The Guru Mantra

Guru Brahma, Guru Vishnu, Guru Devo Maheswara. Guru Sak Shat.  Param Brahma.  Tasmai Shri Guravey, Namaha.

This month in class we have been chanting the guru mantra.  This is a chant done at the beginnings of teachings, whether it is a yoga class, a meditation or a satsang.  It is a beautiful chant.  One of my teachers does it at the beginning of our weekly meditation group.  She always asks people to join in but I find that I am the only one joining her. I didn't know if the other students didn't like to chant or if they just didn't know the words, so I thought I would share this beautiful chant and tradition by teaching it in classes this month.

This is a chant to the guru, your guru and all gurus.  A guru is a teacher. The word has two parts, "gu" which means darkness and "ru" which means light. The guru is said to be one who leads you from darkness to light.  There are official gurus or teachers.  But almost anyone or anything can be a guru.  You can have an official guru or teacher, a swami perhaps, someone who dresses in orange robes and lives in an ashram.  Your best friend can be a guru when they have to tell you something that might be difficult for you to hear.  Your dog can be a guru when they teach you about unconditional love.

Let's go through the chant.

There are three main gods in the Hindu tradition:  Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.  The first part of the chant recognizes the principles these deities represent.

Guru Brahma.  Brahma is the god of is-ness or being.  The principle of Brahma is that of unmanifested consciousness; the universe before the big bang.

Guru Vishnu.  Vishnu is the god of creation. This principle brings all of our world into being

Guru Devo Maheswara.  This refers to Shiva, although it does not use his name.  The word "devo" refers to god.  The word "maheswara" is really two words: "maha" meaning great and "Ishwara" meaning god.  So this line refers to "the teacher, the god, the great God".  You have to know that this means Shiva.  Shiva is the god of death and destruction.  He is often depicted dancing on the burial grounds.  His dance does bring about death and destruction, but because of the idea of reincarnation, his dance also brings about re-birth.  These three lines tell us to remember that the only constant in the world is change and that change can be one of our greatest teachers.

Guru Sak Shat.  This refers to the guru nearby, the anyone who could be a teacher in the moment.  There is a song by Joan Osborne called "One of Us".  (Joan is a real spiritual seeker.)  She sings, "What if god were one of us, just a slob like one of us, just a stranger on the bus trying to make his way home?"  Since we are all said to be made of a piece of divine consciousness, then any one of us can be a deity and could be standing right next to you right now.

Param Brahma.  This refers to the guru that is beyond comprehension, the guru that is beyond the beyond.  We just have to open to the present moment to receive a teaching or enlightenment.

Tas Mai Shri Guravey.  The "ey" ending to the word guru changes it to be refelxive.  This refers to the guru inside of you.  The wisdom of your own heart.

Namaha means I bow to.

I hope you enjoy this chant and will join me as we chant it at the beginning of classes.

How do I do this posture correctly?

I was a guest teacher in a Yoga Teacher Training Program this past weekend. I had a lot of fun and I met a great group of people.  I love teaching yoga and teaching yoga students about anatomy.  The students are always so enthusiastic and earnest and want to learn all they can.  And in particular, they want to learn how to do the poses correctly.

As if there is such a thing!

Sure, I can look in Light on Yoga, Yoga Journal, Dharma Mittra's book or  Darren Rhodes's Yoga Resource and see a very accomplished person performing the epitome of a posture. But that is not the average yoga student.

Most people are looking to move, stretch, breathe and find a deeper connection in their lives. They are not looking to put their foot behind their head.

And it depends on the pose.  Some poses are easier, more basic and are accessible to most students.  Other poses are very complex and take a long time to train your body to do.

One group of my teacher trainees used to complain that my favorite answer to any question was, "Well, it depends."  And that is the answer I always give when I am asked how to do a particular pose correctly.

It depends on the person doing it.  How old are they?  How strong or flexible are they? It depends on if they have any experience doing this kind of movement.  Were they a gymnast or a dancer previously?   Are they new to yoga, or this pose?  Would they have to compromise any part of their body to do the pose?  If so, then they should probably modify.  It also depends on if they are feeling strong and invincible, weak and tired or if they have any injuries or other health conditions.

