🌳🌷 Hello Beautiful Friends!!
🌻Summer is in full swing, the kiddos may be super busy with activities and camps, or you may have been hearing “I’m sooooo bored!” Likely both of these. 😂 Summer can be more chaos than relaxing vacation for many of us, so remember to carve out time for YOU! This world is moving super fast, take the time to slow down, before your body MAKES you 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!
☀️Last week was my second class in my Chakra Series, and we dove into the chakra: Svadhishthana, our Sacral Chakra! This week we’re diving into the third chakra, our Manipura: the Solar Plexus chakra! This swirling energy center lies 2 inches above the navel, is yellow in color, and its element is fire! It is here where we find our confidence, our inner fire, passions, what sets our soul on fire, our identity, gut instinct, strength, and our personal power! ☀️When open and balanced, we are aware of others' energy but not negatively affected by it, we have inner strength, trust our gut, have a balanced ego, are confident, and take personal responsibility. When out of balance, we overthink, are judgmental, don't trust others, have low self-esteem, feelings of hopelessness, thinks self-worth is based on achievements, are domineering & have an aggressive personality. A blocked solar plexus can lead to ulcers, diabetes, nervousness, digestion issues, eating disorders, arthritis, addiction to stimulants.
✨Connected Crystals: Honey calcite, lemon quartz, pyrite, yellow topaz
Connected essential oils: Bergamot, geranium, lavender, lemon, mandarin, neroli, peppermint, chamomile, rose, tea tree, vetiver, ylang ylang.
When *In Balance*:
We are aware of others' energy but not negatively affected, have inner strength, trust our gut, balanced ego, confident, takes personal responsibility.
When *Out of Balance*:
We overthink, judgmental, don't trust others, low self-esteem, feelings of hopelessness, thinks self-worth is based on achievements, domineering & aggressive personality.
🔆 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. So, on Friday, I'll be teaching the gentle version of each chakra I taught on Monday!
💛 We opened on our backs, grounding the body, connecting to the earth, from the crown, melting the shoulders, each vertebrae of the spine, down to the hips, and softening through the legs and feet. We formed our Rudra Mudra with the hands, folding the fingers inward toward the thumbs, and then extending the pinkies & middle fingers outward. We placed our mudra at our solar plexus chakra to connect to this energy center. We moved into our Pranayama practice, 3-part breath, filling up to the belly, chest, and crown, with our mudra, deep inhales through the nose, long slow exhales through the mouth, releasing all our past events, and future to do lists, becoming truly present! We took time just for ourselves, present in this space, in this moment. We slowed down the chatter of the mind! We lengthened long, hugged the knees into the chest, then into T-pose, flexed feet to the sky!
🔱We pointed the toes, curled the fingers around the edges of our mat, by the hips, and crossed one foot over the other, keeping the legs straight, criss-crossing, small movements back & forth over one another, scissoring slowing down toward the mat, hovering a few inches above the mat, and slowly coming back up toward the sky, still scissoring the legs! We repeated for a total of 3 times, warming up the core, our solar plexus, and then hugged the knees into the chest, rocking side to side massaging the low back! We let the knees fall to the right, came through center, found bridge pose, and honored the left side!
🍋We rock ‘n rolled along the spine into a comfortable seat, for our self-healing reiki practice! 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 mind: 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 frustrations & future to do lists. We set our intention, inhaled the fingertips to the sky, melted into twists, seated cat cows with arms crossed, opened into a mini backbend, and melted into a forward fold. We care into a child’s pose, extending the fingertips to the right, center, and left, and melted our Anjali mudra, prayer hands down the nape of the neck.
🍌We moved in yummy ways, with a yummy warm up flow of Cat-Cow, adding in organic movements, adding in leg lifts with bent knees, toes to the sky, curling inward, nose to knee, and back up into our Tiger, reaching back to bind the foot! We released the foot to the back of the mat, lifting the opposite knee to the chest, curling the back, nose to knee, then setting the knee down bending into the elbows, extending opposite toes to the sky for a push up, repeating this flow once more, then extending the leg out to the side, melting the hips back into a back into a 1-legged child’s pose.
