Bow Pose

(dhanurasana)

Bow Pose is an advanced back bend that increases the strength and flexibility of your back and spine. In addition, Bow Pose stretches your abdominals, hips and the front of your shoulders and thighs. This invigorating pose also opens your chest, which can help improve your breathing.

Since this pose is an advanced back bend, you should gain experience with easier back bends, such as Bridge Pose, before you attempt Bow Pose.

In Bow Pose, stretching your legs away from your body helps to lift your head, chest and thighs off the floor. As your upper body lifts off the floor, keep your shoulders broad as you concentrate on lengthening your spine and using your entire spine to bend backward. If your lower back feels compressed, release your body down a bit or come out of the pose.

Always take caution when performing Bow Pose. You should avoid Bow Pose if you have back problems or high blood pressure.


-- Namaste Alyssa
Twitter.com/sunkissedyoga

Extended Side Angle

(parsvakonasana)

Side Angle Pose provides an intense stretch along the sides of your body, with an emphasis on stretching the sides of your waist and rib cage. You can practice this pose to strengthen and increase the flexibility of your hips, legs and ankles. This pose also opens your chest, which can help increase your lung capacity.

As you perform Side Angle Pose, keep your front knee over your ankle and the outer edge of your back foot in contact with the floor. Even though your weight will fall mostly on your front foot in this pose, try to center your weight as much as possible.

Proper body alignment is important in this pose. Keep your spine straight and your head, shoulders and hips on the same plane. To help align your body correctly, you can perform the pose with your back against a wall.

You should be very careful performing Side Angle Pose if you have lower back problems. If you have a stiff neck, do not look up at the ceiling in the pose.


-- Namaste Alyssa
Twitter.com/sunkissedyoga

Strong as a Warrior

Whenever you hear a yoga teacher say, "As you bend your knee, point your kneecap directly toward your middle toe," she's reminding you to stabilize your thighbone and knee in healthy alignment. But that's often easier said than done. Even if your alignment is fine when you're standing with straight legs, you may collapse your front knee inward when you come into Virabhadrasana II, or Warrior II.

To correct this misalignment, you need to focus on two actions in Warrior II. The first is stretching your hip adductors. This large muscle group, which fills your inner thighs and pulls your knees toward each other, includes the pectineus, adductor brevis, adductor longus, adductor magnus, and gracilis.

To get a good, long, passive stretch for these muscles, practice this pose lying on your back: Lie perpendicular to a wall, with your feet on the wall and your knees and hips each bent to 90 degrees, as though you were sitting on a chair that had tipped over backward. Then open your knees to the sides and move your feet farther apart, so your shins remain perpendicular to the wall and parallel to the floor. Stay in this position for four or five breaths and allow your inner thighs to relax and stretch. -YJ



-- Namaste Alyssa
Twitter.com/sunkissedyoga

Find contentment

Yoga is much more than a physical practice. It is also a philosophy about the way we should live. According to yogic philosophy, we cause ourselves pain by desiring things we don't have, but think that we need. In other words, we hurt ourselves by yearning after what's out of reach.

Santosa is a niyama, or guiding principle of yoga. This principle encourages us to develop contentment. It prescribes the merit of striving to be grateful for what we have rather than yearning for new and different things. The word "santosa" is also sometimes translated as happiness, because, by finding contentment with what we have, we also find joy, relaxation, and peace. -YJ

-- Namaste Alyssa
Twitter.com/sunkissedyoga

Allergy Season Advice

Allergies aren't merely annoying; they can affect sleep, concentration, and productivity—and put you in a bad mood. Moreover, growing evidence shows that allergies and asthma may be two sides of the same coin: Asthmatics are more likely to be allergy sufferers, and those with allergies have a greater chance of developing asthma.

Modifying your yoga practice with calming poses can help you breathe more easily. And a regular yoga practice can help reduce allergy symptoms by tempering your immune system's response to the perceived offender—pollen.

Inversions can help clear the upper respiratory tract and drain secretions from the nose, allowing freshly oxygenated blood to flow into the oral cavity. Doing Sarvangasana (Shoulderstand) and Halasana (Plow Pose) can open nasal passages, ensuring proper drainage of sinuses.

