Yoga Commitment

Today I am going to share with you five ways to increase your commitment to your yoga practice.

As Stephen Covey says in the 7 habits of highly effective people, manage yourself first. Focus on the important and not the urgent. Make your yoga practice a priority by putting it on your calendar. When somebody else tries to book that time, you can say you have an appointment.

Make space for the important. Take something out that isn’t giving you a big return on investment. Things like watching television and surfing social media are big energy drains compared to what you will gain from your time on the yoga mat.

Go to bed earlier. This will make it easier to wake up earlier for early morning practices.

Include something that is going to inspire you and make you want to practice your yoga. Maybe it is a mantra, an affirmation, a devotion, a mudra, a guided meditation, an inspiring reading, the options are limitless. Let your practice time be filled with inspiration.

Plan what you are going to do for your practice the day before. Our YouTube channel has plenty of classes on playlists to choose classes from.  On our membership site we have a weekly challenge where we create a focus for the week and choose out all the classes for you to practice each day of the week as well. :)

Today’s question comes to us from YouTube:

I am new to yoga, and this is my second video in your beginner series. I enjoy very much how I feel after. However, I did have a difficult time with my balance on the lunges, and even took it back to not such a wide stance. I feel I have pretty average balance. I wonder if this is normal and/or if I wasn't relaxed (or my mind too full to concentrate)? Just a thought.

Today I am going to offer you 5 tips and two stretches for better balance in lunge pose.

pay attention to your front foot: Your front foot is the basis of your support and balance. Check that your weight is evenly distributed between your inner and outer edge of your foot and between the heel and ball of your foot. Notice the four corners of your foot from the base of your big toe, to the base of your little toe, your inner heel and your outer heel. Notice if you are rolling in or rolling out on your foot. You want your weight to be evenly distributed side to side and front and back. Also while you are here, just double check that your knee is over top of your ankle.

spread your toes: When you spread your toes you will have a wider base of support. I am going to show you a toe stretch to help you spread your toes in lunge pose and any standing yoga posture for that matter.

pay attention to your back shin: Try to connect your back shin to the ground. This will give you more contact with the ground and more ground to balance on. Most of the day your foot is in flexion so I will show you a stretch for the front of your ankle to help you connect more of your shin to the ground in lunge pose.  (Hero pose and lift your knee)

widen your base: The student from YouTube mentioned that they stepped back to narrow their base, however that made the pose shorter in length, which may or may not have helped with balance. One thing that will help with balance is to create more space between your left and right feet, that is to widen the base of your pose.

use props: Finally you may find it helpful to place 2 yoga blocks on either side of your feet to help you with balance. Play with which side of the block makes it easiest to balance, however, having the largest surface area of the block on the ground is probably going to be most helpful for your balance.

For beginner yoga classes: Click Here

And we are adding to that playlist of beginner’s classes all the time

3 Ways to improve your balance

: I recently asked beginners what their biggest obstacle to learning yoga was and a number of people responded, balance. Today I want to share with you three simple things you can do in your everyday life to improve your balance on and off your yoga mat.

1. Take Breaks from Screen Time

Balance relies on your eyesight so that you can figure out where you are in space in relation to other objects. Our eye muscles and eyesight are degenerating every day from lack of use and screen time. When we spend hours a day staring at screens we stress our visual system. Take regular breaks from your screens and do a little eye yoga.

Today I will show you some eye yoga.

Here are some a blog post with some eye yoga exercises:

Eye Yoga Exercises

Yoga for Eyes Blog Post

Here is a free yoga classes for your eyes:

2. Focus on the Horizon

In yoga we have something called drishti. It is all about where you focus, in fact it will help you with your balance. Here is a free yoga class on drishti.

Start by focusing on something close to you, this will make balance easier and help you to stay stable. When you look at something close to you, you will notice when you move even slighting and be able to adjust your balance unconsciously. When you look at something further away, these subtle peripheral movements are more challenging to see. This is training your vestibular system, the sense organs in your head (mostly your ears) that regulate your equilibrium and tell your brain where your head is in space.

When you are out walking look on the ground in front of you. Then challenge yourself to walk while focusing on the horizon. (Try this one on a smooth and flat surface). This is a great way to build your balance.

3. Walk on uneven surfaces

Our somatosensory system relies on nerves in our joints, and from the pressure and vibration sensors in our skin to sense where we are in space and to help us with balance. As biomechanist Katy Bowman has pointed out, we spend most of our time walking on smooth surfaces in our homes such as floors and in cities such as sidewalks. This causes a lot of our proprioceptive capabilities to atrophy. The result is a loss in our balance as well. Next time you are outside challenge yourself to walk on uneven surfaces. Balance is one of the components of physical fitness like muscular strength, flexibility, cardiovascular strength and endurance. The more you practice it, the better it becomes.

What things do you do in your everyday life to improve your balance? Leave your comments below.

Namaste, Melissa

Beginner Yoga Class Top 10 Tips

Props Needed: blanket and blocks

Number One #1

Make sure you have permission and maybe even some guidance from your doctor about starting an exercise program. Many doctors won’t have a lot of idea about yoga and there are so many different styles of yoga, so here are a list of questions to ask your doctor.

Is it ok for me to start an exercise program?

What exercises or movements will make my condition better?

What exercises or movements will make my condition worse?

What exercises and movements should I absolutely avoid? In other words what are the contraindications to my medical condition or injury if I am going to be exercising.

Are there more details about my medical condition or injury that are important for me to know if I am going to start exercising?

Forewarned is forearmed. Information is power. If you come to your first online yoga class with this information, you will know how to look after your body best and be your own best teacher. :)

Number Two #2

Is the yoga teacher in the video giving detailed, step-by-step instructions of the basic, beginner-level poses? You are here to learn, for the first time, you deserve specific, thorough, uncomplicated point-by-point instruction that is going to allow you to be taught yoga. If you aren’t receiving this, move on to another instructor and video. There are lots of them out there.

Number Three #3

Is it slow enough for you to follow? This is a beginner class. You are learning yoga for the first time. If the instructor is always 3 moves ahead of you this is simply going to lead to frustration and you wanting to give up. We don’t want that! We want you to have success. Slow and steady wins the race every time. If the video leaves you feeling like you are falling behind, time to look for another video that is going to give you the instructions and movements more SLOWLY.

Number Four #4

Yoga is for people of all shapes and sizes. Yoga is not just for skinny, slim, yoga babe model types. In some poses you may have to create space for your body. