Shree Yoga For You - Blog

Meditation Hints from the Colorado Division of Wildlife

What to do if you meet a thought:

1. Stay Calm. If you see a thought and it hasn't seen you, calmly leave the area.
2. Stop. Back away slowly while facing the thought. Give the thought plenty of room to escape.
3. Wild thoughts rarely attack people unless they feel threatened or provoked.
4. Speak Softly. This may reassure the thought that no harm is meant to it.
5. Relax. If a thought stands upright or moves closer, it may be trying to detect your scent. This isn't a sign of aggression. Once a thought identifies you, it may leave the area or try to intimidate you by charging to within a few feet before it withdraws. 
6. Dont run or make any sudden movements. Running is likely to prompt the thought to give chase, and you can't outrun a thought. 

Arm Balance Month

This month we're doing arm balances. Come to class and experience the balance you can find between strength and softness or sthira and sucha. Muscle energy in one part of your body allows you to be soft and light in another. Bring this all together and your arm balances will experience a sense of flight!

Balance Vinyasa

Here are the poses for the Balance Vinyasa we're doing this week. Have fun with these!

Balance #1 Vinyasa from Mandala

 

1. Lay back arms over head
2. Feet Up – Arms down
3. Shoulder Stand – One leg down – Bend Knee – Opposite hand turned forward
4. Roll to Vasisthasana Variation (Knee bent) with Top Leg Lifted
5. Lower top leg to Vasisthasana Variation
6. All 4’s to 3 Legged Dog (R. leg up) – Up to Toes
7. Plank – Vasisthasana

 

   8.Plank – 3 Legged (R. leg up)9.

   9. R. knee to nose – Place foot on floor – Ardha Chandrasana with L. leg      lifted

10. Left Hand down – Splits

11. Left knee down to mat – roll to right – Baddha Konasana facing other way

12. Upavistha Konasana Balance

13. Legs together Navasana

14. R. foot over left – Twist up to Dog

 

15. Left Leg Raised - 3 Legged Dog

16. Smooth Lunge – Right Leg Raised

17. Step Forward – Uttanasana on Toes

18. Side Bekasana balancing on Right Leg

19. Lengthen Top Left Leg

20. Dog – 3 Legged with Right Leg Raised

21. Wild Thing – Right Leg Behind

 

22. Hips Down to Mat – Right Leg Forward

23. Uttanasana

24. Tadasana

25. Uttita Hasta Paddangusthasana Twist – Right Leg to Left – Twist to Right

26. Knee to Chest – Standing Splits with Right Leg

27. Lunge

28. Dog

29. All 4’s

30. Child’s Pose

Hanumanasana Month

January is Hananasana month. One whole month of the splits!

Lots of Shanti sent from my iPhone

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Lots of Shanti sent from my iPhone

Hanumanasana or the Splits!

Hanumanasana, Anjaneyasana and Virasana: Shraddha

Monkey Pose, Low Lunge, Hero Pose

 These three poses work together anatomically as well as symbolically in the myth of the monkey god, Hanuman. All three poses stretch the psoas muscle which runs from our lower back at T12 to the inner thigh.  This deep core muscle plays a major role in the “fight or flight” reflex that has been with us since human time began. Stress, being so prevalent in our society, keeps this reflex for most people at a constant low grade state of activation. Constant stress as well as the way we sit leads most of us to have a psoas that is in a chronically locked position. The psoas in therefore the muscle that stores fear and releasing the muscle itself also allows us to release some of our fears. And, so begins the story of Hanuman, the monkey god.

Anjana was a beautiful woman who desired a child very much. The wind god, vayu heard her prayers and blessed her with a baby boy whom she named Anjaneya (son of Anjana). Anjaneya was half human and half god since his father was Vayu. One day Anjaneya saw a giant mango in the sky and leapt up to take a bite out of it not realizing that it was actually the sun. When the sun god Surya saw Anjaneya leaping up to take a bite out of him, he threw a lightening bolt and killed him. When Vayu heard what had happened, he took so deep a breath that he sucked up all the air from the earth and beings began to suffocate. The gods called a meeting to try to restore order to the universe and reach an agreement between Surya and Vayu. Since Anjaneya was such a potentially dangerous child and they didn’t want him running around without any restraints, they decided to rename him Hanuman which refers to the broken jaw he received from the lightening bolt (hanuh means “jaw” in Sanskrit). They also gave him only a short term memory so that he would never recall that he was a god and therefore couldn’t use any of his god posers to cause any harm. He would also take the body of a monkey and live with the monkey king, Surgriva and his family instead of his mortal mother, Anjana.