Quivering muscles

Beginning yogis often shake a lot. As muscles become stronger from regular practice, the fibers learn to trade off between firing and resting with smoother coordination. Eventually, quivering subsides (though there will always be teachers who turn even the strongest students into yoga jelly). To calm the body, try to hug the quivering (contracting) muscle against its underlying bone and press the bone into the muscle being stretched.

Quivering is not necessarily bad, but it may be a sign that the body is overworked. So tune into the brain, the eyes, the root of the tongue, and, most of all, the breath. If any of these areas feel hard or constricted, take it a little easier. - YJ

Indian Vs Mexican Yoga

When you're stressed and need to relax your muscles try this.

Indian Yoga
(Requires years of practice to achieve)


VS

Mexican Yoga
(Requires about 3-4 hours to achieve)



HAHA My mom sent me that, It's the funniest thing I've seen in a while!

Looking Within

Many of us come to yoga to build strength. There's no question that when you're physically strong, you're better able to handle the demands of your day with grace and ease. But you can build endurance and power through almost any athletic pursuit. The beauty of practicing yoga is that it builds inner strength—which you need to ride life's emotional currents with faith and equanimity—even as it tones your body.

One way to build inner strength is by practicing regularly, whether you're feeling inspired or not. That simple act develops your capacity for commitment and for not letting the rest of life get between you and what you know to be essential to your well-being. By being true to yourself in your yoga practice, you enhance your ability to be true to yourself in other situations.

Of course, maintaining a consistent home practice is, in itself, an exercise in strength. At home, the notorious obstacles of procrastination, distraction, and skepticism come up all the time. To help dispel these stumbling blocks, choose a regular time and create a sacred space for your practice. It also helps to have several sequences on hand for those days when you're unsure of what to do next. -YJ

Back in Alignment!

Yoga can be a wonderful healing practice for a variety of back ailments, including scoliosis. Not only will it eliminate some of the pain, over time it can start to gently reverse some of the misalignment associated with the condition.

Often with scoliosis, the spine is not only misaligned from side to side, but also the head can sit forward, one shoulder can be higher, and a hip can be more forward and raised. All these symptoms can be improved by doing poses that lengthen the spine, such as Standing Forward Fold. Try this simple variation on the classic forward bend:

Stand with your feet at hip distance with the outside edges of your feet (the pinky-toe sides) parallel to each other. Place your hands on your hips and bend your knees. Fold forward slowly until your head points toward the floor. Keep the knees soft enough that your stomach rests on your thighs (even if your hamstrings are very loose). Now release your arms over your head. Bend your elbows and hold on to your opposite elbow, letting the weight of your arms deepen the release on your spine. Stay for at least five to ten breaths, then release your elbows and roll up slowly, stacking your joints. -YJ

One of these Days I'm going to Love me

Millions of Americans—most of them women—struggle each day with feelings of shame and inadequacy about their physical selves. In fact, studies have shown that the majority of American women don't like what they see in the mirror. Yogis certainly aren't immune to the complex web of cultural forces that contribute to the epidemic of self-loathing. After all, it's not easy to reconcile life in an image-conscious world with the yogic notion that the body is simply the vessel through which we navigate a spiritual path.

But yoga practice creates an opportunity for us to re-create our relationship with our body. While we may have come to the mat looking for a "yoga butt," when we get there, we're usually so focused on directing breath into our tight quads or feeling the alignment in our hips that we forget about our appearance. By enabling us to go inward—to focus on how we feel in a pose rather than how we look—yoga encourages us to let go of our desires for our body and criticisms of it, to enjoy its movements. Over time, this experiential relationship with our body may even enable us to forsake the mirror for our internal seer, to filter out social pressures and unrealistic expectations, and to accept ourselves as we are. -YJ

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Follow me on Twitter! My new found addiction. Twitter.com/sunkissedyoga I love the tweets and I'm a tweeter myself! Tweet tweet!


