Ajna🌀Wisdom Within

🌳🌷 Hello Beautiful Friends!!

🌀I hope your summer is going well!! I read a quote recently that said, “I didn’t realize we were making memories, I just knew we were having fun.” ☀️The PERFECT summer quote right! 🌊Basking in the sun’s rays, water or sand in the toes, sunnies & wet hair, watermelons & strawberries, 🍉🍓and lots of fun! Summer can also be a bit chaotic, especially for caregivers! During this busy summer, remember to carve out time for YOU! This world is moving super fast, take the time to slow down, before your body & mind FORCE you to slow down either with injury, illness or exhaustion. Your mental health should always take priority, if it hasn’t, make this summer THE time to change that! Every breath is a new opportunity to begin again! 🌬️

🧿This week we’re diving into the sixth chakra, our Ajna: the third eye chakra! This swirling energy center lies in the forehead, between the eyebrows, is indigo blue in color, and its element is light! It is here where we find our intuition, wisdom, knowledge, judgement, understanding, our inner voice, and connection to divinity.

🫐Throughout this summer, I’ll be leading a heated vinyasa on Mondays, and a gentle version on Fridays! I truly love teaching the gentle classes, it encourages me to intentionally slow down, both my mind, the pace of class, and really focus on the mental health & somatic lessons, breathwork, and intentional movements that I’m passionate about sharing with the world. So, on Friday, I'll be teaching the gentle version of each chakra I taught on Monday!

🪬 Today, we opened on our backs, grounding the entire body, allowing the head to become heavy, discovering peace, relaxation throughout the length of the body from the crown to the toes, with one hand on the belly, the other on our forehead, on our Ajna!  We closed the eyes, and took a slow scan of the 5 senses, even with the eyes closed, noticing what we see beyond the lids, what we hear in the room, our own breath, what we smell, the juniper berry-rosemary-clary sage essential oil mist sprayed in studio, the last thing we tasted, and the warm air against our skin, feeling our mat underneath us, supporting us, holding us. We moved into our Pranayama practice, 3-part breath, deep inhales through the nose, filling up to the belly, allowing the belly to take up space, into the chest, expanding the ribs, filling the lungs, all the way to the crown, and then long, slow exhales through the mouth, releasing all our past events, and future to do lists, letting them wash away, no longer needed, becoming truly present! We took time just for ourselves, present in this space, in this moment. Nowhere else to be, nothing else to do, but simply be. We slowed down the chatter of the mind!  

💙 We lengthened long, reaching the hands overhead, toes reaching forward, full body stretch, exhaled hugging the knees into the chest, rocking side to side massaging the low back, circling through the ankles, lengthened long again, then a supine twist to the right, coming through center, lifting the hips into a bridge, and a supine twist to the left. The knees came through center, and we rock n rolled along the spine to a comfortable seat or half lotus pose, bringing one foot on top of the opposite thigh. We began our Nadi Shodhana, our alternate nostril breathwork! We became fully present in the body! We moved into twists to each side, a backbend to open the chest and walked the hands forward into a forward fold, tenting the fingers, finding a sway side to side. We moved into a child’s pose, walked the hands to the right, through center, to the left, through the center, joined the palms together, bending the elbows, reached the hands overhead, thumbs draping down the back of the neck. 

🌌We melted the hands to the mat, walked the hands toward the knees, bringing the knees close together into our Hero’s pose, sitting onto the heels for our self-healing reiki practice!  We often forget our hands are tools for healing, not just for others but for ourselves as well!! We softened the body, released jaw clenching, smoothed through the forehead, released chest tightening. We focused on our mental health, sending healing energy to the soul, releasing everything we no longer need. We sent healing energy to the mind, quieting the chatter. The mind is often a time traveler, becoming stuck in the past or traveling too far forward into the future. We connected to the body, which is always present, releasing the past pain & frustrations, and future worries. We sent gratitude to the heart & lungs, set our intention, inhaled fingers to the sky, melting into side bends, and interlacing the fingers, palms up to the sky, inhaling while gaze lifts, throat lengthening, opening the chest, exhaling palms forward, curling the back, repeating 2 more times. We released the hands behind the glutes into a backbend, and exhaled forward into our puppy, melting the heart, grounding our Ajna!