Students who are newer to yoga are often overwhelmed by too many subtle directions as to what they should be doing with their bodies.  Often the most important thing to focus on in the beginning is the foundation and general form of the pose. They may not be in the prettiest poses, but they are doing yoga.  And in that moment, the pose they are doing correct for their bodies and capabilities.

Often when one of my yoga students brings a non-yoga friend or partner to class, they try to correct their form.  I usually ask them to let their friend be and concentrate on their own practice.  They don't realize that their friend is doing the best that they can. If that person is interested in coming back to yoga, how they do their poses will improve over time.

I once taught a month long Yoga Teacher Training Intensive.  One student in the training who was pretty new to yoga was demonstrating Downward Facing Dog. I was giving her alignment instructions and she was trying to do her best.  Her pose looked very much like a beginner's pose.  At the end of the month, the same student was doing Down Dog again.  This time, some alignment points brought her into a beautiful posture.  One of the other students looked at me and asked why I didn't tell her to do that in the beginning.  As if she could have! It was pretty amazing the effect that  30 days of doing yoga had on her body.

While I enjoy teaching yoga from an alignment perspective, it is important to point out that if we focus too intently on just how to do the pose correctly we lose sight of  what happens to us when we do the pose.     If we are too busy focusing on what we should be doing, we might not be present to feel what is happening.  And that is where the magic is in yoga.

2017 Postures for the Year

The following is a list of the Postures of the Month for 2017.

January - Plank poses and all of their variations:  High Plank, Low Plank, Side Plank, Reverse Plank, Handstand and Headstand.

Karin in Vasisthasana

February - Dwi Pada Viparita Dandasana or Kapotasana - Wheel on your forearms or Full Pigeon

Cailen in Kapotasana

March - Astavakrasana - Eight crooked places pose

Karin in Astavakrasana

April - Eka Hasta Adho Mukha Vrksasana - One arm Handstand

(Pic Coming Soon)

May - Padmasana - Lotus

Karin in Padmasana

June - Natarajasana - Dancer's Pose

(Pic Coming Soon)

July - Visvamitrasana or Hanumanasana -  Side Plank, bottom leg lifted or Split

Karin in Visvamitrasana

August - Prasarita Padottanasana to Sirsasana II -  Wide-Leg Forward Fold to Headstand

Karin in Sirsasana II from Prasarita Padottanasana

September - Salabhasana/Locust

(Pic coming soon)

October - Eka Pada Koundinyasana I

Karin in Eka Pada Koundinyasana I

November - Dancing Warrior Series

(Pic coming soon)

December - Choice of Restorative Pose

Karin in Supta Virasana

Pose of the Month – Kapotasana

Kapotasana by Cailen Ascher

In Light on Yoga, Mr. Iyengar rates Kapotasana, or Full Pigeon a  21/60.  He rates One-Legged Pigeon pose as a 28/60.  Yet, you tend to see One-Legged Pigeon pose more frequently than you do the full pose.  Why is that?

There are versions of One-Legged Pigeon pose that are available to most people.  While we might do One-Legged Pigeon with a thigh stretch, most students don’t do the full pose, where you grab your back foot with your arms overhead and rest your head on your foot.  The versions where you don’t hold the back foot are easier.

But there is something to the ordering of the postures.  Full Pigeon is not an easy posture, but since it is symmetrical, it is easier on the body than its asymmetrical relative.  If you can do full pigeon, it is easier and safer to work on that rather than One-Legged Pigeon.  The difficulty with asymmetrical postures such as One-Legged Pigeon is that one leg is in a forward bend, the other leg is in a back bend and the pelvis takes all the stress if the hips cannot be maintained in a square and neutral position.  In order to be able to protect our spines we want to move from the big joints first.  That means that the hips and shoulders need to be open before we move the spine.

As we work on Kapotasana this month, let’s focus less on the end result of a particular pose, but rather we can work on opening the body in preparation for any back bend.

Let me suggest the following progression, not as a sequence but as an order of accomplishment:  Cobra, Locust, Bow, Camel, Wheel, Full Pigeon, One-Legged Pigeon.

