February
February completely got away from me. Did anyone else feel like February flew by?In February, we worked on moving with the breath, creating various sequences that combined poses in a dynamic way.
A group of dedicated practitioners scheduled a weekly morning class, making my work hours work for them.
Some other BoT students have been enjoying the benefits of scheduling one-on-one sessions. One-on-one sessions are tailored to the student's individual needs and are wonderful for those who wish to practice yoga privately but aren't sure what to do at home on their own.
At Home Practice
If you would like to begin an at-home practice, start with breath. Breath is the key to a successful yoga practice. Begin by noticing your breath, noticing where it is coming from, noticing the sensations it creates in your body, noticing it as it fills your lungs. Notice it filling your diaphragm like a balloon. The diaphragm is the principle muscle of respiration and it presses downward into a bowl shape on the inhalation to massage the digestive organs. On the exhale, it stretches upward to massage the lungs and heart.Next, notice your throat. On your inhale, feel a lift in the back of your throat and hear the intake of breath, full and strong. Feel your belly rise and then your chest rise. You can even hold your hands on your belly and on your chest. On your exhale, notice the breath leaving your throat with a "haa" sound, like fogging a mirror, with or without opening the mouth, and notice the chest falling and the belly falling. Work on these steps to creating "ocean" breath. Notice how it calms your body, how it makes you feel as though you are taking in more air than you do during your regular breath and fully emptying your lungs to make space.
March
Looking forward to March, we will continue to explore breath. Pranayama is the control of the breath. Poses can be held as long as our breath is calm and steady. As soon as your breath becomes panicky or uncontrolled, it's time to come out of a pose, resting in a neutral pose like mountain, downward dog or child's pose. By focusing on controlling the breath, we focus on finding our "edge" in our poses and can hold even our most challenging poses, whatever they might be for us.
Let's keep exploring our breath's ability to completely calm the body and take us further in our practice as the month goes on.
