that enables you to work safely, surely and in a way your body will thank you for later. You must gain strength to practice a strong alignment, and you must gain strength before you can move deeper into a pose with greater flexibility. Like a fine cheese or wine, it all takes time to mature, deepen and truly understand the complexity in the practice.

Yoga asana a to z - "a" is for adho mukha svanasana

Adho mutha svanasana means downward dog pose. This is one of the key ten yoga poses that would appear in practically 99% of any yoga class. It can be used in either a vinyasa (movement centered on the breath) as one of the key transitional poses eg surya namaskar (sun salutation), or on its own. This pose has the characteristic of being a gentle back bend, an inversion and standing pose all at the same time. You can also change it to be puppy (knees on floor), 1 leg downward dog, 1 arm downward dog, or bring torso closer to tight with very bent legs. In sun salutation it is considered a resting pose.

Understanding yoga a to z - "a" is for ahimsa

Ahimsa = no harm For me, ahimsa is a vital elements for yoga students to understand, be mindful of and over time work towards. On the mat it means do not harm yourself. It means stretching and working in poses safely and in a way that does no harm. Off the mat it means that you work over time to not harm the people, animals and other things that touch your life. And by the way ahimsa is one of 5 Yamas (internal observations), but more about that later.

Using proprioception to bring a new awareness to asana

So I was working recently with a sank alpha (intention) of proprioception, and also pratyahara (turn sense inwards) and decided to work with standing poses on the floor. Ye you read right, lying down.... It's a great way to help students uses their senses to feel how their body is in the pose without weight, then do the same pose again when standing. Just another tool in the kit to change people's perspective to work their bodies :-) Try it for yourself and see how it can change your perspective and awareness and muscle memory.

Winter Warner's - working with a winter yoga practice.

With winter upon us it's a great time to continue your practice at home if you don't want to go out. The kidneys are the organ that you should concentrate on, and so here are some tips to help work through this. > work with sun salutation vinyasa to work the body gently but also bring heat into the body > work with back bends to work into kidneys > bring some twists into your practice > eat well - ginger, chilis and create some 'digestive fire' Some asana that you can practice includes > head to knee pose > Wide leg forward bend > lying down bound cobbler pose

Teaching casual classes, the upside and dowside

So this week due to school holidays I took 6 classes for other people. This isn't a lot I admit, but I normally only teach 1. The upside was the cash, which is always welcome, there is also the fact that I get exposure to new people, but they body is feeling both tired and happy, and it did take alot out of me as havent done much since the birth of my bub. So Let me explain more ...... I teach at a gym and the people that do yoga, generally also do pilates, body balance and body pump as well. My dilemma was to keep every class interesting, unique, and I wanted to ensure variety for students both in terms of poses and levels of poses. Just cause they saw the same face, I didn't want them to go, oh her again lets do something different, because routine is what people like, so keep the routine and work in a similar way. Having done a variety of yoga and gym quals I have a few tricks in my toolkit. So whilst it was hard work to keep it all fresh, I actually thing I managed to pull it off. And the bit I learned the most from out of this, was people were happy u were giving them a class so they kept routine, they enjoyed the variety, it was fresh and different for them, and that they still felt like I fulfilled their normal class as well. I also gt a few comments about how it was tougher than they expected eg yoga poses for say core irked the core muscles differently to Pilates. Who knew :-) So it's never as bad as what you think. I learnt a lot from the experience as a teacher that I'm going to take off the mat and into my life as well.

2 words for today

"eat mindfully"
after eating fairly healthy but not like i use when playing sport i decided it's time for me to eat 'clean' again ie to decrease the amount of processed food I eat and try and eat stuff that I have made.
To that end I made some muesli bars from scratch. The result was that they were good but didn't hold together completely so found a virtually identical recipe and added that in as another version.

I might also make a double mix next time so it fills the tray I used.

Here's the recipe:

• preheat oven to 180deg
• line 28x18cm baking tin with foil leaving good overhang
• add 125g(1 1/3 cups) rolled oats + 45g (1/3 cup) oat bran and roast for 10 min or until golden
• while roasting oats do the following:
  1) place 50g (1/3 cup) plain flour + 100g dried fruit (coarsly chopped) + 40g sunflower seeds  + 40g pepitas + 40g nuts of your choice (coarsly chopped) in bowl
  2) in small saucepan add 100ml apple juice concentrate (or place 200ml apple juice into saucepan and heat until thick and syrupy and 100ml equilivant) + 2 tbspn honey. Heat until sugar totally disolved, take off heat then add 1 teaspn vanilla essence and stir until disolved.
• add oats/oat bran to this dry ingredients then add wet ingredients, mix then add to tin and cook for 20 minutes.