🔑We floated forward, brought the foot back through center to the back of the mat, and opened up into a supported side plank. We honored the left side. Super delish!! We opened our heart & lungs, lengthened, twisted, extended, flowed 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 from our downward dog, into plank, creating waves as slowly as possible, 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 flowed through side bends, forward folds into plank, chaturanga, upward dog, downward dog + knee to tricep taps, and knee pushups with extended toes, coming up and stepping the foot between the hands rising up into Crescent Warrior. We leaned forward into our lightning bolt, arms reaching back, palms to the ground, pulsing the arms in small movements up and down for a 5 count, then floating forward into our Warrior 3. We fluidly moved into Warrior 2 toward the back of our mats. We lengthened into Sky archer, into Warrior 2, Sly Archer, cradling the head, binding the fingers behind the back. We unraveled the arms out to a T, and melted into our Triangle. We floated forward into our Half Moon. We walked the hands to the long side of our mats, into a WideLeg Forward Fold, rolled up into a 5 point star, into our Goddess, dancing side to side, hands to the knees, shoulder presses forward, and then extending the arms out keeping the hips still while the chest and arms pulse side to side with the palms up and then down. We extended back up into our star, folded forward, letting the head and shoulders hang heavy. We twisted to the right opening through the chest, and to the left. We walked the hands to the top of our mat for our Twisted Lunge and then into a side plank! We flowed through vinyasa to honor the left side. We encircled the healing space on our mats!
🌻Somatic experiencing gave us tools to regulate our nervous system, to agitate those emotions, 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 gently downward on the ear lobes, outward at the ear edges, and upward at the tops of the ears! 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! 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! We removed anything stuck, anything harmful & toxic still attached to the body! We stimulated the vagus nerve, the super highway of information located at the base of the brain and runs throughout the entire body, touching every organ system! 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 adapt 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, grounding into one foot as the other lifted at the knee into our Pilar, opening out to the side like a gate, and stepping out to the side, squaring the hips, back into the open gate, 2 more times, coming through center, closing the gate, and lowering the knee to reach back for the foot, coming into our Dancer pose! We released the foot back with control to the back of our mats, into our crescent warrior, fingers to the sky, leaned forward into our lightning bolt, pulsed the arms as they reached back with palms facing down to the earth for a 5 count. We planted the hands, swept the foot through center into our 3-limb dog. We bent the knee, opened the hip, circling through the hip, or flipping our dog! We extended the leg, hovered the knee at the chest, and thread the foot through into our Fallen Star, and unraveled back into our downward dog! We walked the hands back to the feet, bending the knees lowering into Toes of Fire, opening the knees out to the sides, back through center, then melted the knees forward and down, flowing into our dancing camel, moving fluidly side to side! We honored the left side of this final flow!
🌙Our cool down moved us from downward dog, into our plank, adding in a few toe taps out to the right and left, and melting to the belly, and to our sacral chakra. We moved through low cobras, broken wing, sphinx, pelvic rocks massaging our solar plexus! We reached for one foot lifting up into our half bow, opening through the chest, reached for the opposite foot for half bow, eventually into our full bow! Even adding into a little rock forward & back! We opened one knee up toward the elbow into our half frog, into a supine twist, honored the opposite side, and then melted to our backs! 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. We released the shins, planted the bottom foot, for a supine twist! We honored the opposite side, and then opened up into our Happy Baby, with a little sway side to side. We made time to come into any final poses we needed before our final rest such as legs up the wall, bridge, plow or wheel!
✨We made it to our PEAK POSE: savasana! Together, we completed a full body cleanse! We found meditative peace, a calming of the mind, insight into ourselves, we experienced growth fearlessness, release, and freedom. Yoga helps us shed what we no longer need, so we may see our most purest selves! Connect to divinity! 🙏🏻To slow down means to heal! That is why savasana is the peak pose, the most important pose, the goal. 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 Manipura playlist! Listen here!!
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7smndlhPS9WqESQBfbwCW5?si=QsEMjyqeTdmI6uvmkodG4g&pi=u-VwnUy9vGRqKB
🍃Come practice with me Mondays at 8:15am!🫶🏻 ✨🌿
