This week the theme was “creative core”. A well known, well loved author and writing teacher named Natalie Goldberg said this quote: “All things that are born must die. In any case, continue with VIGOR!” So we did our practice with vigor :)
The focus of my sequence was to help us center within ourselves, so we can feel power within ourselves, so we can go forward and feel comfortable expressing ourselves with vigor!
After connecting with our breath, we moved into an outer hip stretch to start freeing areas of the hip and back that house the deeper core muscles. Opening sun salutations took us into balance, stretched our bellies, and woke up big muscles like the quads. The core was strengthened in a playful version of “messy dog”, then onward to partner dolphin pose to bring power & opening to the upper body.
We moved deeper into standing postures, some with dwi hasta (both arms) extended to challenge the core. We experimented with variations of plank pose, jump switch, and unique hopping in down dog. Lizard into an advanced arm balance brought us face to face with our flexibility and fearlessness. Two core sequences on the floor followed. Students placed themselves in upavista konasana, and then churned their arms in deep circles, leaning back to bring deep strength to the low back and abdominal muscles. Next from dandasana into paschimottanasana (straight legged seated forward bend) and we held an imaginary ore over our heads and rowed through rough water, creating deep circles and leaning back again to awaken strength in our low backs and deep belly muscles.
We closed with some subtle variations in pigeon to access different aspects of the hip as we coaxed it to relax with our breath and our alignment. Bridge followed, then a final pose of choice AND ….. sinking into savasana. Good work! Namaste, Lynn