-- Namaste

Favorite Yoga Quotes

Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured. ~B.K.S. Iyengar


The yoga mat is a good place to turn when talk therapy and antidepressants aren't enough. ~Amy Weintraub


Yoga is the fountain of youth. You're only as young as your spine is flexible. ~Bob Harper


You cannot do yoga. Yoga is your natural state. What you can do are yoga exercises, which may reveal to you where you are resisting your natural state. ~Sharon Gannon


Yoga is possible for anybody who really wants it. Yoga is universal.... But don't approach yoga with a business mind looking for worldly gain. ~Sri Krishna Pattabhi Jois


By embracing your mother wound as your yoga, you transform what has been a hindrance in your life into a teacher of the heart. ~Phillip Moffitt


Yoga is 99% practice and 1% knowledge. ~Sri Krishna Pattabhi Jois


Sun salutations can energize and warm you, even on the darkest, coldest winter day. ~Carol Krucoff


For me, yoga is not just a workout - it's about working on yourself. ~Mary Glover, "Health Profile: Yoga leaves aches and pains behind," Arizona Republic, 6 April 2004 (page E3, article by Connie Midey)


A photographer gets people to pose for him. A yoga instructor gets people to pose for themselves. ~T. Guillemets


The beauty is that people often come here for the stretch, and leave with a lot more. ~Liza Ciano, co-owner and co-director of Yoga Vermont, yogavermont.com


The last time I opened my chakra so I could feel my peace, I got thrown right out of the pub. ~The Quote Garden


Yoga in Mayfair or Fifth Avenue, or in any other place which is on the telephone, is a spiritual fake. ~Carl Jung


Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape. ~Author Unknown


Vogue and Self are putting out the message of yoginis as buff and perfect. If you start doing yoga for those reasons, fine. Most people get beyond that and see that it's much, much more. ~Patricia Walden


When asked what gift he wanted for his birthday, the yogi replied: "I wish no gifts, only presence." ~Author Unknown


Yoga is bodily gospel. ~Reaven Fields


If I'm losing balance in a pose, I stretch higher and God reaches down to steady me. It works every time, and not just in yoga. ~T. Guillemets


Yoga, an ancient but perfect science, deals with the evolution of humanity. This evolution includes all aspects of one's being, from bodily health to self-realization. Yoga means union - the union of body with consciousness and consciousness with the soul. Yoga cultivates the ways of maintaining a balanced attitude in day-to-day life and endows skill in the performance of one's actions. ~B.K.S. Iyengar, Astadala Yogamala


Don't just do something - sit there! ~Author Unknown


I was in yoga the other day. I was in full lotus position. My chakras were all aligned. My mind is cleared of all clatter and I'm looking out of my third eye and everything that I'm supposed to be doing. It's amazing what comes up, when you sit in that silence. "Mama keeps whites bright like the sunlight, Mama's got the magic of Clorox 2." ~Ellen DeGeneres


Anyone who practices can obtain success in yoga but not one who is lazy. Constant practice alone is the secret of success. ~Svatmarama, Hatha Yoga Pradipika


Yoga is the practice of quieting the mind. ~Patanjali, translated from Sanskrit


Yoga is the perfect opportunity to be curious about who you are. ~Jason Crandell, quoted in Yoga Journal, November 2005


Yoga is invigoration in relaxation. Freedom in routine. Confidence through self control. Energy within and energy without. ~Ymber Delecto


Corpse pose restores life. Dead parts of your being fall away, the ghosts are released. ~The Quote Garden


Yoga has a sly, clever way of short-circuiting the mental patterns that cause anxiety. ~Baxter Bell, quoted in "Worry Thwarts," Yoga Journal, March 2006


Concentrating on poses clears the mind, while focusing on the breath helps the body shift out of fight-or-flight mode. ~Melanie Haiken, about yoga and anxiety, "Worry Thwarts," Yoga Journal, March 2006


Yoga accepts. Yoga gives. ~April Vallei


Warrior pose battles inner weakness and wins focus. You see that there is no war within you. You're on your own side, and you are your own strength. ~The Quote Garden


