Strong Foundations Tonight:
 “Lost in the Woods”
 
What do you do when you feel Lost?
When the world seems dark
Your path is uncertain
And you can’t see the forest for the trees…
 
Your CORE is your compass
Connect to it
Feel it deeply
Focus
Withdraw your other senses
Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana
Tune in
Feel what matters
Satya, Santosa
Not forcing a shape formed of expectations
Ahimsa, Aparigraha, Isvarapranidhana
Feel the way from the inside out
Svadhyaya
Feel the fire burn strong and bright
Lighting your path
Here. Now.
 
You are already Found.
 
See you tonight at Yoga Lab
5:45 – 7:15
 
Music: “Lost Woods” (From Zelda: Breath of the Wild)
and “Lost in the Woods” by Faraday & SNR
Turn sound on for full effect

Strong Foundations Theme Tonight:
“Graffiti on a Tuesday Night”
5:45-7:15pm at Yoga Lab

Remember fingerpaint? 
What would it be like if we painted the wall 
during a yoga practice?

Footprints
Handprints
Forearm lines
Back silhouettes
Butterfly butt prints
Knee dots
Toeprints
Fingerprints 
With each part of the body making its mark, 
what a painting it would be!
There are so many ways to use the wall!

Tonight will be a whole class at the wall -- feeling the engagement of the glutes, strengthening and lengthening the psoas, setting the pelvis to neutral, so that when you lift off you can fly and you might not even need the wall, but it’s got your back. 

Using just a wall, a mat, your body, and your imagination (since real fingerpaint would be a little too slippery)…
Let’s create some Graffiti on a Tuesday Night!
​
Music: “Graffiti on a Tuesday Night” – by the Neat Beats (the inspiration for this flow). Turn sound on for full effect.

Notice I said “play with”, not “work on”. I actually believe this spirit of playfulness is key. Especially if you tend to feel fear when trying handstand away from the wall (which was and sometimes still is my main barrier), give this a try to help get out of your head and flip your fear into falling out with flair and fun!

Learning how to fall-out safely by cartwheeling rather than flipping over into a backbend is an important skill for playing with handstand away from the wall.
​
Try this:
1) If you’re already comfortable with handstands at the wall, come into handstand at the wall and try picking up one hand to cartwheel out. When you pick up the hand, the pelvis follows. Set this mapping.  For a while I was stuck here. Both hands felt glued to the ground - try looking at your hand and talking to it, tell it to pick up.

2) Or, try starting with this. Do a cartwheel! Did you ever do cartwheels on the playground as a kid? Remember how fun that was? Not so scary? Tap into that memory and playfulness and try a few cartwheels without overthinking it. Feel how fun it is to go upside down and be on your hands. Notice how you put one hand down at a time and then pick up one hand at a time, and the pelvis follows.

3) Then try that same cartwheel feeling a little more narrowly, placing both hands down at the same time in front of you rather than one at a time. Still pick up a hand to cartwheel out. (You can see in the video I try this a few times testing my balance in handstand, then overshoot and cartwheel out. But right after that, I had my strongest hold of the day.)

4) Then try starting with your hands already on the floor, like 3-legged down dog. But still pick up the hand to cartwheel out. Hopefully all of that previous cartwheel play will set the mapping to pick up a hand to fall out rather than flip over.

Come and play in Strong Foundations Tonight!
See you there

Music: Lullatone “The Biggest Pile of Leaves You Have Ever Seen” ​

​My new Flip it Feb goal - working on my forearm balance, away from the wall, really using breath and bandhas rather than the power of the legs. 

Here’s one of my favorite quotes from Lara Heimann when working on this in her Breath and Bandhas 500hr module: 

“Do not think about getting up into vertical - think about what is happening in the body. Think about the process, not the end goal. The end goal is a great thing to visualize but if you are consumed with that and not the process you will not get to the end goal very well.”

Good advice for inversions, good advice for life.

I haven’t worked on forearm balance away from the wall very much - I think because I feel less confident in my fall-out plan with this posture and so have more fear of falling. But working with the seal of the bandhas to find lightness and lift is much more stable (and so it’s also less scary), and will also be more satisfying because you are truly building the strength needed to lift with lightness and hold it.

Try starting in quadruped with forearms down. Inhale, and then exhale fully, expanding your breath into your upper back, chin in. Really lift the front body to get your upper back lifted between the shoulder blades. Getting your breath all the way into the upper back, your accessing deeper muscles of the core. With that feeling, lift up into dolphin. Bring one leg in, getting the thigh and belly together (it’s ok to bend that knee if the hamstring is tight). Get the upper lift between the shoulder blades, seal of the belly in toward the back, get the thigh in close to the ribs, a little bend of the knees, inhale, and a little push from the toe as you exhale and seal it.  The pull of the belly is what brings the pelvis up, not a huge push from the power of the legs.  

From the evolution of cat —> dolphin —> peacock feather (forearm balance) feel the lightness and lift, and enjoy studying the process.

I’ll keep working on it :)