Lately

I've been cuing a lot about sensation felt and then asking you to move that acute sensation through the whole body. Huh? Let me explain. Sometimes, a 60 minute class doesn't quite allow enough time. Ha. Me.

Our yoga shapes are tools for integrating the body toward best alignment for lengthening and strengthening, health and well being and our poses are often obvious for certain parts of the body. As we become more skillful in proper alignment and shape in our own unique body and bones, we can invite and nuance these shapes for the entire body. Virabhadrasana II (Warrior 2) isn't just an external hip opener, but rather a place of grounding and therefore strengthening for the feet, ankles and legs. Warrior II brings length to our torso and full extension in our arms, strengthening for our shoulders. It's also an upright pose where we can feel the spine (move sensation) elongate, creating more room through the rib cage for deep and satisfying breaths which in turn help regulate our often over stressed nervous system. Warrior II becomes a pose and a place of whole body awareness...and sensation. 

I've also been lately having a little more appreciation with Salabasana (Locust)pose. This is a wonderful pose to help improve posture and counteracts the effects of prolonged sitting. It can relieve lower back pain and counteract slouching and kyphosis (abnormal curvature of the spine). I think it's one of the very best poses for our modern bodies. While an unassuming pose, there's more to it than may first appear. We use our core, abdominals and back strength, plus mental fortitude to hold the pose in order to lift away from the floor and gravity. Upon first glance, we can tend to crunch into the lumbar spine to create this baby backbend. When we focus instead on lengthening the spine and distribution of the backbend evenly through the upper, middle and low back, engage the back of our legs and glutes, we move sensation and find an all body experience and better integration. When we spread sensation through the entire back, engage the abdominals in toward our spine, allowing the abdominals to act as a guide rope to help support the spine, we can open our chest and shoulders which just feels great to those of us that send much of our day hunched over our computer. This pose energetically stretches intercostal muscles, allowing the ribcage to expand, thus increasing breathing capacity. Locust is also thought to gently squeeze adrenal glands giving you a feeling of alertness and vigor.

When we become more skilled on the mat within each pose and breath, we create continuity toward simple and sublime.