🚎We moved in yummy ways, with a yummy warm up flow of Cat-Cow, adding in organic movements, hips swaying side to side, child’s pose waves, listening to what the body needs! We could stay in Childs pose for the rest of class! If we needed more movement, we found a neutral spine, inhaled the gaze and right knee lifted, toes to the sky, into our Tiger pose, exhaled the knee into the chest, nose to knee, extending 2 more times, third time binding for the foot. We released the foot to the back, pressing into the toes, as the opposite knee floated into the chest, curling the back, knee came down, opposite knee lifted into our tiger, repeating twice. We extended the right leg out to the right, sinking the hips back, 1-leg Childs pose, rolled forward and then opened into a supported side plank. We moved through a cat cow flow and honored the left side! Super delish!! We opened our heart, chest & lungs, lengthened, extended, linking breath + movement, opened our hips, releasing tension & tightness to release negative energy & nourish the body.

 🪁Our first flow spiced up our energy, kept us warm, and rooted to the earth as we flowed into our downward dog, lifted high into the toes, rolled forward into plank, creating waves as slowly as possible, into pranam, low cobra, downward dog, into our tadasana, rooting the feet into the earth, feeling that grounding energy all the way up to the crown. We moved through side bends, exhaled swan diving into a forward fold, planted the hands, stepped back into a plank, pranam or chaturanga, low cobra, upward dog, into downward dog, finding movement then stillness. We inhaled right leg to the sky, exhaled knee to tricep taps, to the chest, knee pushup with extended left toes, then planting left toes to back of our mat, coming up and stepping the right foot between the hands rising up into Crescent Warrior. We inhaled, cactused the arms, opened the chest, exhaled leaning forward into a Lightning Bolt, brought the back knee forward into a crunch, stepped back, 2 more times, windmilling the arms into a Sky Archer, extending through the fingers, exhaling into an extended side angle, repeating 2 more times, pivoting to the back, into Warrior 1. Inhale cactus the arms, binding behind the back, humbling our warrior, melting the Third Eye toward the earth, lifting it to the heavens, 2 times, then floating forward into Warrior 3 with our bind. We released the hand to the earth into a Half Moon, then melted into our Skandasana, to each side, let the head and shoulders hang heavy in a wide leg fold. We walked our hands to the top of our mat into a Twisted Lunge and then came through center into our Dragon, keeping our knee close to the shoulder, rocked forward & back, then melted into the forearms, third eye to a block or to the earth as we opened our hips. We could peel open onto the outer edge of our foot, melting the hips and binding for the back foot. We moved through a vinyasa flow, and honored the left side! We encircled the healing space on our mats!

🪼Somatic experiencing gave us tools to regulate our nervous system, to stimulate the vagus nerve that begins at the base of the brain and runs throughout the body touching every organ system! We agitated emotions stuck in the body, to help them release, and to serve as a reset button. We began at the crown, massaging the fingertips all over the crown, into the temples, the jaw, the perfect release for jaw clenchers like myself. We pulled down on the ear lobes, pulled the middle of the ears out to the sides, up to the top of the ears pulling toward the sky. We brought one hand to the base of the skull, the other hand’s two fingers rolling down the forehead to the tip of the nose, opening our Ajna! We tapped into the collarbone, and into the sternum! We inhaled through the nose as we tapped into the sternum, and stacked the hands at the heart as we exhaled while audibly humming into our bee breath🐝! If you hold tension here in the chest, this is a nice release!  We squeezed into the shoulders, deltoids, biceps, triceps, and forearms, and swayed noticing the effects: we can feel cool, heat, or tingling sensations, even a spontaneous yawn! We removed anything stuck, anything harmful & toxic still attached to the body! We stimulated the vagus nerve, the super highway of information from the brain to the body! We sent messages to the brain that the body is not under threat, it does not have to exist in a continuous active state (fight mode). We helped our body adjust to triggers. We have the ability to help our nervous system shift fluidly between states when each are needed, the sympathetic & parasympathetic nervous systems! Both are useful and 100% needed, but we do not want to become stuck in one state for too long. These practices are so useful off the mat as we encounter stress or triggers in our daily lives!

