yoga – Page 2 – Sarah Collin

Anahata Breath: Compassion in Action

Hello, Kel here and today we have something a bit different—a video! A little while back Sarah wrote this post about the heart chakra and mentioned a couple of different asanas or components of Dru sequences, one of them being the Anahata Breath. We thought it might be good to offer a refresher of how to do these asanas or movements for those of you practicing at home.

Anahata Breath is one of Dru Yoga’s signature techniques, bringing movement, breath and heart alignment into one simple action. At its core, yoga is simply the alignment of the body and soul (and everything in between), and the Anahata Breath is a beautiful way to achieve this alignment.

Once you have the motions and breathing synchronised, reflect on the mantra: “May all my actions be filled with compassion”. What does this mean to you? Compassion for other people? Compassion for animals? Compassion for the planet? Once you have a baseline of peace to draw upon, consider more challenging ones: compassion for someone you may be at odds with. Compassion for the driver that cuts you off on your drive home. Compassion for a spider or cockroach caught where it shouldn’t be. And for some of us, perhaps the most challenging: compassion for ourselves.

Bring this practice into your every day life and see what happens. Note that by bringing it into your every day life, I don’t necessarily mean you have to stop and physically do the Anahata breath every day. I mean simply bring the experience of compassion into every day. Yoga as practice is the foundation that teaches us what is possible. Yoga as a way of life is what happens when we allow those possibilities—infinite love, compassion and joy—into our daily lives because we understand that these things are internal processes, not the products of external events.

So enjoy Sarah’s demonstration, try Anahata Breath for yourself and let us know how you go with your practice of compassion and living from the heart.

Namaste

Kel

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

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!

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?

Yoga for balancing your energy system: aligning into one’s own place

I like to think of my body as a temple that facilitates the full expression of my soul. It puts a whole new meaning on how I care for this body temple! As we continue our theme of extreme self care, what could be more important than honouring our own temple? In my last post, we explored the first chakra and the importance of grounding to establish your foundation within your body. I hope you felt the difference some intentional grounding can make to centre the base chakra. This week we will explore the second chakra, svadhisthana, and its meaning and importance as we work our way up the chakra system and learn how we can manage our energy to bring about transformation in ourselves and our lives. We’ll look at how this chakra can have a huge impact on aligning us with our values and vision.

Hopefully you have already started with my last post by deeply grounding and forming a firm foundation for this work to sit upon; if not, go back and read it here and do a little grounding work. Moving into the realm of the second chakra, we start to work with feeling and sensation and how harnessing this power of feeling can empower our values and vision.

Feeling into our emotions is vital so we can allow the releasing that takes place when we open up to unexpressed emotion that may be ready to let go. When we allow ourselves to feel we bring consciousness into our body. Feeling in the svadhistana chakra includes emotional and sensory experience. Sensation is like a gateway between the inner and outer worlds. As we allow our senses to come alive, we become fully present to feeling, sensing, hearing, smelling and we allow the outside experience to be felt on the inside. Through our second chakra, we enhance our ability to relate deeply in the moment.

Great yoga practice for our second chakra is hip opening movements. To start with, try some gentle figure-of-eight movements starting with one hip then swap over and go the other way. Circle your hips around one way then the other. Latin dance moves are great for this so maybe put on some Latin music, leave any inhibitions behind and move those hips, get that body swaying and transmute some energy. If you attend my classes you might remember our hip release sequence where we lie on our back with feet on the floor, interlace your fingers and place hands under your head. Then with feet hip width apart let your knees lower to one side then the other, repeat a few times then do the same again with feet and knees touching. Take hold of both knees and hug them into your chest, gently circle around and massage your sacrum into the mat. That should leave you feeling a little freer in the sacral region.

As we open to this centre we may discover pockets of stuck emotion ready to bubble up. When we are grounded in the base we find the courage to go deeper into our practice, stay a little longer, and let the amazing wisdom of our body/mind/heart to come more into balance. I encourage you to start to notice the sensations and feelings that may be there during your practice and when you notice something have a sense of wonder. Explore with your breath as you breathe into this feeling and breathe out of it, letting your breath transform this feeling and release it.

“Let the breath be the thread that weaves your mind and body together.” Rodney Yee

In the practice of extreme self care be kind to yourself. When you feel emotion bubbling up go with it, feel it, express it then allow yourself to rest. Give yourself the gift of yoga nidra, relaxation practice or restorative yoga that soothes your whole being.

