Perfect Form ~ Manduka Malasana

 

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

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

Snake Oil 🐍 Malasana

Malasana - Garland Pose, Low Squat, reaching forward
Self-actualize.

Watch your step - it is (almost) all snake oil out there. I say be (very) skeptical of any THING or ANYONE - “authority, expert” - OUTSIDE of yourself promising YOUR self improvement; only the self can self-actualize.

LBD NBD ~ Koundinyasana II

 

Koundinyasana II - Flying Splits Pose 2, Preparation
Pausing here often during Vinyasa.
This is an accurate representation of what I generally wear to yoga: dark leggings, a lightweight, medium tone half-length undertank, and a looser (often grey) soft top tucked in.
With a rose quartz colored cotton mat.

Color TONALITY is important when dressing - take into account how much CONTRAST you do or do not have regarding your skin, eyes, and hair (and shade changes due to age, health status, tanned skin, sun-kissed tresses …). 

Hint: Not everyone looks great in black. 🌞 🖤

Poise ~ Ashta Chandrasana

Ashta Chandrasana - High Lunge, arms extended forward 
Let us train for the strength and control to improve our posture. 

By refining our physical comportment we will, in turn, upgrade numerous facets of our lives (or so I have been told 😉… still a sloucher over here 😬).

Vinyasa ~ Vasisthasana

 

Vasisthasana Vinyasa - Side Plank Dance
🪩 Move in vinyasa manner to find your groove; embrace certain elements (and omit others) to make the practice your own. ☃️ 

❄️❤️Combine the things you love.❤️❄️

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! 

Houseworkasana

Houseworkasana

AHA moments are continuously had in savasana, but also habitually unveiled while carrying out the housework. 🧹 

Notes from my last flight

 

Notes taken in the air - originally in pen 🖊️ in a mini notebook 📓 — never, ever leave home without one. 

🩵💚Not to be forgotten when flying with kiddos 💛🧡

1%

Anuvittasana - Mountain Pose with Backbend 🏔️’Found’ Pose 🪐

Anuvittasana - Mountain Pose with Backbend,  ‘Found’ Pose

Find your true self and best health by removing all obstacles 🐘 (including yoga alignment mandates?)

Natural as the new elite? The latest luxury seems to be living artificial additive, preservative, colorant, chemical (etc. etc.) FREE. 

FREE to BE.

Indefinitely

Savasana - Corpse Pose so sweet and not so subtle ✨.

Savasana - Corpse Pose 🧟‍♀️ 

It can be as little as a water bottle or as big as a location; things in your life expire, and not necessarily when you expect them to. 

When life keeps on life-ing you

 

Anjaneyasana - Low Lunge with a twisty

Anjaneyasana - Low Lunge, twist 🍋‍🟩 

A power outage lasting days (appropriately during Chanukah 🕯️), just before holiday break, travel, and Christmas will test even the most yogic of nerves. 

Stop spinning your wheels 😵‍💫

 

Intense Shoulder Stretch on a cotton Yoga Rug, which is just so much better than a plastic mat.

Intense Shoulder Stretch

“Do less, observe more, enjoy most!” - Magda Gerber

Away message

 

Supta Baddha Konasana - Reclining Bound Angle Pose

At the beach, out of touch from ‘the world’, getting my messages directly from the cosmos 🪐: aka on vacation sun tanning. 🧘‍♀️ PS: vacation - vacate! Cancel it, annul it; for I have left (and maybe even quit! Not really.) 🥸

Ear pressure

 

Karnapidasana - Deaf Man’s Pose

Plow variation

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

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. 

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.

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. 

🐭

🍂🧡🎃💛🌻

- 💚BAKE zucchini bread. 

- 💛Light a CANDLE at dinner.

- 🧡Autumnify the NATURE TABLE. 

- ❤️UNEARTH the winter socks. (And pants, and hats, and mittens…)

- 💜CRAFT in the common family area.

Squeak

 

Waterfall Pose, Squat Pose

Afishka yoga mice packed and dressed

Pack, fold, place sweetly out of sight only those clothes you’ll be elated to unbox next summer. The SURPLUS leaves your home ASAP. 🍃 🍂 

Velocity

Dhanurasana - Bow Pose

It is an effortful task to reverse the momentum from intake to outtake when a decision has been made to disencumber yourself (of both your beliefs and your belongings). But once that tide has been turned - you are unstoppable. 🌊 🏹