Backbends are considered heart opening postures because of the lift in the chest.  Kind of appropriate for February, don’t you think?   I’ll see you in class!   Karin

It’s Ten O’clock. Do you know where your feet are?

The original question, “It’s 10:00 pm, do you know where your children are”, somberly intoned just prior to the local news, was eventually parodied by a multitude of stand-up comedians, novelty song artists, and horror movie posters. But the original intent of the line was very serious. The phrase shows up in lots of places.  I have to admit I like to use it in my yoga classes, particularly to draw a student’s attention to a leg that is raised behind them or some other body part they cannot see.  Often the body part is hanging out behind them kid of lifelessly.

In yoga poses, the whole body should be participating.  Yoga means union of mind body and spirit.  We do our yoga poses with our whole bodies.

Often beginners can only pay attention to one body part at a time, but as we progress, and our practice becomes more integrated, we can cast our attention over our whole body.  While this is relevant in all poses, this week I will talk about having your attention on your feet while we are doing planks.

While most planks are felt in the arms or the core, the more the legs and feet work, the easier the postures are to hold.  When the feet and legs are strong, it is easier to keep the core engaged.  One of your core muscles, the psoas, attaches to your lumbar spine and to the upper inner aspect of your thigh bone.  If the legs aren’t activated, this muscle is not activated.  In my Yoga Teacher Training Program, we study the muscles one at a time as if you could activate one muscle and not the one next to it.  But the body doesn’t work that way.  The muscles are often affected by the surrounding muscles.  If you activate the feet and legs in plank, they help to hold the whole body up.  Imagine the difference in picking up a sleeping child as opposed to a child who is actively participating in being picked up.  One is a limp pile succumbing to gravity and the other one helps you.

Here is an example of what I often see student’s feet doing in Side Plank:

Here is what they could be doing:

Here is what I often see from behind when students are in Plank:

Here is a picture of feet and legs actively participating in Plank Pose:

Do you know what your feet are doing in these poses?  Working your feet and keeping your legs engaged will help you in your plank.

Come to class.  I’d be happy to help you.

Tolerations and My New Year’s Resolution to Give up Sugar and Alcohol

On January 1 this year I decided to give up sugar.  I quite frankly was tired of the yo-yoing effects I experienced when I ate sugar.  I would crave it, I’d eat too much, I’d feel kind of wired and scattered in my energy and then I would crash.  Then I would complain about how I didn’t like the way it made me feel, only to give in to the craving the next time.

I did the same thing with alcohol.  I liked to have a glass of wine every night with dinner.  Sometimes it would lead to 2 as my husband and I would relax and catch up with each other’s day.  After the dishes I would find that I was too tired and unfocused to get anything done.  The next day I would have some guilt about that.  Sometimes I would have trouble sleeping.  I would fall asleep pretty easily, but I would often wake up around 3:00 am.  That time, according to Chinese Medicine is when the Liver Meridian is most active.  Since alcohol is metabolized in the liver that seemed to make sense to me.  The next morning I would feel a little tired in the morning and not motivated to get up.  I would complain to my husband that I felt hung over.  He would tell me that I could not possibly be hung over on 2 glasses of wine that were drunk with a meal.  All I know is that I didn’t like how I felt when I woke up but that I would probably give in to the craving to have another glass of wine that night at dinner.

In November of 2016, I took a Vision Board Workshop about setting intentions and manifesting your dreams.  In the workshop, the teacher talked about things she called “Tolerations”.  These were things in your life that were a little out of whack, but you got so used to them that you just tolerated them.  They could be anything, like the light switch cover you forgot to put back up after the living room was painted and then you became accustomed to it and now you don’t even see it.  She also talked about the things you do that you don’t want to do and the things you don’t do that you should.  She said that all of these tolerations were undermining your efforts to shape your life the way you wanted it.

So, I decided to work on those things.

Sugar and alcohol were clearly big tolerations for me.  So, I gave them up.  So far, it hasn’t been too hard.  The third day was the worst when I had a mild headache all day long.  I knew it was a withdrawal reaction and that if I caved in, it would be all over.  I haven’t given up fruit, so I was able to appease my sweet tooth a little with a Clementine or two.