Mountain pose teaches us, literally, how to stand on our own two feet.... teaching us to root ourselves into the earth.... Our bodies become a connection between heaven and earth. ~Carol Krucoff


I tried yoga once but took off for the mall halfway through class, as I had a sudden craving for a soft pretzel and world peace. ~The Quote Garden


All unimportant matters drop off you in ragdoll pose. Very few things are genuinely important. The Truth sways before you. ~The Quote Garden


When you inhale, you are taking the strength from God. When you exhale, it represents the service you are giving to the world. ~B.K.S. Iyengar


The autonomic nervous system is divided into the sympathetic system, which is often identified with the fight-or-flight response, and the parasympathetic, which is identified with what's been called the relaxation response. When you do yoga - the deep breathing, the stretching, the movements that release muscle tension, the relaxed focus on being present in your body - you initiate a process that turns the fight-or-flight system off and the relaxation response on. That has a dramatic effect on the body. The heartbeat slows, respiration decreases, blood pressure decreases. The body seizes this chance to turn on the healing mechanisms. ~Richard Faulds


Tree pose grows confidence. ~The Quote Garden


Inhale, and God approaches you. Hold the inhalation, and God remains with you. Exhale, and you approach God. Hold the exhalation, and surrender to God. ~Krishnamacharya


For those wounded by civilization, yoga is the most healing salve. ~T. Guillemets


Chair pose is a defiance of spirit, showing how high you can reach even when you're forced down. ~The Quote Garden


Basketball is an endurance sport, and you have to learn to control your breath; that's the essence of yoga, too. So, I consciously began using yoga techniques in my practice and playing. I think yoga helped reduce the number and severity of injuries I suffered. As preventative medicine, it's unequaled. ~Kareem Abdul-Jabbar


Before you've practiced, the theory is useless. After you've practiced, the theory is obvious. ~David Williams, an Ashtanga yoga teacher in Maui, Hawaii, quoted from yoga.com

Stop Stressing

The key to transforming your relationship to stress is to stop letting it overwhelm you. More and more people are discovering that mind-body practices such as yoga, qi gong, and meditation can be hugely helpful in shifting the way they react to stress.

So how do you shift your perceptions so you no longer feel like one big rubber band about to snap? That's where yoga and other mind-body approaches come in. Yoga teaches you to tune in to what your body is telling you and to act accordingly.

With practice, this awareness will spread into other areas of your life, including your work. As you learn to separate the urge to act from the reaction, you begin to find that something like a canceled meeting or having a last-minute project handed to you may not rattle you as much as it once did. You can detect stressors—what Buddhists call the spark before the flame—earlier, then pause long enough to think, "Well, maybe I don't need to respond." -YJ

I know that I will get strung out on my job and that stress will pour over into my personal life were my boyfriend will get my nasty attitude and things just get harder. I know in my yoga practice that I have become a different person I am slower to anger and much harder to annoy. I have seen a friend recently who I have not seen in months and she said that I seem different. I'm mellow compared to my old worried high strung self. I took this as a huge compliment because I feel like I am able to deal with stress and worry a lot differently that I used to and finally someone saw it in me. When someone notices a change in me without me saying anything is a big accomplishment. I am very please that someone has seen my patience and the light that is burning inside me. It was better than anything I could have asked for today.

Tree of Yoga

This is an amazing book for anyone studying to be a yoga teacher! I love the little chapters about how yoga relates to lifes certain aspects. How we can see things through a yogic eye. It's very insightful and will be useful to read excerpts from this book to tie together a themed class. BKS Iyengar is a foremost expert in yoga one of my role models and this is a book that every yogini should have!

Build Inner Strength

Want to develop inner strength? Try these techniques recommended by Fairfax, California, yoga teacher and author Nischala Joy Devi.

Breathe. Alternate-nostril breathing can help calm you down. Close your right nostril with your right thumb and inhale through your left nostril for four seconds. Immediately close the left nostril with your right ring finger. At the same time remove your thumb from the right nostril and exhale for eight seconds. Switch to the left nostril, and begin again. This, Devi says, cleanses and rejuvenates vital channels of energy.

