Archives for 2018

The Heart Chakra — Anahata

As we continue our journey through the chakras we come to the heart. It sits right in the middle of the other six with three below it and three above it, which might give you some clues as to how special the heart centre is.

As with everything about us it is all inter-connected so we can’t work on, say for example, the base or sacral chakra without affecting the others, it is all part of our wholeness. That is why mainstream medicine is letting us down in many areas today as most of medicine is based on the Newtonian premise that we are mechanical and therefore parts can be replaced or treated individually with no inquiry to what is going on in other areas of our lives. We are so much more complex than that and there is also so much we don’t know about the intricacies of energy, and let’s remember we are made of energy and everything we interact with is energy. We cannot always see what we are dealing with, it is not that black and white.

Many of us have forgotten how to “feel” to tune into our hearts for that inner guidance that comes from a place of truth. That is what Dru Yoga is so good at, working with the heart energy, gently and subtly opening up the heart pathways so that you can feel more. This is why so many people get that unexplainable feeling after a Dru class that leaves them feeling lighter, calmer, balanced and happier.

If you’ve been coming to my classes you will know that I encourage you to check in with the layers of your being before we start and during the class. This is so that you get to feel what is going on at these levels:

Physical level – Anamaya Kosha: What is going on in your physical body?

Pranic level – Pranamaya Kosha: How is your breath, your energy level?

Feeling level – Manomaya Kosha: How you feel, how is your heart feeling?

Mental level – Vijnanamaya Kosha: How is your mind, where are your thoughts?

If you can learn to consistently check in with these layers throughout your day you will be able to identify what affects your koshas and energy levels, and make conscious choices about how to manage your responses.

For example, you might check in with your heart and notice that you are feeling a bit down, low, or uninspired. What tools have you got from attending yoga that could change this? Remember we are energetic beings and therefore we can change the energetics at any time we choose. The fastest way is to change our breathing: commonly when we are feeling low, our posture may be slightly slumped, our breathing shallow, and our thoughts turned inward.

Try taking three deep breaths and sighing the breath out. Then practice a little anahata breath (breath of the heart) followed by the heaven and earth stretch, reaching and stretching into the sides of your body. To come fully into the moment, focus on your breathing. Let your breath take you into your body so that you can re-inhabit your body again. We get so busy and in our heads with the numerous roles we play that often, without knowing it, we become quite detached from our bodies. We have sent our energy out on missions in many directions—work, family, kids, what’s for dinner and so on—and wonder why we feel scattered, exhausted and ungrounded. Coming back to our breath and in particular breathing into our heart can be very calming and soothing. It can help to put your hands on your heart as that will take your awareness there quickly and aid focus.

Breathing deeply and fully doesn’t just affect your mental and pranic levels. Did you know that by using your diaphragm properly, you are helping your physical heart health? As you expand the diaphragm and breathe fully into your belly, up into the rib cage and then further up into your chest, you’re expanding the whole front of your body. Exhale and feel the diaphragm release as it recoils upwards and gently massages the heart through the fascia (connective tissue). The act of breathing literally massages the heart. Because the heart is bound directly to the diaphragm and indirectly to the sternum and lower neck joints via the fascia, diaphragmatic action—deep breathing—manipulates the soft tissue of the heart (Donna Farhi, Pathways to a Centered Body, 2017). Think how good a shoulder massage feels for your skeletal muscles and you have an added incentive to check on your breath and use your diaphragm fully throughout the day.

Our heart is the balance point from the lower and upper energy centres. It’s always a good place to start your practice from and to finish with. As we have worked with the sun sequence, Surya Namaskara, this past term you’ll have noticed that we start with our hands at the heart. We activate the heart before the sequence and then again at the end of the sequence, restoring balance at the beautiful heart centre where the light of the sun is reflected in the qualities of the heart, love, kindness and compassion.

Honour your heart throughout the day. Stop, place your hands on your heart and affirm to yourself “I Love You”. Breathe deeply and smile.