My main reasons for giving up sugar were to feel my best all of the time. I was also interested to see if what people say about giving up sugar is true: I will have less inflammation, my energy will be calmer and I won’t have to worry about my weight.  Not that I worried that much about my weight before, but I have noticed that I have had to be more careful about my weight after menopause.  I’ve been told that it will take about 6 months to feel some of these other effects.

But the most important reason for wanting to give up sugar is that it is implicated in many diseases, particularly Alzheimer’s.  Since my mother has Alzheimer’s and I have been witnessing the effects of this disease first hand, I will do whatever I can to make sure I don’t get it.

So far, it has been 15 days and I feel pretty good.  Last night was especially gratifying.  It was my birthday and friends had invited us over for dinner.  We stayed pretty late, later than I usually would have if I had drunk a glass of wine or two.  I did not feel sluggish.  I did not feel tempted to have any wine at all. (Often when I have a glass of wine, I get sleepy pretty easily.  Cheap date, I know!)   I got up early the next morning to take a yoga class and I felt great!   I was not sluggish at all.   My friends were also very supportive about my sugar abstinence.   Instead of birthday cake they made a giant fruit salad filled with raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, pineapple and all the good fruit that you usually don’t get enough of when you buy a fruit salad in a store or a restaurant.   They had ice cream to go with it.  Usually ice cream is my down fall.  But I knew that if I had any that it would unravel the whole thing, so I stayed content eating my fruit salad.

We’ll see how this goes.  My plan is to try to make it permanent, but my short goal is to get through January.   I have cut out all added sugar.  I do not eat cake, cookies, ice cream and such.  I haven’t changed all of the other things I am eating, yet.  There is sugar in the protein shake that I have in the morning.  I will either phase that out by eating more whole foods or, I will change it to a protein powder that has no sugar in it.   I was able to find a hemp protein powder that is pure hemp with no additives.    I don’t like the highly processed nature of the protein powder, but it has been part of my morning routine for a year now and it has worked for me.  Baby steps for now.  I will revisit the protein powder in the future.

I have a friend who does not eat any sugar and she has been very supportive.  She has applauded my efforts to go against the norm.  Sugar is so pervasive in our society that to not eat it feels like an act of rebellion.  The average American eats 66 pounds of sugar a year!  Sugar is addictive and its consumption contributes to obesity, diabetes, liver damage and heart disease.

I have found it helpful to re-read the book The Sugar Blues by William Dufty.  Hearing about how bad sugar is from an environmental, social and political point of view just reinforces my resolve.

Have you ever given up sugar?  If so, share your success.  If you want to join me, I will be happy to share my progress and all I am learning.

What's on your Yoga Bucket List?

You can often tell which poses a yoga studio practices frequently because most of the students can do them.  Sometime before Christmas, I had one of my classes at The Solebury Club doing Crow and everyone in the class was able to do the pose.  It was quite remarkable!  Clearly, it is a pose I add into the sequence often.  But then we got to Hanumanasana, or split…   Not so much!  Hmmm…

A Split is not a pose I can do.  Or rather, it is not a pose I can do and get all the way down to the ground.  So, clearly I am to blame for not teaching it with any regularity.  I have had hamstring injuries in the past and when injured, I would stay away from such a big hamstring stretch. But still, I cannot take all the blame for not teaching this pose.  My other colleagues who teach similar classes at Solebury are as fond of Hanuman as I am; which means they also cannot get all the way down to the ground, so they don’t teach it too often, either.  Therefore, a lot of our students cannot do a split.  Handstands, yes!  Split, no.

Not that being able to do a Split is a requirement for anything in life, but still I am intrigued, mystified and challenged by the posture.  I want to be able to do a split before I get too old to do it.  It’s a pose on my yoga bucket list!

