Home practice - for me and for you!

Since I last posted I feel as if I have cleared a giant mental hurdle. I feel more positive and ready to move forward with my life. Not everything is perfect - that is certain. I'm still not teaching, the future of my studio is still up in the air, and my physical limitations prohibit many of my usual life activities. But in spite of these issues I've decided to jump back in to whatever normal activity I can muster (or endure at times)- albeit at a modified level.

I've begun to re-read Mr. Iyengars book, "Light on Life". It has inspired me to re-start my home practice. Not just in the sense of physical postures - Asanas, but also to practice awareness in my life. Observing who I am through my thoughts, words, and actions. How do they serve me? What can I learn? How can I affect the world through them? What can I practice getting rid of and what do I want to keep? Being vigilant and aware is difficult at best - but in doing so I can practice ways of finding peace within myself and ultimately having a "peaceful" effect on the world.

Asana practice is the way to look inside of who we are.While we start Yoga for the physical aspects, the residual effects are the deeper understanding of who we are at the core - our soul.  In the Iyengar yoga discipline, we create a detailed awareness of each movement - nothing is coincidental - every body movement is made with a purpose. These mindful movements and actions provide each student with brief glimpses inside as we penetrate the layers of our physical body and move toward our spiritual body. Practicing the postures with awareness, kindness and honesty open us to endless possibilities as we learn to overcome our actual and perceived limitations and lead us to the light of our life - our soul.

As a bonus to those of you who follow me on my blog I am going to start including a practice sequence with each posting. This weeks sequence is a standing sequence. Do as much or as little as you want (the  highlighted poses create a shorter sequence if you're time pressed) , please use props when you need them (let your ego go- this is the honesty and kindness part of your practice), but make sure that you always do Savasana (corpse pose) at the end for at least 10 minutes.

Standing Sequence

Swastikasana (easy cross leg pose)

Adho Mukha Virasana (downward facing hero pose)

Adho Mukha Svanasana (downward facing Dog pose)

Tadasana - (Mountain pose)

Urdvha Hastasana (upward hand pose)

Gomukhasana (cow face pose - arms only)

Pascimo-namaskarasana - (back of the body prayer pose)

Trikonasana - (Triangle pose)

Virabhadrasana II - (Warrior II)

Ardha Chandrasana - at the wall (half moon pose)

Prasarita Padottanasana - concave back (spread apart foot pose)

Sirsasana (head stand - only for those students who know how to do this)

Chatush Padasana - (four footed pose - similar to bridge pose but shoulders and head on the floor)

Salamba Sarvangasana - (shoulder stand - only for those students who know how to do this)

Setu Bandha Sarvangasana - with medium block under sacrum (Bridge the whole body pose - this is an acceptable alternative to shoulder stand)

Savasana - (corpse pose)

Namaste'