Some other acts of self care may be:

walk barefoot on the beach and let your feet be washed by the salty sea
take a walk in the bush, breathe deeply and take in the freshness of nature
read something inspiring; you may have a book of quotes that inspire you or some spiritual reading that nourishes your soul
listen to music
light a candle and prepare a nourishing meal for yourself

A balanced second chakra will allow you to feel more balanced, less reactive, to come from a place of understanding and acceptance not only with yourself but when relating to others. Balance here will also allow a sense of flow in life and easeful creating; therefore, spending time to bring balance here will allow you to clear the way forward to align with your values and vision, raising your vibration to match your vision.

Happy exploring of your second chakra, let the feelings flow, let light flow in, move with ease and grace into more balance and harmony and see your life in more colour.

Namaste

Sarah

Surya Namaskara

This term we have been practicing the sun sequence, Surya Namaskara, and as I have been reading more about this ancient, time-honoured sequence, I want to share some of the information I have found with you.

Surya Namaskara is a practice that has been handed down from the sages of Vedic times. In many cultures throughout history the sun has been worshipped as a daily ritual because it is a powerful symbol of spiritual consciousness.

This sequence is very complete within itself as it works on all our levels of being:

It stretches, massages, tones and stimulates all the muscles and vital organs in the variety of movements from backward and forward bends, to lunges and inversions. When performed regularly it can stimulate the endocrine system, bringing it into balance.
The solar energy within you is enhanced and therefore dynamic creativity, resourcefulness and enthusiasm may be expressed in your thoughts and actions.
The sequence revitalises the entire system and recharges the pranic body.

When we become familiar with the sequence we can then start to work with it in a deeper way, adding intention and visualisation, specific breathing practices and mantra, as I recently taught on the Spring retreat.

Surya Namaskara is a great way to warm up for the day. When we start to work with it on a daily basis, we add a new factor to our lives. The ordered, sequential, and energising series of postures become like a tonic taken each morning to set us up for a balanced, energised day. Developing these practices is a wonderful way to bring us back into alignment with nature and the patterns and rhythms that support holistic wellness. We align with the cycle of the sun, honouring the light and letting that light raise our awareness of what is going on for us physically, emotionally and mentally.

When you start the day in this way over a period of time you may find that you become more attuned to your body, mind, heart and soul. Life is more meaningful and rich as you let a new rhythm of ease into your being, become more responsive and less reactive, and let yourself flow with life instead of against it.

Give it a go! Become a beacon of light to shine the way towards peace and harmony in your community.

Video: Dru Star Breath

Living in the moment! No mat, no planning, just a waterfall, a rush of pranic energy and an opportunity seized…

Video – Dru Power Sequence

As we are working on this sequence for our winter term of yoga I thought you might like a video of the sequence so you can practise at your leisure. Hope this helps and of course we will be working on this for the remainder of this term so you will soon have it stored in your memory and it will flow beautifully for you, giving you all the energy you need to move through your day energised and vibrant.

Off the beaten track and off the mat

Yoga anytime, anywhere. Here is Di, from our Friday morning class, in the most amazing camel pose while on her trip across the desert. I love this photo and it got me thinking how great it would be if others who leave the class to go on holidays could send in their photo of “yoga on holidays – anytime, anywhere “.

Last term our focus was on building resilience as we worked each week with the camel. We warmed up with those lovely spiral movements to open up the chest and shoulder areas, working our way through the various stages of the camel. Many of you have shared that you enjoyed the journey into this beautiful heart opening asana. It certainly served me well during my introduction to walking the Bibbulmun Track when Nic and I did our two day walk.

This term from autumn to winter we have focused on building on some pranayama with the pigeon breath, deepening our breath and slowing down to work with strengthening practices to carry us through the cooler months. We started with the triangle poses moving onto the warriors that lead us into the lovely Inner Fire Sequence. We’ll refine this sequence this week as we come to the end of term two.

Remember the importance of setting your foundation, the base of your triangle or warrior, reflecting each stage of the way as you move mindfully in and out of your movements, allowing time for your body, mind and heart to reflect back to you messages that are important to hear. Allow time in a pose for your body to find the seat of that pose and for you to feel into it. There is no hurry to reach any particular point, it’s all about the journey.

Watch this space for my weekly posts including the quote of the week, which many of you have asked for.