At The Solebury Club, Karate Sensei Ed Rumick has created a 100 push-up club on Facebook, which anyone can join.  The goal is to work towards being able to do 100 push-ups by the end of the year.  Here is the link if you are interested.  I decided to join.  I hate push-ups, but I have always wanted to be better at doing them because being able to do 100 push-ups will give me more strength to do other yoga arm balances.  Now that is my idea of fun!   There are some in the club who can already do 100 push-ups.  Personally, I think they need a new challenge and I propose that they learn the routine in this video.  Most people in the club can already do more push-ups than me. But, I don’t care.  I would like to be able to do 3 sets of 10, at least.   I did 26 today.  But I can only do about 7 at a time without losing form.

This made me think about doing a Pose for the Year in yoga.  Hanumanasana is not a pose you can master in one month.  So, I thought it would be a good candidate for a Pose for the Year.  I remember seeing a blog about some gymnastics coach who claimed he could teach an average middle aged man with no flexibility to do a split in 6 months.  I think we need at least that amount of time.

What do you think?  Are you interested?  Are you game?  It would mean that you should expect to see Hanumanasana as a posture at least once a week.  I cannot guarantee I can work it into every sequence, but I want to try to fit it in more frequently.  Also, on the Facebook page there could be sequences, tips and techniques for practicing the pose on your own.  A little stretching everyday can help you get there.

I'll report on my progress and you can let me know how you are doing.

Let me know what you think.  Leave a comment below.

What do Aparigraha, minimalism, not eating sugar and the chakras have to do with writing your Personal Vision Statement?

I know of several people who shared with me that they were writing their Personal Vision Statements for 2017.  What I don’t know is how many of them are first timers or, how many Have done this before.  If you are a seasoned writer of vision statements, you may have been prepared for what happens when you open your statement and read it.  If this was your first time, it might have been challenging to read it.

Writing out a Personal Vision Statement is a lot like making a New Year’s Resolution.  Some people do it, but a lot don’t because there is a high rate of failure.  There is a lot of enthusiasm in new beginnings, we want to make positive changes in our lives, but sometimes making new habits stick is hard.

I have read a few blog posts about how difficult it can be to read a vision statement when some of the things you dreamed about didn’t happen.

In writing your Personal Vision Statement you are encouraged to aim high and see your life as you want it to be in your dreams.  When I opened my Personal Vision Statement from last year, I was pleasantly surprised about the things I did accomplish, but I have to admit I was pretty deflated by the things that did not happen.  There were some big dreams of mine that never got 1 millimeter off the ground.  Hmm…  But, as I always say, “There is a lesson or blessing in everything.”  So, what’s the lesson?  What’s the blessing?

Here’s the lesson:

I stumbled upon one of my favorite blog posts from 2014 called:  Warren Buffett's "2 List" Strategy: How to Maximize Your Focus and Master Your Priorities.  By James Clear.   The article shares one of the strategies Mr. Buffett uses to be successful.

The gist of the strategy is to make a list of the top 25 things you want to accomplish.  It could be career goals, household projects or anything.  After you make that list, you go through it and come up with the five most important tasks.  These are the things you need to focus on and accomplish.

What about the other list?

You get rid of it!

Wait, what?? 

I know!

It seems that a lot of us spin our wheels by spreading ourselves too thin.  Focusing on anything but our top five goals dilutes our efforts.  It causes us to be inefficient with our time and impedes our progress.

List #2 is not the list of things you do when you have a few extra minutes. It is the list of things to avoid at all costs.  These are often things that you do want to do, but they dilute your efforts at the other, more important things you want to do.  Those things pull at you, so you have to carefully avoid them.

In yoga there is a personal practice called Aparigraha which translates as non-hoarding.  Most people usually apply this to not hoarding things.  But the more you contemplate the meaning of non-hoarding you can apply it to many things:  you can hoard a conversation, by not giving others a chance to speak, you can hoard time by trying to get too many things done at one time and then causing yourself to be late.

Did you ever find yourself saying something that you know you didn’t mean?  Or, commit yourself to something you didn’t really want to do by talking too much?  In my 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training we were talking about how important it is to be precise and careful with what you say.  One of the students shared an acronym that helps her with this:  WAIT – Why Am I Talking?

