by Amber
Sanctuary - Creating Healing and Harmony
When you walk through the doors at Good Life Yoga you know immediately that this is a place of peace, healing and harmony. Your spirit senses the kindred energy and you feel rejuvenated. Imagine if the walls here could talk. They would share stories of healing energy uplifting the many hearts that practice here. They would describe a sanctuary; a sacred place of peace and harmony for all who enter.
Our practice is a sacred experience. When we choose to bring our entire self into the practice and to dedicate each moment, literally every breath as something sacred, we enhance the space around us. It becomes luminous, cleansed, and dedicated to harmony and healing. Our mats define the immediate space where we work the practice. Around its edges and within its borders we find ourselves. We meet the courageous heart of a backbend. We meet the strength and determination of a long held pose. We acknowledge the whimsical and playful Midline while standing on one leg. While we are absorbed in the full experience of the self we create vibrant, sacred energy.
Your practice is the product of what you put into it. This week we dedicate our practice to creating harmonious and healing energy for the good space in which we practice, for our own heart’s delight and for the support of all others in our lives.
At the sanctuary that is Good Life Yoga, expect a deep nourishing practice of strong standing poses, backbends and quiet contemplation.
by Amber
Midline Redoux…
The midline theme from last week hit a chord with many, many students – a chord of recognition, power and freedom. This is the glory of the Midline: your direct access, or axis to your connection with yourself, earth and sky. There is a sense of wonder, excitement and joy when you trust in your power to hug in and assume the greatest energy you are capable of in that moment. Because of your joy and wonder we are ‘redoing’ the Midline theme…
You can’t get too far down line with the Midline theme before you begin to hear other familiar terms like, ‘focal point’, muscle and organic energies. The juice of the Midline is a balance of muscle and organic energies. The focal points are central power centers where you ‘plug’ in and out from to encourage the greatest flow of energy.
There is so much to play with here. Last week we concentrated on arm balances and for good reason. Accessing the midline is absolutely fundamental to practicing effective and fun arm balances. This week we offer the Midline Redoux with a few arm balances and then move our understanding of the midline into other familiar standing balances poses before cooling down with forward folds and hip openers. A Midline Fest so to speak at Good Life Yoga this week. And if you’ve been really digging this theme you should strongly consider coming to the, “There’s no Place like OM” workshop on May 22…for what is the vibration of that magical Midline? That’s right…”Om is where the heart is…” see details on my website www.goodlifeyoga.com
by Amber
Hug to the Midline
If you’ve taken an Anusara yoga class there’s an excellent chance that you’ve heard, “hug to the midline!” more than once. I know for a fact that some students hear this phrase in their heads while navigating difficult landscapes. We hug to the midline while walking up or down the stairs with heavy objects, stepping onto a slippery surface or even navigating the space near the rim of a volcano. Okay, if you didn’t read a recent newsletter then you might not understand the volcano reference – just use your imagination.
Point is, when we actively bring muscle energy directly to the center line of ourselves, stability ensues. Picture a line from the top of your head down your spine and running between your legs. This is the magical midline of Anusara lore. Our midline is like a super highway that connects us to earth and sky. Along that highway are three focal points that help us refine the actions of muscle and organic energies. When we work from the center of ourselves, no matter which focal point we implore, we move from a position of our greatest strength and our greatest freedom. Think of Triangle pose and remember how good it feels to move that top arm up and out from the pelvic focal point and not just from the shoulder. We draw into the midline, plug into our core and from there expand back out again.
This week at Good Life Yoga expect to hear, “hug to the midline”, more than once as we explore its usefulness in a number of poses from hand balances to standing poses.
by Amber
Introspection
Studying yourself on the mat is a hallmark of the practice. You watch closely where you place your feet. You observe thoughts and register emotions. You make good choices based on what you are feeling, and how your body is at the moment. Stepping into the quiet of your mind and body is not an easy task for some and a welcome relief for others. This week at Good Life Yoga we will encourage a quiet, steady practice that allows you to step inside yourself.
The deeper you go into the quiet, the more you are able to observe. In a pose with silence all around, you can more easily hear your breath and sense the energy moving through you. There is nowhere else to be. You find the calm center of yourself and sit in a grand seat of observation. Expect steady holdings, hip openers and breath work this week. It’ll be good to be ‘home.’
by Amber
Tapas – Harness the Power of Transformation
Spring is a big season around here. Minnesotans smile for no reason at all while walking outside. As one of my students put it, “it doesn’t hurt to step outside.” Indeed, it doesn’t. We are met these days with sunshine and warming temperatures, and an ever changing kaleidoscope of ‘greenness.’ The world is transforming right before our eyes. There is a steady pulse; a deep vibration of Tapas burning through and creating tapestries of high energy and urgent greens. Snaps of color burst through transforming the grays and browns of our recent days. The landscape no longer resembles its old self. Behind all this transformation is the power of Tapas. The third Niyama, Tapas, is described as heat, fire and even discipline. As yogis we know that to harness this power is to invite transformation for ourselves.
