Integration Series.
Good morning 6 AM welcome to your practice. Let’s start with our best Easy Pose with hands to heart’s center or where ever you may feel most comfortable. Find and do what serves you best this morning.
We all have a role to play in this life and that role varies throughout the developmental stages of our life. It even varies from day-to-day and hour-to-hour. As such, my role at this hour is to walk you through a journey that encourages you to push yourself using the desire and passion that fuels you. I am only your guide. Listen to your body and do what serves you best over the next hour. Inhale.
Exhale on your way down to Child’s Pose and focus on the axial extension of your neck and spine. Breathe here. Open your knees wide and bring your big toes to touch. Sit your hips down between your heels and rest on your mat as best as you can. Reach your arms to the top of your mat. Practice your Ujjayi Breath if it serves you at this stage of your practice.
One of my favorite quotes comes to me this morning because of the truth and accuracy that fulfills the statement more so than the person who said it. Gandhi said, “our greatness as humans lies not so much in our ability to change the world as it does in our ability to change ourselves.”
Let us continue our metamorphosis this morning with a deep inhale as we move in to Table Top. Exhale.
Take a moment here to breathe. While gazing down focus on stacking your joints; shoulder over elbows, elbows over wrists. Your hips should be directly over your knees and your knees should be no more than two fists apart. Lengthen your spine and focus on a straight back. Imagine there is a glass of water between your shoulders and you are trying to balance the water equally around the rim of the glass. Exhale.
Inhale softly through your nose on your way to Cow Pose. Breathe here as you bring your gaze forward and up. Bring your chest between the arms and push forward. This pose will benefit the spine as it stretches your abdominal muscles and opens the chest. Exhale.
Slowly rounding up the spine transition from Cow to Cat Pose. Bring the naval tightly inwards to greet the spine. Breathe here. Tuck your chin into your chest while pressing down firmly on your mat with your palms and fingers. Take a few more Cat/Cow poses on your own focusing on your Ujjayi.
Inhale back to a neutral Table Top.
Exhale as you make your way to Downward Facing Dog. Tuck your toes and send the hips back and up creating a straight spine through the neck. Breathe here. Notice that our poses serve several purposes including the ones that we create to serve our needs during our practice. And just like the Downward Facing Dog we are reminded of the importance of truth and loyalty as we navigate our way through life. Inhale. Gaze to the top of your mat.
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