by brightyoga -

French Fries Loving Yogi

Yoga is a practice that can help us to create more balance and harmony in our lives. For me, balance means living a life with awareness without overindulging in the senses but at the same time without neglecting our human conditions by trying to restrain ourselves too much. It is about finding the middle ground in whatever we do.

In this way, if a Yogi likes French fries, eat them with moderation and awareness. There is no point in forcing our body into a certain type of diet or pose if we are not ready to organically step in to it.

Our body has its wisdom, and it’s way to evolve. It is through awareness that we understand what we need and how to adjust ourselves in life and the practice.

The Practice of Yoga can help you to cultivate that awareness. It is such an amazing tool to train your consciousness as we most of the time remain in the asana for just five breaths. If we let our awareness run behind a thought or any other distraction, you will lose connection to your body and your practice.

It is only when you train your awareness in and out of the mat, that you will know when you need French Fries and how much you should eat. Obviously, French Fries is just a metaphor and can be applied to anything. In practice, for example, awareness will let you know when is the right time to step back in a particular pose and when is the right time to go deeper.

We can undoubtedly say that if you can be aware in and out of the mat, you will have a deep understanding about yourself and your practice then your inner wisdom will play an essential role in the way you lead your life

Let’s use our consciousness to learn how to understand the secret languages of your body and life.

by brightyoga -

Chaturanga The master Key For Arm Balance

Chaturanga. The Master Key for Arm Balance

Chaturanga is the first challenge that many students face when they enter Yoga.

Many students mention that it is impossible for them to hold their body weight in any horizontal position and didn’t see the point in why they have to do so many Chaturanga.

In systems like Ashtanga and Rocket, Chaturanga allows you to build the foundation for any arm balances and transitions that are waiting ahead in the practice.  Furthermore low push up, as some teacher calls it, builds a huge amount of tricep, shoulder, and core strength.

Strong abdominal muscles will not only support you for any arm balances, but it will also allow you to support your spine as you do flexion (fold forward), extension (backbend), side bends, and twist. More than from an asana perspective, having a stable core will provide stability for the back which is necessary to avoid any injuries like slip disc, lower back pain and so on.

As you approach this asana, remember that it is not the point to go in the full expression of the pose yet if you don’t have the necessary strength to come back up or if you are holding your breath. It will be more beneficial to drop the knees, bend the elbows just enough for you to hold the pose and be able to move into Urdhva Mukha Svanasana with smooth breathing.

Now we breakdown on how we can effectively modify to train the body and the breath in chaturanga.

First, before bending the elbows, it is important to move the bodyweight forward. By doing this, it will move your shoulders in front of the wrist that will force you to use rectus abdominal (front of the belly), external obliques (side of the belly), and triceps (back of the upper arm) more. This is going to happen in high plank before you even start to bend the elbows. This little adjustment in your practice will ensure that you prepare the foundation before getting into the full expression of the pose.

Second, we move to how we breathe. I will share with you a very important secret. The secret is to completely clear out the breathing. When you entirely empty out the breath, something fantastic happens. The diaphragm will move upward that will automatically engage the rectus abdominal and oblique muscles making the pose lighter and more accessible.

Use this tips and you will see a change in your practice immediately. Keep using it and you will awaken and be surprised of the huge amount of strength in you.