Most of you equate Tapas with sweating on the mat. And you’d be right. Just as water has to heat up to become steam; so too, do you need to ‘heat up’ to transform. This week we take the grays and brown of your ‘winter’ self, add a little Tapas and presto; lively colors burst through. It’s time to shake off your winter paradigm and surprise yourself with a kaleidoscope of fresh green Spring. Are you ready to step on the mat and step out of your old self?
by Amber
Beautiful Spring, Beautful You
Look around this fine spring day and you’ll see nature in the throes of a creative superstorm. Right before your eyes buds burst free and new leaves emerge. Life is being created and celebrated all around you.
In this remarkably changing landscape you are being challenged to see your own ability to grow and create beauty in the world. You too are capable of offering bright green ideas, and new expressions of delight. Unfurl yourself!
Create beauty on the mat this week at Good Life Yoga. Make every pose an artistic expression from your heart. What’ll it be? Big, glorious and showy like the lovely daffodils? Or perhaps small and sweet like a simple lilac leaf?
Show up and burst free. It’s all good.
by Amber
Present Moment
At any given moment you are invited to step into your center, be aware of your body, and feel with all your senses. You are offered bright blue skies, bright green buds and the day brand new. Each breath is an opportunity to stop and truly smell the air as it rides over the newly warmed soil and icy cold waters. At any given moment your life awaits your presence. Touch the trees, pick up rocks and savor the daffodil blooms. Delight yourself in the now. Present yourself to life. Your next amazing moment is now.
Plan to step on the mat this week with lightness and a desire to enjoy each moment. Our poses will be full, every breath accounted for; steeped in gratefulness. We are alive. Together we practice yoga and together we are present to life all around and within.
by Amber
Sauca in Spring
This time of year invites the urge to clear out, declutter, remove the old and let in the new. It’s early spring and our hearts are beginning to see the clutch of cold weather fading into warmer, brighter days. A gladness for fresh days of blue skies, bits of green poking up and a general sense of relief and hope replacing the heavy coats of colder days.
We move into a powerful time of alignment with Sauca, the first Niyama. Clean, clear, organized energy to focus on removing the old is strong. Mother Nature herself is busy warming the soil, digesting the leaves and debris; clearing the way for lovely shoots of renewed, clean material to grace the earth.
As humans, we have the opportunity like nature, to digest and remove old patterns, emotions, attachments and anything else that is covering our potential for new ‘shoots.’ We don’t even have to know anything about the new shoots coming through, we just know the energy to clean out and make room for them is strong.
Let’s align with this energy of Sauca. Our deep breaths on the mat this week will concentrate on clearing out and making room for the newness of the season. It is time for Sauca. It is time to clean, purge and remove debris that covers the light of your heart. Our work will be to remember the deep order of our lives. Mother Nature herself leads the way. She is gently, yet thoroughly preparing the soil for new growth. All her instincts tell her to remove that which does not serve. All her energy is in nurturing the fresh new patterns of beauty and growth. She is cleaning out. She is letting go. There is no remorse. There is only joy in the process.
by Amber
Inner Body Bright
In Anusara yoga, our inner body bright refers to the soft radiant, open-hearted energy that gives the outer form of our poses a sense of fullness and buoyancy. It is an expansive energy that rides with us into poses, breath, thoughts and experiences. It is in our intention to connect with it that it appears. Like a lovely body double made up of pure beautiful energy, this inner body brightness illuminates our awareness of our deep connection to everything in the world. She is the heart of our natural spirit, free, spacious and joyous.
When we set our intention to Open to Grace, Anusara’s first Universal Principle of Alignment, we choose to align with this deeper energy within us. Imagine simply choosing to see and feel this energy as an expression of our deepest desire to reunite with something bigger than ourselves. This energy illuminates our world from inside. It puffs up, expands out and rides into being with our very intention for it to be with us, as us. It swells in sweetness; an inner smile of adoration for us.
This week we will invite into our awareness the energy of inner body bright. She is a lovely addition to your practice. She lifts you up from inside and fills you out to your skin in every pose. She is the heart of your energetic form; shining brightly, expanding widely to embrace the glorious physical form of yourself.
Step onto the mat at Good Life Yoga and meet your inner body bright.
by Amber
March Toward the Vernal Equinox
This is it. The dark has had its day, so to speak and we make the push toward an equality; a balance of day and night on March 20th.
This week we celebrate the equality of light and dark with balance poses and ideas on how to establish balance in your life. The Universal Principles of Alignment offer us the opportunity to create balance in our poses. But can they help us off the mat? If you’ve been a student of Good Life Yoga and Anusara yoga for awhile you already know the answer to that. YES.
This week we explore the qualities of the two pulsations that have the most bearing on creating balance in our worlds: Muscle Energy and Organic Energy. When these two are in balance we feel powerful, connected and joyous. We step into the middle of a grand river of energy that delights in uplifting us. Finding balance with these two energies requires not only understanding your own tendencies but understanding deeply the qualities of these two energies.
As always, the UPA’s offer us tools for better living. And as always, you are perfectly supported in this endeavor. The earth is aligning in a perfect balance of light and dark just for you. Take advantage of this offering and join me on the mat. You’ve got a shot at your best Tree Pose ever!