So, maybe in my Personal Vision statement I put down too much, or maybe I put down things that really weren’t important to me just like what happens when you talk too much and over commit to things.  Maybe those things are only “List #2” important and because I didn’t have enough time to go around, they just didn’t get done.  Maybe I should have made the two lists before writing my vision statement.  Was I hoarding goals and accomplishments?   Should I have focused on fewer things but spent more time on other things?

That’s the lesson I’m taking away from this experience: non-hoarding of goals and accomplishments!

What does this have to do with chakras and sugar?

The first chakra has to do with your tribe and where you came from.  It’s the group, or groups, you belong to.  When you are little, your group or family provides food, clothing and shelter, your basic needs.  If these weren’t provided for you, or there was any kind of instability in your early childhood, you may have fear and contraction in this area. When your first chakra is clear, you are secure in your ability to make it in the world.  Hoarding is a contraction in the first chakra; it’s not trusting in your ability to take care of yourself and have your basic needs met.

If you are curious about your chakras, I am offering a seven week workshop on the chakras starting this Thursday evening, January 13th, from 6:00 to 7:00 pm at the Treehouse.  We will cover one chakra each week.  This Thursday, we will discuss the first chakra.  You will learn about: its properties, how to recognize the energy of this center, how it influences your life by whether you have any unfinished business at this level and how it affects the choices you make.  You will learn about the chakras through asana, journaling, meditation and breath work.

I have been slow to learn about chakras.  I’ve had some resistance to working with something that I cannot see:  energy centers aligned along the spine?   But, I have taken some courses on the subject that have powerfully influenced me.  I am a firm believer in gravity although I cannot see it, either!

One of the things I know about working with energy is that there are a lot of things that affect my energy.   What I eat influences my energy; sugar being one of the strongest energy disrupters.  My plan, as I dive deeper into these energy centers, is to fine tune my own energy to become more adept at sensing it without interference.  I have given up sugar.  If you are interested in working with your energy, I recommend that you pay attention to your energy and take care of and cultivate your energy through good food choices, adequate exercise and sleep, as well as working on your mental and emotional states.

As I craft my Personal Vision Statement for 2017, I will start off by making two lists and carefully selecting the 5 most important things to work on for the year.  I will be working on improving my health through better diet and continued exercise.  And I will be working with the energy of my chakras to find balance and remove the obstacles in my path!

What will you be doing for 2017?   Join me either in the giving up of sugar or in learning about the chakras. 

Om Gum Ganapatayei Namaha 
(The chant to Ganesh, the remover of obstacles)

7 Steps to Get Younger Every Year

An article in the November issue of AARP Magazine about how to be "Younger Every Year" caught my eye. I liked their advice and the fact that they covered three main areas: physical exercise, diet and emotions, but I still thought it was incomplete.  Here is their list of the 7 Steps to Getting Younger Every Year:

1. Exercise six days a week for the rest of your life.

2. Do serious aerobic exercise four days a week for the rest of your life.

3. Do serious strength training, with weights, two days a week for the rest of your life.

4. Spend less than you make.

5. Quit eating crap!

6. Care.

7. Connect and commit.

And here is my take on it:

1. Exercise six days a week for the rest of your life.

   • Being active is important.  We all know that if we don’t use it we will lose it.  Exercise has been shown to be beneficial for cardiovascular health, muscle building, balance, bone density, mood elevation and maintaining memory.  Definitely do this!

   • AARP recommends 4 days a week of aerobics and 2 days of weight training.

2. Do serious aerobic exercise four days a week for the rest of your life.

   • The recommendation is to do 45 minutes of aerobic exercise a day four days a week.

   • Aerobic exercise changes your blood chemistry and makes it less acidic, which means more anti-inflammatory.

   • It reduces you’re your risk of heart disease and some cancers by 50%.

   • It reduces your risk of Alzheimer’s by 40%

   • There are many forms of aerobic exercise to choose from: bike, jog, swim, hike,...    The important thing is to choose some form that you like to do and get out there and do it.  Put it into your calendar and commit to doing it!  You might want to read the book Better than Before by Gretchen Rubin or The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg to help you commit to healthier habits.

3. Do serious strength training, with weights, two days a week for the rest of your life.

   • While aerobics keeps you alive and moving, strength training offers you a better quality of life.  Without strength training you lose 10% of your muscle mass per decade after age 40.  You suffer the same loss of bone density.  This means that by age 60 you have trouble getting out of a deep chair!

