Innovative Yoga Sequences

After I teach and when I am practicing alone at home I like to just let go, be present, release any expectations or plans, and allow my body and subconscious to dictate what poses I do, how I move in and out of them, where I wiggle and shift engergy to, and what shapes I can create to open spaces that have not felt that open before.



Sometimes during these personal yoga practices I come up with fun and often challenging sequences. I try to use exciting transitions between postures, link a number of balancing poses together, move from standing to a seated twist and back to standing in one flowing sequence. I even make up new poses...except maybe they are not new poses, but just poses that I have never seen or been taught before.

I can hold the left and right sides for as long as I wish, do a bunch of hip openers, choose the arm balances I feel like working on, rest in supta badha konasana for ten minutes, start with 20 sun salutations or 2 (I don't think I have ever started with just 2), and allow myself to go on for 20 minutes or 2 entire hours.

To be completely honest, I am my own favorite teacher right now. If you have not spent some time doing your own yoga practice lately, I hope you will do so soon. I am sure you will realize that you are your favorite teacher as well.

Full Moon Yoga

Tonight was a full moon and I had an 8:15 pm class to teach so I decided to focus on the moon as a theme and do a practice centered on the full moon. As I have mentioned before, my style has a heavy ashtanga influence and therefore I do pay attention to the philosophy of full and new moon yoga practice. But, since I do not teach ashtanga at the Tuesday night class I did not feel blasphemous leading a yoga class. I even made a music playlist with the moon as the theme to the songs (well except for the one called "Ocean," but since the ocean tides are a major part of moon cycles I thought it fit well). Most everyone in class was at a beginning or early intermediate level so a full moon practice was very skill level appropriate.

I opened with an explanation that tonight was a full moon and gave a quick talk about our bodies being 70% water and the belief that our bodies are affected by moon cycles just as ocean tides also are affected by full moons. The full moon corresponds to the end of the inhalation, the aspect of the breath cycle with the most prana. As a result, full moons leave us with energy and lots of emotion. Although we are often energetic at this time, we are also likely to be headstrong and lack grounding. The focus of the class, therefore, would be strength and grounding.

The style of the class was more along the Kripalu branch, but of course there were flavors of Jivamukti, ashtanga and yin yoga woven throughout. I guess that makes it a class of my eclectic and non-dogmatic yoga style.

The integration/warm-up sequence began in sukasana/easy seated pose. First we did side stretches. Next, easy twists. Coming to all fours we started cycles of cat/cow and eventually worked our way into downdog with deeply bent knees. Everyone was invited to slowly walk their dogs and ease into lengthening the spine, hamstrings, and achilles tendons. After rising up to tip toes and sinking the heels back toward the floor we slowly stepped the feet up to meet the hands for rag doll. In rag doll everyone was invited to sway their torso, bend the knees, allow the head to hang heavy and perhaps wiggle from side-to-side and front-to-back. Finally, we rolled slowly to tadasana.



Moon Salutation A:
1/4 moon side bend Right (R) and Left (L)
Open left leg to side for goddess pose
Take star
Side bend R/L
twisting forward bend R/L
Goddess
1/4 moon R/L

Repeat once more.

Chandra Namaskar:

Urdvha Hastasana
Uttanasana
Lift
Step back L leg to low R lunge with L knee on mat
Low crescent moon pose/anjeleyasana (spelling...?)
Down Dog/Adho Muka (DD)
Plank
Knees, chest, chin
cobra
DD
Lift left leg high
Low L lunge
low crescent on L
step to uttanasana
lift
uttanasana
Urdvha hastasana

(repeat 4 more times quickening pace)

Standing Sequence 1:
Vinyasa
Virabhadrasana/Warrior 2
Utthita Parsvokonasana
Bind
Extend to bound trikonasana
Return to Utthita Parvokonasana
Cycle through Vinyasa
Repeat on Left

Repeat entire sequence with 1 breath to 1 movement.

Sequence 2:

Ukatasana/chairpose
hands heart center and step back to a high R lunge/Crescent moon
Lower back knee and take intense quad stretch by pulling back heel toward same thigh while in low lunge.
Hamstring stretch/ Hanumanasana prep
low crescent
DD
Uttasana with lift, etc.
Ukatasana

Repeat L side.

Balancing:
Vrksasana/tree with optional arm variations
Moon rise from Jivamukti sequence (variation of utthita hasta padangustasana and parivrtta utthita hasta padangustasana
Seat of Isis with variation with feet hip with and then staggered {tip toes on inhale and lower to squat while remaining on tip toes}
Malasana and variations there

Seated Poses:
Dandasana
tolosana/lolasana
paschimottanasana
Swamp monster paschimo variation
to & lo pick ups between all
purvottanasana or table pose 3 times with Navasana between
Vinyasa to belly
Sphinx
locust/salabasana
swimming locust
balasana
roll down to back for supine twists

Suggested relaxation into savasana.

Hopefully everyone left feeling grounded, strong, and harnessed their energies enough to fall into a blissful sleep.

Fabulous Friday Home Practice

I just spent over an hour writing about my night and the gooey, delicious, and absolutely yummy home practice and went through the entire practice pose for pose in very explicit detail...only for it to result in an error when I tried to publish it. I don't have the patience or energy to rewrite it all right now. Perhaps tomorrow I will after I do it again in the morning or after I teach it in my class tomorrow.

But it was a wonderful night at home with the dog watching me practice and sleeping while I practiced with a wonderful playlist and had candles lit in the room.
Mmmmmmmmmm. Much better than drinking cocktails with the new roommate or drinking cheap beer with that person I was on the fast track with a couple weeks ago or even better than a night just sleeping.

Free Yoga Spoof

Yoga Dawg had this image posted on his site and I thought it ties nicely with my post & spreadsheet of donation based/free or nearly free yoga classes in San Diego.

Donation Based Yoga Classes

When I started practicing yoga I was in college in Los Angeles. For the better part of my years practicing I was a student and did everything possible to scrape together enough money to pay for memberships at the student rate at my favorite studios. I was lucky to have Yogaworks in the area and with the student discount I could attend unlimited classes at any time of day with amazingly gifted and inspiring teachers. In San Diego, however, I have found it difficult to commit to a membership relationship with just one studio. I am still searching and/or hoping for a studio to come along that has more than one location where my membership is valid, has a variety of class times, offers a variety of styles, a variety of teachers, and really just makes me feel at home like I have felt at certain studios at different points during my yoga journey. Yoga Fusion in Bird Rock was that studio for me for a couple of years. Unfortunately, I came back to San Diego after three months spent traveling around the world with a few months left on my unlimited yoga membership, only to find that my yoga home was gone. Ever since I have become somewhat of a yoga nomad. But good things often come from situations we initially find disappointing, and one good thing I have found is a fabulous movement toward donation based yoga classes. I know how much yoga has helped me in every aspect of my life and ultimately I hope that everyone with an interest in experiencing yoga has the opportunity to do so even if they cannot afford the premium price tag classes often come with. Although having a self/home practice is central to a yoga journey, maintaining a community practice with guidance and adjustments from passionate teachers is similarly integral. In order to provide you with the incentive to try some new teachers, or styles, or perhaps to just try yoga for the first time, I compiled a chart of donation based yoga classes in the San Diego area. Enjoy! Akasha also offers a free class Intro to Yoga class on the 1st Friday of every month.