Each Sunday will feature an asana sequence. Feel free to add, omit, or interpret as you like!
With the intention of radiating out from center:
Constructive Rest with tennis or golf ball in glute, 3 minutes of massage on each side
Sukasana – easy side bends side to side
Easy twist each side
Loose eagle arms with neck movement
Downward Facing Dog
Lunge of choice
Dog
Lunge other side
Child’s Pose
Extended side angle “imprint” – just legs
Dog or “vinyasa” between sides
Warrior II – big arm cartwheel to plank
Big round plank – full back
Dog or “vinyasa” between sides
Malasana squat – “barbie leg”
Crow – big round back
Dog
Extended Side Angle
Dog or “vinyasa” between sides
Lunge to standing straddle – dog arms
Stand up Goddess
Vinyasa
Other side lunge to straddle – walk hands back between feet
Stand up Goddess
Vinyasa
On back – happy baby
Bridge
Eagle legs twist each side
Figure 4 each side
Knee hug
Savasana
Each Sunday will feature an asana sequence. Feel free to add, omit, or interpret as you like!
A practice to nurture the new roots and shoots from your feet into the soft earth.
Baddha Konasana – rubbing, massaging, loving the feet
Side Bend, both sides
Tuck both feet to one side, Bharadvaja’s Twist, change sides
All 4s, spinal balance
Modified Side Plank on knee
To standing, Tadasana
Tree
Easy Warrior III
Utkatasana – lift heels
Dive to Uttanasana
At wall, Calf Stretch
Straddle fold
Sukasana – Sufi Circles
Supta Padangusthasana
Happy Baby
Supta Baddha Konasana
Savasana
Recently, one of our instructors described her experience of Yoga as “freedom.”
In Yoga, there is the potential for freedom from our judgments and mental bondage, from entrapments of past and future, from self-imposed limits, and attachment to the body (among a hundred other things…).
During a practice earlier this week I held steady in a pose I’ve never been able to do before. It’s a challenging pose, an arm balance called Tittibhasana, or Firefly Pose (in another 12 years of practice my variation might look more like this). I’ve always held my breath and fallen flat on my tush. On this day, however, I was able to ground, hover, and spread. It was like magic and I was giddy like a kid.
Again, this idea of freedom surfaced. I realized I’d labeled myself as a person who “can’t do that pose.” There’s no freedom in expectation (whether that expectation is for a positive or negative outcome). Nor is there freedom in forcing… “in due time, the ripe fruit falls to the earth….” Because I had not been able to “do” the pose in one moment, I decided that it would forever be true.
As it would happen, I came across some questions about freedom that may make for some useful reflection. Maybe you will ambush some self-imposed limit or judgment or ideal. With that hope, they are listed below.
Namaste….
1. What do I need to happen in order to move from a mindframe of bondage to one of freedom?
2. How are the structures and boundaries of freedom different from what I know?
3. What needs to happen for me to appreciate the freedom I have?
4. What other experience of freedom is already inside of me that I haven’t been able to access yet?
5. If I know what needs to be done, what else am I waiting for?