Affirm. As you inhale, think: The strength I feel inside me is enough to sustain me during any experience I have today. As you exhale: The compassion from my heart will lead me to help anyone in need. With such thoughts, Devi says, what we're doing is strengthening and bringing prana into our system, which helps us become strong and compassionate toward others.

Relax. Lie down in Savasana (Corpse Pose) and mentally go over the parts of your body one by one for 15 to 20 minutes.
-YJ

This has helped so much especially after an invigorating class and you are sore from the previous day. Mentally thinking about and relaxing feels amazing.

Make your Own Yoga Wrap Pants!

These pants are the perfect solution for hot summer days. The slit sides allow for a cool breeze while still giving you plenty of coverage. Also for practicing yoga in a comfortable and fashionable way. For a long time I thought I couldn’t make myself a pair of pants. My friend from Israel had a pair back ini high school and I was never able to visually break them down and make them. Plus I have never sewed something I can actually wear out of the house. Now that I’ve worked out how to make these, I never want to take mine off! Here is what I worked out.

What you need:

Fabric: Since I'm a tall girl (5'10') I need to use 2 1/2 yards of fabric but 2 yards can work too. Excellent fabrics are Linen and cotton, also a 50% Rayon and 50% polyester blend will work but it is a little stretchy and the hemming can get away from you. Be sure to check to see if the fabric is see through... don't want to be giving everything away.

Sewing Supplies: I have an Eazy Stitcher from Michael's (39$) it's not very technical just simple sewing since I'm not a seamstress. If you have the time you can always hand sew but a cheep machine is worth the time. Sissors, Needle, Matching thread, iron.

Step 1
You’ll want two rectangles of fabric. I have found the look and hang I like by using the Length and width formulas in the photo below using my measurements as examples. I suggest going bigger than you think you’ll need the first time you try it. It’s really easy to make a larger hem or trim it down once it’s together if they’re too big.



Place outsides together and fold the rectangles length wise together so that the sides of the pants are all together and the top and bottom of the pants are at opposite ends.

Step 2
Cut out the crotch area. You’re going to cut a shape like a half of a U along the center fold. If you want an exact shape you can borrow a piece from a pants pattern and follow that line. Otherwise you should be able to wing it. Take a look at the curve on a regular pair of pants if you’re unsure. The deeper you cut from the top of the pants in this step, the higher you waistline will be. I like mine to sit at my hips as a low ride pant style so I made my cuts 2 inches (4 inches when the pants are unfolded) wide and about 12 inches from the top of the pant. This measurement doesn’t have to be precise, the design of the pant is very simple!

When you unfold the rectangles you’ll see your U, Make a curved seam along this U. This is the only curved seam you’ll have to worry about! Make sure it's a strong stitch. Since I have a little machine I just go over it twice, but since these are flowy loose pants there is not going to be to much stress on the seams.

Step 3
Now you’ve got a giant pair of pants! Open up both sides of the the U you just sewed and you will see the form of the pants.

It’s time to hem all the rough edges. Use your iron to press your hems well before you begin to sew! A good press will make it remarkably easier to get good straight lines for your hems. I usually do the sides first, then the bottom hem, hem all of the lengths of fabric that don’t have the crotch seam in them.

Step 4
Make your Ties. I just use the same fabric and if you check back with the photo above I explain how to do that. Be sure that all ties are the same length which ever length you want.

Step 5
Again since my machine is pitiful I can't fold to much fabric and sew, I found a way around it. I iron my 2 inch hem but I don't sew it yet. At the fold I pin the strap in place and sew along the same line as the side hem so the stitching blends. Then I finish my top hems letting the fold go slightly over the strap so there is not a thick bunch of fabric I have to sew through (thick bunch meaning the side hem, strap, and top hem that is to many layers of fabric, I have cut out the middle layer this way) Do this for all 4 straps and you are done!



Your Pants are now finished! To put them on grab two connected ties and pull one side of the waist band across your back, tie a knot to securely in front keep them at your waist; pull the other two ties between your legs and wrap the ties around your back and tie the knot and you're stylin.