Namaste

Sarah

Writing from the heart

A couple of weeks ago, I felt the need to escape my planned work day and get into the bush. I had been back from a yoga therapy training module for a few days and was having trouble settling back into the regular routine!

When I am away on a training module as a student it is lovely to not have to organise anything other than turning up and participating in the training. I share a house with two very special friends and we have so much fun sharing our stories of life, sharing our experiences as yoga teachers and really just hanging out together. We laugh so much we exhaust ourselves! We cater for our breakfasts and pack our lunches each day but after the day is over we gather for dinner out and easily manage to eat out very cheaply at delicious Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese and other local eateries. This is such a special time of deep connections and sharing of our collective wisdom. No wonder then that I have trouble adjusting back when I get home!

So my place of rejuvenation is the Earth and I head down to the Balingup Tree Park. This is what my pen put onto paper on this most recent trip.

I’m nature bathing and it’s delightful. No one else is here!

Nature bathing: stay long enough to fall into an altered state than when you arrived. Soak it in. Breathe deeply and fully.

Breathe in and receive. Breathe out and give. Enjoy this exchange as life supports life. As if by magic the stress falls away, muscles relax, eyes soften and you’re transported to a rhythm of the Earth, a nature rhythm. Let yourself flow with this rhythm.

Taking time out to absorb the magnificence of nature reflects back to you that same magnificence within. Then your heart softens as you recognise that divinity that’s always there, we just don’t stop long enough or often enough to have it reflected back to us.

Make time today to pause and appreciate nature. It’s the break your heart longs for as it reflects back to you the beauty of your soul.

Nestle up to your favourite tree and receive her breath as you breathe in deeply. Exhale slowly and give your tree the gift of your exhalation. Nourish each other and feel the synergy of this union.

Namaste
Sarah

Yoga and Writing: Sharing my writing

A different theme for this blog post—thought I would share with you a piece of writing that I completed after one of our Yoga and Writing events. Just so happens I was in Balingup, the venue for our next Yoga and Writing event. This is the effect it had on me!

Sitting on the grass under the shade of a white cedar. I’ve been nature bathing this weekend, soaking up the essence of the Earth and collecting delightful treasures: leaves, pine cones, grass tree seeds and acorns! My eyes have taken in the autumn colours from green to yellow, orange to crimson, peach, gold, tan in every shade. I’ve collected inspiration.

Yesterday was magical under the giant oak tree with acorns falling along with leaves. My cells soaked up the groundedness of this ancient friend, the gentle breeze took away my thoughts and tumbling acorns brought me back to the present moment.

So there you go, a piece of writing and feeling evoked from time in nature. If you’re keen to make creative connections and join our creativity page then consider joining Kel and I for our November Yoga and Writing at the Golden Valley Tree Park in Balingup.

Here’s another short piece from our last winter workshop where we walked up to a couple of ancient trees near the studio.

Namaste

Sarah

Connection, Compassion and Kindness

I haven’t been a good blogger lately, or maybe ever! I get lots of ideas at different times, have it all in my head but somehow it doesn’t make the journey from my head to this page.

So it’s time to share more and this is really important because at the end of last term (term three) I felt, more than ever before, that there was an increased sense of connection in all my classes between the participants. I was reflecting at the end of term during my two week break and recalled how lovely it was to witness the conversations, the little gestures of support of each other, the inquiry if someone was away, responding to assisting others to get to class if they found themselves stuck. Sometimes people were so engrossed in catching up that yoga almost got in the way!

Connection is one of my values – actually, it is in my top five! Why?

Because to me, it’s important to have connections. It’s through those connections that you have experiences with others. It is those experiences that make life rich, the connections with others, the memories you make through those connections, the gestures, words, deeds, sharing of feelings and the opportunities to widen your connections with others that care.

What I love about teaching yoga is that there are so many aspects to yoga that go way beyond the yoga mat and the physical movement. What I am witnessing in my classes now is the result of a sense of safety, of familiarity of those faces that have been there for a few terms, maybe even a few years! The result of being in a place that has been intended to give you a space to explore the many aspects of yourself. That is the real meaning of yoga: unity on all levels of your being because when you have that sense of unity it ripples out to the wider community and this is how we make a difference in the world. I love Mahatma Gandhi’s quote, “be the change you want to see in the world“. It is the best gift you can give yourself and everyone else.