🦕Our final flow began in Tadasana, exhaled into a forward fold, we stepped the left foot back into our Pyramid, Third eye reaching for our knee, squaring the hips, hands to our blocks. We reached one hand to the sky, Pavrita Trikonasana, removed our blocks, planted our hands, swept the foot through center and back into a 3 limbed dog. Extending the heel to the sky, we inhaled, exhaled the knee to the chest, into a Figure 4 downward dog, foot resting on the opposite thigh. We walked the hands back into a Figure 4 fold, inhaled extending into a stand, hands into prayer at the chest, inhaled the hands to our Ajna, exhaled melting forward into our fold, walked the hands forward into a down dog. We unraveled the leg to the sky, exhaled knee to chest, inhaled up bent the knee opened the hip, perhaps flipping our dog into Wild Thing. We came through center, thread the foot under the opposite leg into a Fallen Star, and melted into our Pigeon. We could move into a King Pigeon or Mermaid before resting our pigeon. We floated into the hands, extended the foot to the sky, into downward dog. We melted into the forearms, walked the feet in, into our Dolphin pose, grounding our Third Eye. We grounded the knees, walked the hands back, sitting onto the heels, planted the hands behind us, opening into a backbend, then walked forward into a downward dog, and honored the left side.

 🌀Our cool down moved us from our pigeon, rolling onto the left hip, brought the right leg to the upper right corner, left foot meeting the right thigh, and melted into a fold, We walked the hands up the leg, twisted to the left, planted the hand behind the spine, lifted the hips into a Rainbow arch. We came through center and lifted into a Reverse Table, melting our third eye toward the back wall. We melted the hips down, hugged the knees in, and honored the left side. After our Reverse table, we melted the hips down, brought the soles of the feet together into our Butterfly, found our peace fingers, hooked our big toes, to open up into our Straddle, balancing on the root chakra. We floated backward to the mat and opened into a Happy Baby. 

🧿We lengthened long, hugged the knees into the chest, extended the feet to the sky into our T-pose, crossed one foot over the other, bending at the knees, hugged the thighs together and reached for shins gently pulling the knees toward the chest.  This lengthens the IT band, and helps to soften where the sciatic nerve travels, releasing any pain we may have there. We released our shins, planted the bottom  foot for a supine twist! We honored the opposite side. We hugged the knees in, opened into our Happy Baby, rocking side to side, and made time to come into any final poses we needed before our final rest such as legs up the wall, bridge, plow or wheel, or coming into Savasana early! 

🙏🏻We made it to our PEAK POSE: Savasana! Together, we completed a full body cleanse! We found meditative peace, a calming of the mind, opened our Vishuddha, found insight into ourselves, found our voice, we experienced growth, fearlessness, release, and freedom. Yoga helps us shed what we no longer need, so we may see our most purest selves! We connect to divinity! To slow down means to heal! That is why savasana is the peak pose, the most important pose, the goal, the pinnacle. To find peace. In the stillness! We surrender. We discover ourselves again without the layers, the armor, the walls. They all come down, revealing our divine self.

🪬 I loved creating our Ajna playlist! Listen here!! 

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7b1AVP3bJmPqTBao8fym0y?si=K5NtqucPTfWTA0cRztARYg&pi=u-cuwLZE0cSzCA

🍃Come practice with me Mondays at 8:15am!🫶🏻 ✨🌿