I love these for yoga class because I'm able to sit and study and move straight into an asana practice. I just take the bottom of the legs and circle them around and tie a little knot. they look like genie pants that way and not very cool but they get the job done. once I'm finished practicing just untie and I'm ready to run errands or what have you. I never want to take them off. tho going to the bathroom is a challenge after a while you master the technique.

As soon as I get a good picture of me in them I will post it up to see my style if these wrap pants.


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Old Wisdom Forgotten

The Yoga Sutra, a guidebook of classical (or raja) yoga, was written by an Indian sage known as Patanjali. Although the fruits of his efforts are widely quoted in yoga classes today, few know much about Patanjali.

Like many tales about the world's spiritual heroes, the story of Patanjali's birth has assumed mythic dimensions. One version relates that in order to teach yoga on earth, he fell from heaven in the form of a little snake, into the upturned palms (a gesture known as anjali) of his virgin mother, Gonika, herself a powerful yogini. Here he's regarded as an incarnation of the thousand-headed serpent-king named Remainder (Shesha) or Endless (Ananta), whose coils are said to support the god Vishnu.

It seems odd to us, in this time of superstar teachers with their eponymous schools of So-and-So Yoga, that so little is known about Patanjali. But anonymity is typical of the great sages of ancient India. They recognized that their teaching was the outcome of a cooperative group effort that spanned several generations, and they refused to take credit for themselves, often attributing their work to some other, older teacher.

Relationship Rescue

Are you in a relationship rut, having the same fight with your partner over and over again? Or playing the same role—nag, enabler—day in and day out? By contemplating the yamas and niyamas, guidelines for living consciously, you can break free from unhealthy patterns and move toward a more joyful future.

The problems may seem to be all about your partner, but if you practice svadhyaya (self-study), you may learn something valuable that can shift the dynamic. For example, do you set your partner up for failure by asking him to do things you know he won't do—and then play the martyr? If you observe your thoughts and motives, you can make your contribution toward healthy change.
-YJ

That is a great questions to ask yourself in general. Do I set other people up for success? In this world we have learned a selfish habit of looking out for only ourselves. If you look at the questions in reverse, do others set me up for success? I bet more often than not the answer is no. So I know next time a quarrel arises I will be looking into myself first to find if I was a hindrance to success.

Light On Posture

To avoid slouching, imagine that you have a headlight—or "heart light"—shining there at the center of your heart. Make sure the beam shines forward, not down in your lap when you're sitting or toward the floor when you're standing. To find what's known as the "center of the heart," gently tap yourself on your sternum with the fingers of one hand. You can find the sternum toward the top of your torso between your nipples. This is where the heart chakra, or heart center, is. This area should be open (and shining) in most yoga poses, and when you are sitting or standing in regular life.

Light visualization can also be used as a tool in meditation. Bring your awareness to individual parts of the body and imagine it illuminated. The purpose is to make you aware of the essentially spiritual, or subtle, nature of the physical body, which Tantrikas regard as a condensed form of divine light, or divine sound vibration.
-YJ

Posture is something I have been working on for a very long time. Having a job behind the computer makes me put a lot of effort into sitting up straight for 8 hours. I use this visualization as often as I can and it tends to bring more confidence and awareness during the work day.

Staying Grounded

Life's obstacles cause even the most accomplished yogis to wobble. Thankfully, yoga has a proven track record of helping practitioners get through the worst situations. The next time you're facing a difficult life challenge, keep in mind the following coping techniques inspired by yoga.

Dedicate space for reflection. It helps to have a corner of your home that feels sacred—somewhere you can retreat when you feel overwhelmed. It can be something as simple as a candle on your night stand or as elaborate as an alter.

Find a personal refuge. Choose a location with meaning for you—a beach, a park, a special place from childhood—and go there. "Even if it's just for a few hours, find a way to take a mental hiatus...."

Calm your breath. Notice when you're holding your breath or taking rapid, shallow breaths, and make an effort to focus on your inhalation and exhalation. A few breaths with a present can change not only your day, but your entire outlook on life.
-YJ

In the new year reflect on the old and look for the opportunities to change.