Hanuman grew up to be a wonderful warrior. One day while hanging out in the forest, he met King Rama. The two became fast friends. Lord Ram had a beautiful wife named, Sita.  Ravanna, the evil demon lusted after the beautiful Sita, and soon kidnapped her and took her to his island of Lanka. Rama sent his trusted friend and warrior monkey, Hanuman to rescue his wife. Hanuman had no idea how to accomplish this task and so kneeled down to pray for grace. He knelt with one leg bent backward and the other knee up – the traditional Virasana. He summoned forth the energy and propelled himself into the air and soared over the ocean to Lanka. As he soared, one leg reached forward, and one leg reached back into the traditional Hanumanasana Pose!

 Before stopping here in our story (to be continued in the next lesson), it is important to realize that Hanuman already possessed the strength within himself to accomplish the task at hand – he had just forgotten his Divinity. As the son of Vayu, he could do anything. Forgetting his inherent Divinity, Hanuman turned to his Faith which is called shraddha in Sanskrit. His faith gave him the strength to do what he needed to do. Just like Hanuman, many of us forget that Divine part of ourselves which can accomplish the impossible when confronted with formidable tasks.  At that time, we turn in prayer or meditation that gives us a “time out” to re-establish our Faith, and move forward with the confidence of Hanuman leaping over the ocean.

 

 

Stretching the Psoas

There is a difference between lengthening a contracting muscle and stretching the same muscle. When a muscle stretches, it is lengthening. The bones that it attaches to are moving apart or away from each other. If the muscle is relaxing then you are stretching. If it is contracting, you aren’t stretching the muscle. When you raise your leg and then let it go down, you are creating an eccentric contraction of the muscle. In an eccentric contraction, the muscle is lengthening but it’s working hard, burning calories, using oxygen, getting tired and getting warm. In a stretch it isn't contracting, burning a lot of calories or using much oxygen. In fact, it cools off. For example, in a restorative practice, you start to cool off and need to put on a sweater because you aren't burning calories and creating heat.

So, when you’re want to stretch a muscle, you need to put it in a position where it can relax, let go and get longer. If not, the muscle can actually be contracting and then it’s not going to feel relaxed and released afterwards.

 Julie Gudmestad says that if you sit a lot, the psoas is being left in a shortened position for hours every day. And, driving home you sit in the car, then sit at the dining table, and sit on the couch for TV. Then, if you sleep with your knees pulled up, the psoas is also in a shortened position with the thigh towards the torso for all those hours. If the psoas is left in a shortened position for hours and days and weeks and years, the entire structure becomes shorter, not just the contracting part of the muscle, but all the connective tissue fibers that wrap around it. Consequently, if you don’t take the psoas through its normal range of movement, you leave it in a shortened position and eventually it will lose its range of motion. The psoas will shorten and can stay in a ninety degree hip position. Then, when a person stands up, the psoas is going to try to stay in a shortened position. So, when you’re standing, the psoas is going to pull down and forward on the lumbar spine and the iliacus is going to tilt the pelvis forward. This puts more weight on the facet joints of the spine which sit between every two vertebra. Their job is to guide movement and not bear weight. This contributes to arthritis in and around these tiny joints. The lower back hurts and the abs become long and weak.

 

A Modern Day Natarajasana

 

North Idaho College Yoga Students

Downward Dogs!

SCARY HALLOWEEN CLASS!!!

B is for broomsticks witches to fly,

O is for outrageous spooks that go by,

O is for orange pumpkins so bright,

These are the signs of a Halloween Night!

 

It's Halloween! It's Halloween!

The moon is full and bright

And we shall see what can't be seen

On any other night

 

Skeletons and ghosts and gouls,

Grinning goblins fighting duels,

Werewolves rising from their tombs,

Witches on their magic brooms,

 

In masks and gowns we haunt the street

And knock on doors for trick or treat. 

 

Tonight we are the king and queen,

For oh tonight it's Halloween!

 

 

(William Shakespeare - from Macbeth)

 

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and caldron bubble.

Fillet of a fenny snake,

In the caldron boil and bake;

Eye of newt and toe of frog,

Wool of bat and tongue of dog,

Adder's fork and bling-worms sting,

Lizard's leg and howlet's wing,

For a charm of powerful trouble,

Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and caldron bubble.

Cool it with a baboon's blood,

Then the charm is firm and good.

 

SCARY POSES!!!

Cat  Cakravakasana

Noose  Pasasana

Half Moon

Frog

Crow

Tree with Crooked Branches

Lion

Creaky Gate Pose

Spider – Squat Thread your arms under, around, and through your other limbs. Can you walk like a spider? It's easier than it looks.

Cobra

Dead Bug

Firefly

 Corpse Pose  Savasana