Yogini Confluence
Yesterday’s post was about anger. After reading it, I started tooling around the blogosphere and came across another post about anger, recently written on the Everything Yoga Blog. Afterwards, Rachel on Suburban Yogini mentions she also just wrote a post on the subject (you can see her comment below). Maybe there’s something in all this spring weather that is creating this, maybe it’s the way the planets are aligning, or maybe something is happening with the poles. Who knows. I do find, however, that sometimes, for whatever reason, things just seem to be “in the air.”
Ever walk into a yoga class 10 minutes early, start doing a brief personal warm-up, and then find that the instructor follows the exact sequence of what you were just practicing, without having actually closely observed you? Or even just taught a class based off what you were hoping they would lead? Or, maybe, you go to class one evening with one instructor, and the next morning an entirely different instructor leads almost the same class?
When I lived at Kripalu, and often took two classes a day, this phenomenon constantly surprised me. I would go to a class in the morning with a focus on, say, hamstrings. Then, going to a different teacher in the afternoon, they would announce a focus of hamstrings. It got to the point where I became wary of multiple classes a day, because I’d overdo one part of the body. I’m feeling sort of the same way about all of these yoginis posting about the relationship between anger and yoga. For whatever reason we’re all on the same mental path, but, again, who knows why?
Yogini Confluence
If you check in the thesaurus, a synonym of confluence is union. The root of yoga is yug, or, union. Therefore, another title of this post could be: Those who seek union unite.
- Sukhasana (Easy Pose)
- Take the hands together in front of the heart in prayer position. Chant Om three times
- Seated Sun Breaths (for how to do this breath see this post)
- Tadasana (Mountain Pose). Inhale arms up above head
- Step back to Virabhadrasana I (Warrior I) with “Ha!” exhaling, taking hands in fist to the side
- Move between steps 4 and 5, alternating legs, continuing with “Ha!” on exhale, inhaling back to Mountain pose
- Tadasana. Feel sense of grounding into the earth, receiving energy from the source
- Surya Namaskar repeat 12x (alternating sides). Face the sun and use the repetitions to connect to the sun, energy, the universe (whatever helps you feel connection).
- Tadasana
- Natarajasana (Dancer’s Pose), opening the heart forward and up
- Puvana Muktasana (Standing Wind Relieving Pose)
- Tadasana
- Repeat steps 10-12 on other side
- Uttanasana (Forward Fold)
- Step back to low lunge
- Anjaneasana (Crescent Pose)
- Sun Breaths in Crescent lunge
- Vinyasa to repeat steps 15-17 on other side
- Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward Facing Dog Pose)
- Navasana (Boat Pose)
- Dhanurasana (Bow Pose)
- Salabasana (Locust Pose)
- Garbasana (Child’s Pose)
- Come down onto back
- Setu Bandhasana (Bridge Pose)
- Urdhva Dhanurasana (Upward Bow Pose or Wheel Pose). Use this pose as a tremendous heart opener.
- Repeat Bridge or Upward Bow
- Supta Matsyendrasana (Supine Twist). Repeat on other side
- Savasana