Greetings LifeFit Yogis and Friends!
Happy July 4th to you all! This is a great day of celebration and reflection here in the good ole USA! I for one find just thinking about Independence Day very soothing and empowering at the same time. The thought conjures up sentiment of interdependence, setting all differences aside and realizing that we are all basically alike. It is rather thought provoking in many ways and sends me into my own past as I am a first generation Arab-American. I am proud of my roots but I am also so very proud of being an American citizen and I feel as if we are blessed to live in the best place possible. That being said, as we are share living in this bountiful great country, let us all vow to continue to support our communities and each other through our seva, our selfless service. Let us remember that many people over time have given years and lives for the freedoms we get to enjoy every day.
July and August are quiet months for me with LifeFit. There are private and small group sessions available (see the page on the website that shows the availability), and 4 more workshop options at Christ United Methodist Church:
Sunday, July 11 1:00 Shoulder Openers
3:30 Restorative Poses
Sunday, July 18 1:00 Yoga for Good Posture
3:00 Mother Sequence
The website page has the description information and the cost is $25/workshop of $40 for two on the same day. Please be aware to sign up in advance. If there are not enough folks registered, a workshop will be cancelled so please do not assume that it is ok to show up on the day. Interestingly enough, though the material has been planned, once the list of participants is formed, the sequence is sometimes tweaked to accommodate special interests/needs/issues. I want the information to be user friendly!
Now then, I hope the students who in the spring studied and practiced the Mother Sequence and the Prasarita Sequence have kept up some of their great work.. If you all will remember, the Mother Sequence is designed to help maintain everything the body is designed to do with regard to movement physically, and the Prasarita Sequence is designed to open the chakras. The workshop on the Mother Sequence is designed to teach folks who want to learn it anew. All inversions are practiced, and many preparations for inversions will be shown so that everyone can find where they are in this sequence to practice safely and make progress in their own private practice. It would be ideal for older teenagers and athletes too. There will be no classes in the month of August. There will be a lot of planning for classes however!
For those of you who are afraid of inversions, please remember that the preparations for inversions (headstand, handstand, shoulderstand and backbends) allow many of the advantages of the full poses and we all have a place to start with each one. The benefits are many, and are worth striving for, and we should be including these poses in a regular practice. Passive inversions are the way to start and almost all students are able to do them for restorative purposes. I will continue to tell you “you are stronger than you think…in many ways at that!” You may enjoy the following encouragement from the Yoga Journal:
Re-think Handstand
Adho Mukha Vrksasana (Handstand) is not a particularly difficult pose physically. The real challenge of Handstand for many students is working on the necessary physical skills in a calm, focused manner while confronting the primal human fear of falling.
Handstand, like all balancing poses, requires that you feel comfortable with instability. When faced with instability of any kind—physical or mental—most of us tend to recoil immediately and try to regain control by locking things tightly in place. Ironically, this reaction only serves to make us more rigid and less able to make minute and sensitive adjustments to bring ourselves back into balance.
Instead, try to bring a childlike enthusiasm to your Handstand explorations, focusing on the process rather than the outcome. Imagine the solidity of bone paired with the cushiony, more resilient quality of muscle: a secure firmness merged with a more fluid, I-can-respond-instantly-to-anything feeling. As you let yourself yield to gravity without collapsing, you can go inside and find a balanced energy flow that supports the posture.
Thought for the day: “Write it on your heart that each day is the best day of the year.” – Emerson
Peace,
Mona
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