🌞 🫖 💐

Remember to dry your flowers 💐🧻 and steep your sun tea 🫖🌞 this Summer. 

💕💖 

Dried Flowers, some pressed into clay.

Dried Bouquet.

Dried Rose Petals

🌞 Sun Tea 🫖 Red Berry, Rooibos, Earl Gray.

Rocky Mountain Highlights.

& Plunge.

No FOMO ~ Warrior 2 Pose

 

Virabhadrasana II - Warrior 2 Pose
FOMO free 🌞 

In the Summertime activities are optional. 

We Are Family ~ Side Stretch

Parivrtta Upavistha Konasana - Revolved Seated Angle Pose

(This) Summertime it is all about the Family time - and I am here for it.

lol asana - Lolasana

Lolasana - Pendant Pose
Hang out like a pendant this Summer.
🏅I sure am 😉😎 

Dear self,

I know you like to frolic in the sun all summer basking in your freedom - but perhaps you could squeeze in just a few asanas for just a splash of at-home practice? 🍊 

Sincerely,

Yours Truly

PS: Your daughter says to spend more time on your backgrounds and to make your drawings crazier (like you used to).

Vacation Yoga ~ Push-Ups

Chaturanga - Low Plank

While on holiday, I’m one to skip any organized exercise all together and opt solely for playful movement. Another option (my husband’s) is simple pushups, sit-ups and squats first thing in the morning and last thing before bed. 

Summer Crush ~ Aparigraha

Sukhasana - Easy Pose
KISS 💋 Keep It Simple this Summer

LET GO and Let Summer 🌞 

Everyday Anew ~ Three-Legged Down Dog

Tri Pada Adho Mukha Svanasana - Three-Legged Downward Facing Dog
Both its own active stretch and a transition.

After an entire school year of commitments that seemingly filled every waking (and often sleeping) moment of my time, I welcome these big, wide, vacant days and the extravagant option to leave them void.

Leisure ~ The Yoga Good Life

Sukhasana - Easy Pose for meditation and pranayama
Rest palms on knees to promote a tall straight spine.

Your free time, leisure time, is meant for restoration and well-being. 

Monetization of our free time is robbing us of our money and our peace. Be weary of any “leisure” activity that costs you. (In fact, your leisure activities, if truly personally enriching, should be more likely to make you riches.)

Lavender Fields ~ Headstand Variation

Sirsasana ~ Headstand variation 
To safeguard my neck, I typically headstand with tripod arms.

When I was growing up, the day school ended my family and I flew (fled?) to the French Riviera and returned to the USA only after the school supplies had - much to my dismay - run out at the American stores. Summer was not filled with planned activities or camps or playdates but with open-ended European road trips and unhurried, unstructured, seemingly endless days chez nous en Provence. 🪻🪻🪻

With my four petites being ages 3-13, it is likely not prudent to emulate this relaxed, improvisational, détendue, and highly unAmerican protocol, but I am going to give it a shot. I will let you know how it goes...

❤️Red 🤍White 🩵Blue & 💓Pink ~ Headstand Yoga Pose variation

Sirsasana - Headstand variation 
Loving red-white-blue (plus pink).

In preparation - or was it the opposite? - for this Summer I said sayonara to my week-daily sunrise yoga, I eschewed all camps for the kiddos, we bought only one-way airplane tickets, and I haven’t sought out a single sitter. Naturally, I am becoming petrified and beginning to panic as school winds its way down  (4 kids - 10 year spread - 75 straight days!), but this weekend is going so well I think it’s going to be the best Summer yet!!! 💙🤍❤️ ✌️🤞😎😎😎😎😎🤞✌️❤️🤍💙

Cost Incurred ~ Parivrtta Utkatasana

Parivrtta Utkatasana - Twisting Chair Pose

When singularly focused on an acquisition, inquire conversely: what am I giving up to ‘get this’?

Reclamation ~ Ardha Chakrasana with Self Assist

Ardha Chakrasana - Half Wheel Pose, Standing Backbend
With self assist: low back support and press to open.

Reclaiming adequate alone time to return to oneself - supportive and enabling of You. 

🐌 Vacation Integration 🐢 ~ Sukhasana, Dhyana, Mukula Mudra

Sukhasana - Easy Pose
Dhyana - Meditation 
Mukula Mudra - Lotus or Lily Bud Hand Gesture 🤌 

(Vacation) integration is gradual, slow, steady, slimy, super cute, hard shelled, long-lived… 🐌 🐢 

Reinvention ~ Supta Baddha Konasana

Restorative Supta Baddha Konasana - Reclining Bound Angle, with Heart Opener

Reminiscing about my early yoga days while conceptualizing what is to come.

Summer is the season of reinvention, SPRING is the season to plant the reinvention seeds. 

The Goal Is You ~ Vajrasana ⚡️

Vajrasana - Thunderbolt Pose
Remember You? When you are You - life is fun and funny as it is meant to be!

Spending time with someone who is completely, unapologetically themselves invites us to be a little bit more genuine and original, too. 

Perfect Form ~ Manduka Malasana

Manduka Malasana - Frog Garland Pose Squat
Playful, with movement: childlike.

Some days are not (at all!) perfect your form days. 

Pining 🌲 ~ Vrksasana

Vrksasana - Tree Pose

This was my favorite pose for many years when I first discovered the practice of yoga in my University days.

Upon completion of an insanely hectic week, it is natural to pine for the long-gone, youthful lingering days of nothingness, but, sigh, those days are decidedly behind us thanks to making our dreams come true.

Bye Bye, Bra ~ Pranayama

I wore a more traditional bralette today for my AM movement and, boy, did I regret it. It was sweet with lace, constructed from organic cotton and seemed benign enough, but I was suffocating by the hours end with that tight-ish band encircling my ribcage and constricting my lung expansion, I couldn’t wait to rip it off (and toss it out)!

‘Burn’ any BRA that restricts - strangles! - your diaphragm. Wear soft, little camisoles without the throttling punishment of asphyxiation, or simply go bare, and fully breathe in life once again! 

🌈Arc🧚‍♀️ ~ Parsvottanasana

Parsvottanasana - Pyramid Pose
I am having a ‘put your head down and work’ type of week. 

🌈The rhythm of the day, the arc of the week, the ebb and flow of the month, and the seasons of the year. Looking ahead and zooming out at your calendar is how you are able to ‘put your head down’ and (enjoy) work(ing) unremittingly - because you plan (and look forward to) when you’ll be coming up for air. 👙⛵️🌞

Mow.

Mow some more.

Completely clear out 4 bedrooms.

Daily lunch for 4.

Play to Stretch Yourself ~ Eka Pada Sarvangasana

Eka Pada Sarvangasana - One Legged Shoulder Stand Pose 
Get upside down and get playful.

Get upside down and then play with arm and leg variations (regardless of what is ‘correct’ or cued).