Ear pressure

 

Karnapidasana - Deaf Man’s Pose

Plow variation

It is your prerogative to shut out ‘the world’ if you need to. 🗺️ 📡

Foundling

 

Upavistha Konasana - Wide Angle Forward Fold 📐 

FIND that which you are hiding from yourself.

🌟 Starbaby 🌟

 

Yoga Mudrasana - Psychic Union Pose

Lotus legs, hands bound, third eye to the floor 🧿

🌈 How do you prepare for your birthday? ✨ 

Everyday anow?

 

Marichyasana - Sage Twist Pose 

 Symphony not severity.

PAST poses create PRESENT poses and FUTURE poses and they all exist all at once.

Nowhere else I would rather be

Marichyasana III - Sage Marichi Pose 3, Seated Sage Twist With Bind C

The kiddos, or you, or both 😱 are sick and suddenly, without warning ones focus is single minded and undivided; nothing else matters. 🧿

Trianga

Trianga Mukhaikapada Paschimottanasana - Three Parts Forward Bend

Trianga:

Three poses - Dandasana, Virsasana and Paschimottanasana 

Three body parts - buttocks, knees and feet. 

Why draw yoginis most often on their mats? Because I am personally terrible at - practically incapable of - asana-ing without attending a class. 

If three tenets of our happiness are faith, family/friendship and meaningful work then we must hunker down and stop seeking. 

A message from your host.

Ardha Baddha Padmottanasana -  Half Bound Lotus Standing Forward Bend

Here I am always judging in order to ‘improve performance’, but guess what? JUDGEMENT keeps us from ENJOYMENT. Advancement and optimization is only scarcely interesting because we are NOT machines.

Whirly 🌪️

 

Balasana - Child’s Pose

Illness, injury or sadness as a time for reflection, illumination and, possibly, ascension. 

Turn away from this WHIRLY WORLD and tune into your inner true self. 

🧦

 

Eka Pada Setubandha Sarvangasana - One Legged Bridge Pose

FEET : precise instruments not blunt objects. That’s why we yoga barefoot !! (With exceptions, of course 😉 😘). 

Crunchy

Eka Pada Uttana Padasana - One Legged Raised Pose

I still slide my hands under my hips to support my lower back.

& Featuring what fun it is to be a hippie yogini (mommy).

PLASTIC - it’s everywhere!! I’m pretty sure my underwear is made of plastic. I am just so over plastic. & Chemicals. Unnatural clothing, bizarre body products. PLASTIC. …

Post-birth of each child I give myself a pass — the generosity to be gentle and relaxed with my otherwise crunchy ecological, home and health rules. (EG processed foods ordered in, tacky crafts or mittens overnighted in bulk.) But, youngest Bébé is now three, so I am no longer in ‘survival mode’ and am empowered - aka ruthless and rageful - against the world’s BS once again. 🐅 All crap must go.

Fashion Rules

Eka Pada Ardha Navasana Baddhanguliyasana - One Legged Half Boat Pose Interlocked Fingers

Using interlaced fingers to coax and then train the leg to straighten. For some of us it’s a process 🥵

As I am perpetually attracted to and distracted by bright, shiny objects and innumerable looks, modas and trends, I have to condition myself not to try every cut, color and material …

We should (in times of limitless options) make our own little unspoken edicts (whilst free to disobey and evolve said mandates constantly). Such as : 

FOR FASHION (currently) - 

1. No writing. Strong personal pet-peeve, should be its own post.

2. No logos. Especially not on heart or head!!

3. No black. Unless for equipment, like sports.

4. No polyester. Though also OK for athletic / specialty purposes. 

5. No bands around the diaphragm. Camisoles in lieu of bras.

6. Streamlined underwear sets.

7. No high-heels. Low heels on occasion. Thick soles for dusty country living. 

8. Soft style hair ties.

9. Mascara is for special days. 

10. Shop while on vacation. Too taxing during regular family-life days. 

11. The word ‘fashion’ gets a bad rap - and I keep hearing use ‘style’, but I like the practicality of fashion being a ‘system, manner, method, approach’, and the DIY aspect that to fashion is to ‘make, manufacture, construct, build’.

Thoughtlessness

Phalakasana - Plank Pose, hip twist

Feet hips distance apart.

Hurts so good.