Connection, caring and kindness will get you through the thorny times!

So I rejoice when yoga almost gets in the way of that connection. Keep the connection going and I invite you to look for opportunities to connect more. Maybe there is someone new in the class who doesn’t know many people. Could you extend the hand of friendship? Is there someone who you have seen coming to class forever who you don’t know the name of? Ask them and make that introduction, maybe offer a compliment about their commitment to attending class. Let’s build an amazing community through our yoga classes. We are living in times of extreme change and uncertainty. Connection, friendship, caring and kindness will get you through the uncertain times.

“The need for connection and community is primal, as fundamental as the need for air, water and food.” Dr Dean Ornish

So keep up the great work you are all doing. I love all my classes, they all have a uniqueness to them that makes them special, and that uniqueness is YOU!

I celebrate YOU today as I write this as you all inspire me to do what I love doing. Together we are building greater connections and it is beautiful.

Namaste

Sarah

The Three Lost Postures (Version 2)

By Kel Fox

We’ve finally finished this post! Some of you got an advance reading of Part One; either read it again, or skip on down to Part Two, where Sarah and I look at some of the emotional connections to the Lost Postures. My observations about the three postures is that the common theme in all is good hip flexion. In losing these postures, have we lost the release that comes with deep hip flexion? I ask Sarah for some ideas.

Part One

I talk a lot about how to take yoga off the mat and find it in every day moments, and it’s because of this: in our busy Western working lives, we are under constant pressure. I have a pretty good balance in my life, but I still feel it. There is pressure to work more hours, put more time into my writing, clean the house, spend time with friends and family, go to the gym, weed the garden, pursue art, read the book I said I’d review for a friend, read some of the fascinating non-fiction I’ve collected, practice dancing, hang out with the cats when they give me sad eyes…and do more yoga. About the only thing I feel I get roughly right most days is prioritising spending time with my partner.

Unless you are passionate about yoga to the point where it is your hobby and your job and your exercise and maybe even an activity you do with your partner, it is always going to be another thing on the list, and it’s probably on the list because it’s an enabler of the things we really are passionate about. All things being equal, my exercise would consist of dancing and power walking in nature reserves or parks. I go to the gym because of the enormous health benefits of weight training, and I do yoga because of the enormous benefits of the stretching, strengthening and mental/emotional clarity it brings. I go to the gym and do yoga not because I truly want to do those things for their own sake, but because they help me stay fit and healthy to do the things that make my heart sing. Therefore, however much I do enjoy hitting a new personal best at the gym or being in the deep presence of Tadasana – don’t get me wrong, I love yoga when I’m doing it – gym and yoga are still chores. I have to make time for them when I would rather be writing or dancing or walking. And, as with most things in a pressured schedule with competing demands on our precious time, they often fall off the list.

So what do I do when yoga falls off the list? Nothing. I don’t worry about it. I will engage in a yoga session if and when I have the time, and it’s not causing me any undue stress to do so. But in the meantime, I incorporate yoga into everything else I do. There are three key postures that show up in our lives every day that have the power to either harm our long-term health, or restore it. Bring a yogic awareness to each of these, find where the postures are in your daily life, and half of your yoga is done.

I: The Squat

I bet, if you think about it, you’ve recently seen either a real kid or a photo of a kid observing something on the ground – an ant or a flower or some bit of dirt more fascinating than the adult mind can imagine – and they weren’t bending over at the waist to look at it. They squatted. I suspect we slowly stop squatting as we graduate from the potty to the toilet seat, are ushered out of the sandpit into the classroom with its desks and chairs for more and more hours each day, and are set with more homework with each grade that keep us at the desk and chair at home. Then, by the time we realise we’ve lost the ability to relax in a squat, we find our knees or hips are too weak to handle it. The squat is still observed in many other cultures around the world, to their benefit.

