I was ready to start making dance videos for this page, but ..
🕑 Added 2023-02-10 22:42:48 +0000 UTC
I was ready to start making dance videos for this page, but then I got sick and my body took a minute to bounce back. I felt a lot of stiffness in my joints and stagnant energy sitting in my body from weeks of rest and being in bed. So I made a video while I did a yoga routine to shake out all of the ick from my body. I've been doing yoga on and off for about 8 years. So a lot of these poses are standard practice, but sometimes I just do whatever my body feels like it needs. That's one of my favorite things about yoga - learning how to listen to my body and just following my instincts in that way. There's also something so powerful about syncing your breath with your movement. It forces you into the present moment and that allows icky energy that is sitting in your organs/joints/chakras to leave your body. I'm going to narrate some of the things going on in this video but you're obviously welcome to just ignore this written description and just watch. Before I even threw my mat on the floor I vacuumed and mopped the whole area I would be in because I can't stand a dirty floor (especially if i'm going to be laying on it 😝). But while doing so I also was conscious of the practice of cleaning as a cleansing ritual for the energy of the space as well. I washed my mat with soap and water and let it dry while I turned on a space heater and put on my outfit. Then I found music on youtube that was calming and bright, set up the angle on my camera and jumped in. I start by using a yoga mat cleanser with essential oils. I love the way this spray smells on my mat and as I wipe it clean I'm blessing the space and present with gratitude for the time and ability I have to dedicate to my practice. Already I'm moving with intention - present with everything my body is doing and keeping my attention on the sensations in my muscles or my breath. Gotta get all the fuzzies off my feet cause that will drive me nuts, lol, and then I just start to rub my legs to ground my energy. Grounding is an absolute must - nothing can be accomplished well without a solid foundation 😋. I stretch out my hips and shake out some stiffness in butterfly pose and connect with my breath. Then I gently wake up my feet and scooch back into the center of the mat to start my routine. I'm doing everything really slowly, really gently. I start in vajrasana (kneeling pose), rub my legs again to ground my energy once more and then set my intention for my practice - which was "healing". I was ready to open myself up for whatever that meant for me. I wake up the muscles in my neck by making circles in both directions with my head. I shake out stiffness in my upper back. Then I set myself up for some cat/cow's to get my energy moving and bl o o d flowing. I'm breathing in as I go into cat and out as I flow into cow. Already this is feeling heavy and a little difficult so I gently move into ch i ld's pose to bring down my heart rate and slow my breathing. Normally a couple of cat/cow's do *not* make me tired, but covid had made my body very stiff. Ch i ld's pose is meant to be a reset. You're encouraged at *any* time to go into ch i ld's pose if you're feeling overwhelmed. It is incredibly relaxing. I prefer the variation that stretches out my hips. I do hip stretches alllll the time because I love the way they feel, but also because we carry worry and stress in our hips and I often need to release those energies from my person. After my reset I'm ready to start some gentle sun salutations. I'm still so tight I can't quite reach the floor but that will change over the course of my routine. I'm still shaking out stiffness - something that is not usually a part of this asana but is something I feel I need. When I get myself into the position that's supposed to move into warrior 1 I cannot believe how tired I am from even just moving my leg and pressing into it underneath my chest. So I just stretch out my hamstring and then do it again on the other side. Cobra, downward dog, shake shake, find ch*ld's pose again to bring down my heart rate and find my breath. I'm gearing up now for pigeon - one of my favorite positions. So I'm stretching out my hips while on all fours. Downward dog into pigeon on my right side. I love this position because it is very demanding and yet looks like you're at rest. And again, hip stretches are very important to me. There is a pressure point on your forehead that if you press into it it helps bring down your stress levels, which a pose like this could bring to the surface. I stay pretty focused on my breath, but I still press my forehead onto my hands when I'm in pigeon on my left side to help me completely relax into the stretch in this position. Downward dog - I now have enough energy to hop into uttanasana - huge difference from the start of my routine. Chair pose comes next, after a couple forward folds to stretch out my lower back. Chair pose keeps my legs feeling strong and helps me ground my energy again. After chair is tree pose which is another one of my favorites. I love working on my balance. I use forward folds to stretch out my lower back often between these standing poses. I then go into eagle pose because I know I was just sick and eagle is a great position to stimulate your thymus - a gland important to our immune system. It's also just a great shoulder/upper back stretch. I then do some wide legged forward folds, turn around and do a goddess pose, then open up into star pose - a pose that signals to the universe that you're open to receive (whatever it is that you need). Then I get on the ground, relax, release tension in my lower back and do some bridges. Knees to chest for some stretching and more tension release of my lower back. Then I do some twists to move the energy along my spine. I finish with some treading of the needle because I felt some stiffness in my shoulders. Normally now I would settle in for a nice long savasana but didn't need to just lay on the ground for 15 mins in this video 😅. So I finish up in vajrasana again, present to my gratitude and connection to all that is and a bow to honor myself, those that have taught me this practice, and the forces that keep me coming back to it over and over again. I felt a humongous difference in my energy the next day, I really stopped feeling bogged down and "ill." It had a lasting effect on how my body felt. And then I went through a whirlwind of emotions which I'm assuming were brought up by my desire and intention to "heal" but we're not gonna get into all that 😝. But anyway, if you read all this I'm grateful & I hope you enjoyed the video.