   • I love to lift weights, but not a lot of yogis do.  I find that lifting weights enhances my yoga experience and vice versa.

   • Get an app on your phone to create workouts, get a trainer at the gym, do free weights, machines, bands or body weights.  Do something!

4. Spend less than you make.

   • Overspending creates stress!  Live within your means, or, as the comedian Kevin Hart says, “Stay in your own lane.”  Don’t try to keep up with anyone else.

5. Quit eating crap!

   • I love the AARP article on this one.  It says, “Don’t eat crap!  We all know what crap is.  Just don’t eat it!”

   • Crap is also defined as “dead food”.  This is food that has no nutrients.  It is called dead because refining takes out almost all of the vitamins, minerals and fiber.  It’s tasty, digestible and you can eat a lot of it without feeling full. But since it is lacking nutrients it is not fueling our bodies.  It can make us fat and sick.

6. Care, connect and commit.

   • We are social animals.  We need other people and we need to feel needed and connected.  Work on your friendships, they matter more as we age.  Get a pet to love and take care of if you are an animal lover.  Make time for your friends and family.  Volunteer.

7. Meditate and relax.

   • Our lives are stressful.  And for a lot of people the stress never turns off.  Yoga, working out, being with friends, having a dog or cat that loves you and meditation practices can’t take away the stress of modern life, but these activities can create a pause in the stress of your day.  Often, that pause is all we need to break the cycle of stress and let our natural endorphins and hormones take over and heal our bodies.

   • 20 minutes, twice a day is what is recommended for meditation or relaxation.  There are apps you can use for meditation, or you can just set a timer on your phone and put your feet up for twenty minutes!

Vinyasa Pose of the Month for January – Planks

Yoga is a balance of strength and flexibility.  We need to be strong but not rigid.  Being strong gives us a firm foundation and clear boundaries.  Being rigid keeps us stuck, frozen in one place.  In being flexible, we need to be resilient, able to change and go with the flow, but not so flexible that we can be pushed over.  This is as true in our yoga postures as it is in life.

We will begin this year by developing our strength by working our core in the various forms of Plank Pose.  Our core connects our upper body and lower body together, protecting our spine and integrating our postures. Think of Plank Pose as Tadasana in alternate relationships to gravity using different arm positions.   Tadasana is the first version of Plank.  Use this posture to check your alignment for each of the other versions.  Each version of Plank should still look like Tadasana.

There is Plank pose with the arms held straight out in front of the body.  You can do Plank pose on your hands or on your forearms.  The forearm version is not just for people who have wrist issues.  When practicing Forearm Plank, make sure that you keep your forearms parallel.  In either version of Plank, make sure your hips are in line with your body, not high like a tent and not low like a hammock.  There is also a moving version of Plank called “walking plank”.  This is where you transition back and forth from Plank on your hands to Plank on your forearms, one arm at a time.

Caturanga Dandasana, or Low Plank is a harder version of Plank and relies more on upper body strength than just core.  Make sure that your elbows are stacked over your wrists and your shoulders are kept in line with your elbows as you hold this pose.

The next version of Plank Pose is with the arms straight out from the shoulders in the side plane.  This is Side Plank or Vasisthasana. It works your oblique muscles, or the abdominal muscles that wrap around the side of your body.  Even though the body is tipped over sideways, it should still look like you are holding Tadasana.  Don’t sag or arch!

You may have never thought of Handstand as a version of Plank, but it is Plank with the arms overhead.  Again the body should look the same way it does in Tadasana.  It should not look like a banana.  If the ribs flare out you have lost your core.  Of course, there is a Scorpion version of Handstand that is more difficult.

Reverse Plank is the last version, with the arms in the back plane of the body.  This works the muscles in the back plane of the body including your hamstrings and glutes.  People often think of core as just abs, but the posterior chain muscles are just as important to keeping our spine stabilized, supported and our posture well integrated.

Working our core in these versions of Plank Pose will set us up for a great beginning to a New Year!

I’ll see you in class!

Karin