March 7, 2010: On the Board at Good Life Yoga
Serve and Support Your Strength
When you feel fatigue setting in while holding a pose instead of giving up, look for ways to capitalize on your fading strength. When you find a way to enhance the pose through proper alignment, you support and serve your strength. In a standing pose, for instance with your arms out to the side parallel to the ground, remembering your ‘shoulder loop’ will reconnect your physical scapula to your upper back. Now suddenly your arms are more supported and you’ve found a new capacity to stay in the pose longer and with more ease. Or you scooped your tailbone and suddenly your back waistline and the large muscles of the buttocks kicked in with a bit more help. Or you checked in with that area and realized that you had too much ‘clenching’ going on. By softening in this area, you reestablish a good connective flow of energy back into the whole of the pose.
The point is, you ‘look’ around inside and sees what would serve the whole; what would strengthen the whole. The strength is there, we just have to look for ways to reconnect with it. Sometimes that means bringing in more muscle energy and sometimes that means allowing for more organic.
As a teacher, I look for ways for you to find additional strength by cueing alignment principles that serve the flow of big energy. Many times, I layer on instruction starting with the largest most dynamic pulsation of muscle and organic energies. Then I move on to the expanding or inner spirals and outer or contracting spirals. And then from there, I cue the loops. Depending on the journey planned for the day, I cue on certain alignment principles more than others. Every time, the end result is a fuller experience of the pose for you. There is more of you to enjoy, move with, breath with and adore.
Off the mat when we look for ways to reestablish connection to the big energy through better alignment our lives become less stressful. We accomplish more and with less effort.
We are powerful amazing beings and even more so when we use everything to our advantage. Take advantage of all your strength this week at Good Life Yoga. Look for longer held poses and an opportunity to find a stronger you.