Welcome to Yogi Sticks!

Do you know your Gomukasana from your Adho Mukha Svanasana? Is your Vrksasana all it can be? And how do you feel about Supta Baddha Konasana? Do you know what I'm even talking about?

Sometimes the Sanskrit - however beautiful it sounds - is not very helpful. So, to encourage my students to expand their yoga practice into their home, I sketch the poses we practice during class on a chart and add the Sanskrit and common name. Hopefully, this is a useful tool to help them along in their yogic journey. I also troll the internet, books, and journals to find interesting articles about yoga and the yogic lifestyle.

5-9 Wide Angles, 5-11 Twists, 5-16 Lotus

 Lots of internal rotation (Warrior 1, pyramid, Warrior 3, yoga splits, hero) and external rotation (tree, wide angle series, frog, janu sirsasana) of the hips in tonight's class.

Quote for class: "No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit." -Helen Keller
 Is there anyone who doesn't love a twist (whether in yoga or with Chubby Checker)? Wringing out your spine is such a treat, but finding ways to reach each part of our spine is sometimes a challenge. Hopefully the twist variations we did in Wednesday evening's class got to the good stuff for you!

Melody Beattie provided the quote for tonight: "Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, rings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."
Oh, lotus pose! The iconic stereotype of a yogi deep in meditation. If only getting into this pose was as peaceful as the image in our minds! Here's the thing: if your knees are aching in the pose (first, don't do it!), then it is probably your hips that are tight.  So tonight we worked through some poses aimed at stretching and stabilizing our "body's junk drawer".

Tonight's quote was from a French proverb: "Gratitude is the heart's memory"

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