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OPEN MIND OPEN BODY Ideas for Your Yoga Practice |
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Kripalu
Empowered Breathing Asana Practice Reclining Breath Awareness, with a focus on sensation. Feel the belly rise, feel the heart beat. Practice theme: Find a connection between a strong center and an open heart.
Seated Opening Practices: Abdominal breathing Sounding (OM) with trust mudra (hands over heart, fingers interlaced) Mudra vinyasa: anjali/lotus vinyasa. Intention: an offering and an opening. Seated Stretches and Vinyasas: Hug breath, eagle arm vinyasa, chest stretch Forward fold with arm gesture variations: surrender, anjali mudra, open palm gesture Side
stretch with rotation vinyasa Malasana (squat) and variations Uttanasana (standing forward bend) and variations Simple
lunge salutations Tadasana (mountain pose) breath awareness Virabhadrasana A (warrior A) vinyasa - stretch the chest and sink into the lunge on the inhale, come out on the exhale
Move
from viradbhadrasana A to viradbhadrasana C (balancing warrior) with open
heart imagery: Lead from the strength of your center and an open heart. The
inner strength that comes from choosing peace in the present moment, gives
us the courage to be a tue warrior….. Read
quote from Fearless Simplicity, Living Freely in a Complex World: “As
confidence grows stronger, you find yourself turning into a real warrior
— a compassionate bodhisattva warrior. The true bodhisattva spirit grows
out of this personal sense of freedom. With this sense of security and
freedom, you begin to direct your attention to the needs of others. The
compassion expands. We are now open and spacious and from within that
sense of fearless simplicity, you can accommodate all phenomena. You can
naturally care for others unpretentiously; no one is a threat any
longer.” On second
side of warrior series, read quote from The
Heart of the Bodhisattva, a talk by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche: "
A bodhisattva could say, 'I wish to be a cool breeze that gives sentient
beings comfort from the heat of suffering,' and manifest as the
wind." Focus
on the out breath as a cool breeze that reduces suffering. Tadasana breath awareness. Transition to prone (lying on belly) breath awareness. Shalabhasana (locust) vinyasa. Move into pose on inhale, release on exhale. Setu bhandasana (bridge pose) vinyasa. Move into pose on exhale (1/2 way up) and inhale (full pose); move out of pose on exhale (1/2 way down) and inhale (full release). Urdhva dhanurasana, 3 times for 4-5 breaths each. Dedicate each time: Once for an obstacle, once for a person who is suffering, once for an ideal that you would like to express (courage, peace, joy…) Self-guided/self-selected counter pose or rest for 10 breaths. Janu
sirsasana (seated forward bend) and bharadvajasana
(seated twist) Savasana Guided
breath practice: The
Breath of Connection
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