It is something you can get back, and while a yoga class is always going to be helpful, the greatest change will come about from the little things you do every day. Take the techniques you learn in class and do it all the time. In dancing, we have a principle: to go up, we must go down, and vice versa. If, for example, we are in a squat position, we must push down into the floor to allow our bodies to lift. If we want to lower ourselves into a squat, we must push our weight up, meeting gravity with equal resistance and choosing to lower with control and grace. Using this principle gives us strength and control as we have a working relationship with the ground, and here’s the thing: you have this relationship with the ground all the time, not just on the mat or the dance floor or anywhere else you do body work. Every movement is body work. Bending down to pat the dog? Squat instead. Rummaging through a box or low cupboard? Squat. Weeding the garden? Squat. Scrubbing the shower? Squat. Watching television? Squ– okay, that’s a little odd. But power to you if you do!

2: The Hip Hinge (forward bend)

Another one that is still prevalent in other cultures but lost to Western society is the hip hinge. It’s a simple forward bend, and if you’ve been to one of Sarah’s classes you’ll know what it’s about, and why it’s hard. Tight hamstrings complain the loudest, and the smaller muscles of a tight back will quietly acquiesce and allow the larger hamstrings to stay short, all the while building up to more severe spinal injury. Then we have bad backs and tight hamstrings.

Hip hinges can be built into every day life as easily as the squat: bending to pick something up, bending to check the mail box, bending to weed the garden (I like to alternate a forward bend with a squat), bending to load the dishwasher, bending to put something in the oven, bending to take things out of the car boot. Core muscle strength is vital when maintaining good posture in a hip hinge forward bend, and you can slowly build up strength so you can lift heavier items while maintaining your strong, straight back. We’ve such an epidemic of people curving their backs to lift things and then injuring themselves that we’ve developed a fear of using our bodies to do the work they’re designed to do. Maintain a straight back, and use the strength of those protesting hamstrings to lift the weight!

3: The Sit

No one ever said “watch you don’t spend too much time meditating, all that sitting isn’t good for you.” Granted, probably because we don’t spend enough time meditating either, but also because when we sit for meditation (at least in the Dru way) we prepare our bodies for sitting and we sit well, with the pelvis tilted forward slightly, the lumbar spine gently curved in its natural lordosis and the neck and shoulders relaxed. We ‘park’ the body, as it is meant to be done. Just as a well-prepared and trained body can lift heavy objects or leap around without injury, so too can it sit and rest without injury. From my experience, sitting well frees the mind to be more productive in its pursuits at work – in my case, writing.

There is no shortage of opportunities to sit well, but make sure you catch all of them: in the office, in the car, at the dining table, in the living room; when meditating, reading, doing art or craft, typing, playing a game. Be conscious about how you sit down. Do you have your pelvis tilted slightly forward, relaxed shoulders and a straight back with a gentle s-curve? The latter sounds contradictory, but the idea of a straight spine is one that looks long, relaxed and balanced because of the strength of the curves. It will feel straight compared to the c-curved hunch many of us adopt when sitting, but you don’t achieve the straight back by lifting your shoulders and holding it all up like a stiff rod. You achieve it by setting up your pelvis, engaging your core and allowing your spine to sit naturally on top of that foundation. Again, push down to go up. Roll your neck into position the way we do in EBR 1. Feel your weight settling into the ground under your pelvis, and use that resistance to elongate the spine, rather than just reaching up from nowhere and holding it all up with your neck muscles.

At the end of exploring these postures and noticing that they all involve hip flexion, I have this question: Is there an emotional connection to the three postures?