Twists are far more potent now than in my twenties. Is the sensation from childbearing and birthing? Amassed responsibilities? Accumulated toxicity? Crystalized convictions?  … 

Vinyasa = no thoughts! Moving through postures breath by breath reduces opportunities for extraneous thoughts. I forgot my water bottle in the studio today. (& Yesterday I forgot my mat!) Not because I wasn’t thinking, but because I was thinking too much!!

Your mat as an island

Vasishtasana - Forearm Side Plank Pose, with elbow twist

Oblique strength 👙

Your mat = your own little world. Today I left my rose quartz colored, woven cotton yoga mat in the yoga studio’s ladies room. Sob! I’ll pick it up next time, of course. I use a yoga rug and cannot believe this style has not caught on (I’ve seen only one other) as I give it zero complaints and many acclaims. 💕

Creation creates

 

Natarajasana - Dancer Pose 

Hand to floor

In dancer we are both the archer and the bow : yes - we are creators, but first and foremost we are creation. 

Infinite

Ardha Padma Anantasana - Reclined Half Lotus Pose

Kubera Mudra for focused intention 

Sacrificing for your dream. Some days I look around (at my little life) and I feel overtaken with awe and immensely ‘blessed’. So much so, that the beauty of it can feel precarious (“too good to be true, so much to lose!”). But, as my husband elucidates, this life did not appear out of nowhere - myriads of sacrifices (countless other possibilities passed up) befalls when we make each choice. We are choosing one of infinite. So when the bliss is so joyous we panic, remember we had our hand in this; these are the steady and continuous - unprecarious - fruits of our labor. 🍇 

Consistency - HOW TO:

Padukabandhini Asana - Shoelace Pose

Yin yoga

Can we slough off a fleck of ‘the world’ to excavate a glimpse of our true essence?

Consistency is the key 🔑. We will find consistency when we DIS-COVER our inner selves. No copycatting, no idolizing, no formulas. No prescribed diets, uniforms, or interior spaces. No dictated timetable or curriculum.

Selective

 

Dhanurasana - Bow Pose

Always one to grab the ankles in big back bends, maybe this week it’s time I clasped the toes.

The years are long, but the days are short; so let’s be selective with our interests, commitments, engagements and activities for, thankfully, we can have it all, just not all at once. 

Me, myself and my mat.

Salabhasana - Locust Pose

Most often I point my feet and flex my toes (Barbie foot) in big poses. Taking note from the ballerinas lately, I am experimenting with purely pointing - for precise direction and the hopeful strength to straighten those long limbs in the vigorous shapes.

 Yoga - just you and the mat. No masks. No pretense. No fake-it-till-you-make-it. 

🦢 elegant and effective

 

Upavistha Hamsasana - Sitting Swan Pose

Both graceful and effective. 

Weekends are the necessary outbreath to your week’s extended and exaggerated inbreath. Keep your weekends 1. Nourishing 2. Restful 3. Warm. 🧤🧦🪶

Wholesome nature-based activities nourish the soul. 

Warm with Fire and Water (food and clothing).

Movement can be restful; rather than planning a ‘hike’, step right outside your door.

Have an approach that is lighthearted and buoyant.

Consistency

 

Awkward Airplane Balance Pose

Simple. Strong. Everyday. 

Not crabby

Eka Pada Ardha Purvottanasana - One Legged Reverse Table Top Pose

Eka Pada Ardha Catuspadapitham - One legged crab pose 

🦀 

Just hanging out, letting your light shine. 

Certainly we do not neeeeeed skin tight, synthetic leggings (or polyvinyl thermoplastic mats, tritan water bottles, laminate floors, foam blocks…) to train. 

Mystical magical

 

Ardha Purvottanasana - Reverse Tabletop Pose

RECLAMATION: Not a destination. An ongoing, thrilling, pleasurable, amusing, surprising, magical, life-long process.

Destroyer of all diseases

 

Matsyasana - Fish Pose

Reduce stiffness in shoulders and neck. Improve posture. Balance the thyroid.

Self-compassionate healing après over-giving. 

🥠Fortunate🪙

 

Supta Utthita Tadasana - Supine Extended Mountain Pose

 Streeeeeeeeetch from the tips of your fingers to the ends of your toes. 

How lucky are we to be born again each morning?

What fresh hell is this?

Supta Baddha Konasana - Reclining Bound Angle 

With a bolster, two blocks and blankets.

