THIS YEAR, LIVE A MORE centered, energetic and abundant life by integrating yoga into your day! Yoga’s physical practice is an opportunity to explore your inner self through the challenges and breakthroughs experienced on your mat. Staying in a posture while focused on the breath will shed light on the many facets of your being. Your yoga mat serves as a tool to transform, heal and grow. Whether you have thirty seconds or thirty minutes, a mat or concrete floor, yoga is the possibility for you to reclaim your life’s greatest potential!
I am very grateful to be able to share the gift of yoga with you throughout this calendar year. Each month I will share the alignment for one posture, or asana, that you can do almost anywhere. Along with the alignment cues will be a few tips to deepen your experience of the pose. Each posture holds potential for self-discovery and spiritual connection.
Yoga has been the most integral tool for happiness in my life. With your commitment and practice, yoga can be the catalyst for optimal health, inspiration and a life of greatness for you, too!
This month’s pose: Tadasana or Mountain Pose — “I stand for my highest purpose”
Tadasana, or Mountain Pose, is an opportunity to align with your greatest self, choose to be at your best, and take a stand for goodness. It is in the present moment that we have the opportunity for greatness and to make the choices that serve our highest self and highest purpose for the world. Compassion, peace and gratitude are felt and expressed in the present moment or they don’t exist. In all moments, we can come from our highest purpose for each and every situation we are in. Mountain pose connects us to the inner power of greatness and can be practiced daily to empower your highest intentions.
Stand with your big toes anywhere from 3 inches apart to touching, depending on your body’s structure. Feel the four corners of your feet evenly pressing into the ground. Lift up slightly on your kneecaps to engage the quadriceps. Move your tailbone down towards the earth and raise your low belly up and inward to the spine. Take your ribcage in. Rest your shoulders down your back while flipping your palms to face forward. Lengthen the back of your neck as you reach up through the crown of your head.
Remain active while energies balance themselves throughout your body. In your mind’s eye see a small white light at the base of your spine. Inhale this white light up the front of your spine to the crown of your head. Illuminate your crown as you hold your breath in for a moment. Exhale the healing white light from the crown of your head down the backside of your body. Continue this cycle for ten breaths. Release the visualization.
Now, as you inhale, declare to yourself, “I am connected to my highest self.” As you exhale state, “I stand for my highest purpose.” Repeat for ten breaths. Bring your palms together over your heart. Namasté.