Part Two

The psoas is a key connection in achieving stability with each of these postures, and also a key muscle in emotional distress. Hips are connected with deep emotions and issues of vulnerability. Lindsay Simmons, owner of Empower Healing, has a number of thoughts about the emotional connections to our tight hips and what causes problems:

Tension in the front of the hips indicates a fear of the future, particularly when it comes to meeting expectations in terms of family, career, relationships and so on.
Tension in the back of the hips indicate an unwillingness to let go of the past, or holding onto fears from past events.
Uncertainty or fear of relationships may manifest in the hips; this is especially relevant to blocks or imbalances of the second chakra, and it can involve any relationship, not just romantic.
Actual physical (and emotional) trauma related to pregnancy and childbirth can cause hip muscle problems. It would be interesting to know if there are men who experience this as a sort of surrogate or sympathy response.
Hip mobility problems may manifest as a result of an inability to love yourself – your relationship with yourself is paramount, and hips are where relationship issues manifest.

Obviously dealing with these issues on an emotional level will go a long way, but kinesiology shows us that we can often release the emotional charge that goes with a story by addressing the muscle imbalances that have resulted. The key to releasing tension, as we know from our experiences with the Dru Foundation Relaxation (the four-stage relax that you will be familiar with from Sarah’s classes, or pretty much any class with a relaxation component), is deep yogic breathing. If you’ve ever experienced feelings of stress, tension or anxiety at any level, you may have noticed that your breathing became shallower, more rapid, and less effective than when you are relaxed. So if your hip flexors are either long (not tight in a stretch) and weak (not able to raise the leg or hold a squat easily), or short (tight when stretched) and weak, you are likely struggling with the three ‘lost’ postures, core strength and possibly some deeper emotional issues. You don’t have to go all Freudian on it though – simply working with the muscles can help you move past the blocks. Let’s look at how we might do that, starting with the psoas major.

Sarah found a great article by Dr Sarah Duvall, a physical therapist who specialises in women’s health. Duvall says:

“The psoas is both a primary hip flexor muscle and a core stabiliser because it attaches to the diaphragm, lumbar vertebrae and disc before wrapping around the leg.”

When our primary core muscles – transverse abs, pelvic floor and deep back extensors (lumbar multifidus) – are not doing the job of maintaining a strong core, the psoas takes over more as a stabiliser, hence getting tight. Simply stretching the psoas is not going to work as we have to get the other muscles back online to do their job so that the psoas can let go of stabilising and go back to being a primary hip flexor again.

Duvall also says that “resting in a full squat helps loosen the psoas by promoting back body diaphragm expansion and putting it [the psoas] in a fully shortened position.” Let’s break this down. The psoas and the diaphragm are physically connected via the fascia. If the psoas is tight, the diaphragm is going to be inhibited in its movement, and therefore its function: to allow you to breathe. Good control of the diaphragm is what makes deep yogic breathing – the first solution to so many stress-based issues – possible. When we want to stretch and loosen a muscle, we breathe into it because the breath control helps us relax. If we can’t breathe properly, we are going to struggle to relax and release the muscle. The first step then to releasing the psoas is to gain control of the diaphragm.

The psoas major connecting to the diaphragm via the fascia. Image from Trail Guide to the Body by Andrew Biel, 4th ed, 2010.

The second step is to become aware of the psoas and where it is. It is easier for most people to first contract a muscle, and then relax it, rather than relaxing further from a neutral position. The feeling of consciously contracting a muscle brings an awareness to the muscle that will help when it comes to visualising relaxation. This is why we tense-and-release in the four-stage relaxation: by first tensing the muscle, we can more fully relax it. Holding a deep squat position requires complete contraction of the psoas, allowing us to more fully relax it when we re-extend the hips. Putting this together with the first step, going to a deep squat, taking a full diaphragmatic breath, and then exhaling as we release the psoas to stand will help with the relaxation of the correct muscles.