OH the sheer agony of caring for the family and tending to the home while feeling unwell. We know it from periods, pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum, traumatic or sad events, the common cold, chronic illness, heartache, heartbreak and beyond. There is no relief to be found. My personal solution? Complain (and blame) loudly and incessantly until someone (my husband) tells me they feel sorry for me and then all is a little bit more right in my world - merci beaucoup, dankeschön. 

Flechette 🎯

Prasarita Prapadasana - Wide Toe Balance

Namaskar Mudra

Embody that little arrow pointing where you aim to go! 🏹

 

Head cold

 

Parsva Savasana - Side Lying Corpse Pose - Fetal Position

What is your illness telling you? STOP most of what you’re doing, get quiet & listen intent-ly.

My head is now submerged in what feels like a giant cotton ball and I’m hearing from my dis-ease that I’ve been consuming too much. Intaking kids’ equipment, junk food, other’s opinions, gossip, media, activity, meetings… throat, nose, ears and eyes are ailing. As I have been actively releasing much of this worldly influx as of late, I can also concur this is another important, physical step in the cleansing. ☁️ 

Gaseous 🌬️

 

Ardha Pavan Muktasana - Half Wind Removing Pose

Release blocked energy channels. 

 Handpick preferences and priorities. Your own, not others’. 

Returns and exchanges

Supta Padangusthasana - Reclined Big Toe Pose, with strap

Realize genuine aspirations by crossing off of your list any and all errands / shopping. XX even those returns and exchanges that seemingly save you money, but in reality perpetuate a vicious cycle (of believing that next thingie might finally make all the difference). Eat the ‘cost’ to reclaim the hours up front and bask in the meaningful goals accomplished before long.

Shrewd

 

Supta Padangusthasana - Reclined Big Toe Pose

Preserving energy is not underperforming, it is clever planning. 

Q

Malasana - Garland toe stand 

 Learning to ask questions by practicing asking questions. 

I always thought it too prying, probing, meddling and forward to ask questions (both personal and impersonal), and so rarely did. But I am endlessly curious and interested in others by nature (people watcher) and am at long last gleaning that people are keen on sharing and opening up. So here come the Q’s.

Label maker

 

Adho Mukha Sukhasana - Easy Pose Forward Fold

LABELS may temporarily console us (“I am not alone!”) but, ultimately, epithets are limiting and best discarded (every snowflake is, in fact, unique.) ❄️ 

Also - put down the podcast, book, lecture, course etc. Cease the googling. And reject outside opinion (even from your mother, brother and besties). Reacquaint yourself with yourself. (The answer is you.)

20 toes

Prapadasana - Toe Stand, practice

The exponential power 💥 of collaborating with your friends and the unlimited learning opportunities 🤓 of working with those unfamiliar. 

Cheery

 

Prapadasana - Toe Balance 

Clear (even just a byte of) your DIGITAL CLUTTER  and experience such exceptional lightness and striking clarity it’s revolutionary. 

Pointer

 

Bharmanasana - Table Top, Bird Dog Pose

All I know in this moment is that I do not know… 

Homework

 

Bharmanasana - Tabletop, Wrist Stretch

Finished is better than perfect. 

Start here

 

Phalakasana - Plank Pose

Small victories: 1. Make the bed. 2. Brush your teeth. 3. Walk the dog. 4. Brush your teeth. 5. Unmake the bed. 

Fruit

 

Bharmanasana - Table Top Pose

There are times to actively manifest* and times to passively enjoy the fruits of your labor. 🍡

* manifest = imagine and create your own true, beautiful, Free reality, not that which the ‘world’ dictates. 

Thingies 💓💖💝💕

 

Vyaghrasana Dandayamana Bharmanasana Vinyasa- Tiger Tabletop Pose Knee to Nose Flow

If you’re not fond of that THING (the fit of your sweats, the tightness of your sports bra, the cut or color of your thong, the stroke of your hairbrush, the ingredients in your lip gloss, the squeeze of the scrunchie on your wrist…) today, it will inconvenience you even more tomorrow, but you will forget your aversion over time - so OUT NOW with that thingie! And all of its unsatisfactory thingie friends, too. 

Zero talent 🥶

Vyaghrasana - Tiger Pose 💖🐯⛸️

About to skate, swim AND climb with kids 🥶😶‍🌫️😱, these are precisely the words of wisdom this mom needed today: 

“Everyday you wake up, you can control your attitude and your effort… it takes zero talent to be a good person and a good teammate.” - Aspen Recreation Center, Ice rink

Long weekends = lots of spontaneous outings.