Duvall goes on to say “relaxing in a full squat works for releasing the psoas if you’re comfortable; if you’re trying not to fall backwards, then you’re probably tightening your hip flexors to hold yourself up.” Since I started incorporating a deep squat into my daily activities, I’ve noticed a rapid change in my ability to rest in the post. It should feel restful, even if only for a few seconds. Try this: raise your hand towards your shoulder as if you are doing a bicep curl, and really tighten and squeeze the bicep as if you were showing off your muscle. Feel how much tension you can create. Then do the same movement, but do it without squeezing your bicep, just move your hand like a hot knife through butter. Effortless, right? You are using the same muscles, just with less effort. Your aim is for the squat to feel similarly easy. If your bicep had been injured or weakened, or you had been holding a hand weight, you would have required more conscious effort to make the movement, but with repetition, your bicep would strengthen and become capable of working effortlessly. The hip flexors are no different. Exercising them and challenging them will make them stronger, and your movement easier. If it is too difficult to start with, put some blocks or books under your heels to make the pose easier, then slowly reduce the height until you can work with flat feet. You should be able to breathe deeply in the position.

Since a functional psoas is vital for a correct hip hinge, it will help with the flat-back forward bend too, although that one also requires a toning of the core abdominal muscles and relaxation of hamstrings – since this post is already quite long, we’ll make that the topic of another post. The psoas is also important for sitting as the beginning of a sit is (or should be) a squat. All of these three postures come back to good core control and strong, functional hip flexors (psoas) and extensors (hamstrings). Stay tuned for the next installment…

In the meantime, start incorporating the sit, the squat and the forward bend into your every day movement and let us know how you go!

Recipe: Fruit Seed Slice

The ingredients in this slice are rich in vitamin B6 and magnesium, which are essential for progesterone production and may help to regulate menstruation, boost mood and reduce PMS. The dried figs, nuts and seeds are also rich sources of calcium and should be included regularly in the diet for optimal bone health and to support oestrogen production.

Ingredients:

150g (1 cup) brazil nuts
160g (1 cup) almonds
160g (1 cup) pitted dates
7 dried figs
40g (¼ cup) chia seeds
Grated zest of 1 orange
Juice ½ orange
75g (½ cup) sunflower seeds
75g (½ cup) pumpkin seeds
1 tbsp finely chopped rosemary
3 tbsp cacao nibs

Method:

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blitz until they start to come together as a batter. You may need to add a little more orange juice, 1 tablespoon at a time.

Spread onto a baking tray lined with baking paper and press out evenly. Smooth over with a spatula so that its nice and flat.

Leave in fridge for at least 1 hour or overnight. Lift off the tray and cut into 16 snack size pieces.

Store in airtight container in freezer for up to 3 months.

For a printable version, click here: Fruit Seed Slice

Adapted from Nourish Magazine, vol 6 no 5 2018

WEDNESDAY WHOOPSIE!

I pushed ‘Publish’ by accident…

Well, for those of you who subscribe, you just got a sneak preview at the next blog post, which is still very much in draft form and isn’t due out until the weekend! Read if you like, but please know it isn’t finished and the full version is still to come, so if you don’t like spoilers, perhaps delete without reading…and since the original post has been taken down, I also ask that you please don’t share it as it will lead to a non-existent page for any visitors.

Happy Wednesday, and hopefully yours is more free of silly mistakes!

Kel

Recipe: Lime Pistachio Cake

Sarah’s latest baked delight for her events is a Lime Pistachio Cake adapted from a Donna Hay recipe. We haven’t changed much, just gone for a healthier sugar option. Sarah made it with rapadura; Kel with coconut sugar. Both worked beautifully, creating a rich, moist, golden-brown loaf.

INGREDIENTS

150g unsalted butter, softened
¾ C (165g) rapadura or coconut sugar
1 Tbsp finely grated lime rind
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 free range eggs at room temperature
1½ C (180g) almond meal*
1 C (130g) pistachio meal*
Raw honey to serve

*You can grind your own nuts to a meal in a food processor. Just be careful not to process for too long, or you’ll end up with nut butter!

METHOD

Grease a 29cm x 7cm x 8cm loaf tin and line with baking paper. Preheat oven to 160° Celsius.

Place the butter, sugar, lime rind and vanilla in a bowl and beat with an electric beater until pale and creamy, about 10 minutes.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat for another 3-4 minutes until well combined.

Fold in the almond and pistachio meals.

Spoon the batter into the tin and smooth the top with a knife or spatula. Bake for 1 hour – 1 hour 10 minutes until a skewer comes out with just a few crumbs attached.

Allow to cool in the tin.

Drizzle with honey to serve. You may also add a dollop of Greek yoghurt.

—

Downloadable recipe here Lime Pistachio Cake

Tips from Kel:

Don’t think you can cheat the cleaning process (because cleaning food processors is a chore, am I right?!) by using a coffee grinder to make pistachio meal. You can’t. Use the food processor. Let Kel be the only one to make that foolish mistake. Sarah probably made this in a Thermomix so that would work too, and apparently they are easy to clean and care for and work perfectly every time if you speak nicely to them.

You can probably substitute rice malt syrup for the sugar if you want low-fructose, but I haven’t tested it. The batter should be pretty thick, so if you do use the syrup, perhaps add a couple of extra tablespoons of nut meal. Share your experiments in the comments!

If you have ideas about frosting it with something delicious (Google ‘coconut frosting’ for ideas!) do it straight away. Don’t wait. I waited. And the next day, the cake was mysteriously gone. Guess I don’t need to bother with frosting after all.

Yoga for balancing your energy system: activating the warrior within

This post is the third in our Yoga for Balancing Your Energy System series. If you missed the first two, check them out here: Mooladhara Chakra (1) and Svadhistana Chakra (2).

Chakra three, Manipura, is all about igniting and activating your agni, or inner fire. Manipura is your centre of will, so fostering a strong internal fire here is vital for fulfilling your life purpose. Manipura is where you develop your determination and endurance. Our chakras are not the source of our energy; we need to manage our energy by activating it then channeling it accordingly through our chakra system. A balanced Manipura supports the focused activity needed to realise your goals. By bringing your Manipura chakra into balance, you can foster your willpower and use this to harness your energy, overcome inertia and to get you moving in the direction of your visions.

The importance of knowing your values and having a vision fits right in here with the journey through the chakras because you need a clear idea of where you’re going to fully use this energy. If you feel like you can’t find the energy, drive or willpower to go after your vision, it may be because your vision and your values don’t align. If, for example, you are trying to pursue a business venture but find it keeps going wrong, perhaps it is because on a values level you do not agree with the process or the outcome. Perhaps you are held back from your fitness goals because you find you spend all your spare time in your home or with your family, which may mean you value family or home more than fitness. These are just examples, but once you understand what your values are, you can design your goals to suit them, or consider adjusting your values. The way to develop your will is by aligning your values with your actions, moving toward your purpose or vision and achieving your goals.

Having examined your values, built them into your vision and found the willpower to pursue it, you will need strength to support your endeavours. You build strength in two ways: build muscle of your physical body by physical practice, and build your muscles of will by having clear intentions and taking action: develop habits that move you forward. Upon reflection on some of the things I have done in my life, I can now see how my strong will and courage have carried me forward to achieve some great goals. To complete the Dru yoga teaching diploma and go on to teach and bring Dru to WA along with teaching future teachers was a long term goal of mine. I nourished that goal by keeping it in my vision and taking one step after the other. A balanced Manipura of inner fire will support these habits, guide your intentions and provide power for your will.

Those of you who follow Dru know we always start classes with activations. Part of it is to warm and prepare the body for movement and stretching, but there is also an energetic effect. Lively activations will help build the Manipura fire. Continue with some side stretches as we do in EBR1, opening up the side of your body, freeing tension and creating space. When you come to asanas, Warrior 1 is a great place to start as it strengthens and supports the qualities of determination, groundedness and walking the path of the warrior. It allows you to know your way forward and encourages you to take steps to move with intention. Progress on to Warrior 2 and 3 and put them together in a sequence that will help you build a strength-based groundedness with an open heart, taking you beautifully into your vision.

We finished last term with this warrior sequence so don’t be afraid to revisit it and feel into the stages and where you feel your energy.

Winter is a great time for inner reflection and contemplation upon what you would like to achieve in the second half of this year. A great time to nurture the Manipura fire by aligning your vision with your values and setting your course so that when spring comes you will emerge with direction and purpose. I’m now on the next stage of completing my yoga therapy diploma so that I can help people manage chronic illness and disease and contribute to changing the face of our health care system. Again step by step and along the way enjoying all the experiences that come with setting a direction, making a start and keeping the vision.

Stay warm as we enjoy the winter season and all that it brings.

Namaste

Sarah

Yoga as a Way of Being (in everyday life)

By Kel Fox

Sarah is helping with the Dru Yoga Teacher Training this weekend, so once again I have commandeered the blog 😉 And I have a question for you:

What is yoga, when you’re not doing yoga? I think any students of Dru would agree that yoga is not just an hour a week in a class. If you let it, yoga becomes a way of being.

If I go for a walk, I let yoga be part of that. Yoga is engaging my core when I stand up and slip on my shoes. Yoga is standing tall, spine long and upright, as I walk out the door. Yoga is feeling my legs swinging in alignment, under my hips as I walk. Yoga is keeping soft knees as I transfer my weight from one foot to the other. Yoga is allowing my neck, shoulders and arms to be relaxed and free. Yoga is breathing with my diaphragm, feeling the cool autumn air wash into my lungs and replenish my bloodstream. Yoga is releasing the spent air to make space for the next breath in. Yoga is noticing how I am feeling, right now. Yoga is noticing how I am thinking. Yoga is letting those feelings and thoughts be transmuted as I appreciate the beauty of the blue sky, a soft breeze and the gardens of my neighbours. Yoga is being in my centre, balanced: physically, mentally and emotionally.

In my experience, yoga is absolutely something that comes off the mat with you and follows you into the office, when you sit upright in your chair. It follows you into the kitchen, when you bend down to get a plate out of the cupboard. It follows you into the garden, when you squat or kneel to do some weeding. Every movement is aligning and realigning the body, and every movement can be done from the core, with strength and stability and balance. When I dance, I often find that I am struggling with a particular step, only to find that the reason is I wasn’t balanced on the step before it. Every movement starts with balance. One step follows another, and every step must be balanced.

The idea of starting with balance can then be applied to other layers of being. When I go to say or write something, am I mentally balanced? Or am I frustrated, fed up, tired, distracted or thinking about something different? Yoga is a mental point: I am here. I am not thinking about anything else. From this word or thought, I move to the next one. I ought not to jump from a thought about this task, to a thought about calling my brother, to a thought about dinner, then to another job I have to do. If I do that (and I’m not saying I haven’t!) I will quickly become mentally exhausted because staying on your feet when you’re struggling for balance and windmilling your arms is tiring. Consider the phrase ‘collecting your thoughts’: it is simply being balanced, not teetering all over the mental plane of everything you have to think about. Find where you are, and centre yourself. One thought follows another.

Once mental balance is achieved, emotional balance is easier. It is about response, and where that response comes from. If I respond to something someone says to me when I am already in a place of excessive negative or positive emotion, I am not balanced. I do not believe it is a good thing to be 100% happy all the time. I think the modern quest for eternal happiness is causing many of the problems in Western mental health. It is important to know the extent of your happiness, and know the extent of your sadness, and then find out where you are in the middle, because that is where you are calm. There is nothing wrong with any emotional state in itself: being able to experience joy, sorrow, anger, fear, love and excitement is what makes us feel alive and real. But all of these states require some energy from us, and they are not sustainable long term. The problem is when we cannot find our calm, peaceful place of neutrality, we have to keep putting energy into the emotion we are stuck in. We have to keep feeding the happiness with external things, and it loses its realness. We have to keep feeding sadness or anger by ruminating on past events, and are no longer truly feeling what is happening to us now. The key is to know that we can, at any time, come back to centre, and indeed we must: to go from one emotion to another, we must first come back to centre.

Now we are centred, physically, which was really just a tactile lesson so we could centre ourselves mentally. Now we are collected in thought, we can centre ourselves emotionally. Now we are balanced. Now we can know bliss. Now yoga is our way of being.

What is your experience of yoga as a way of being?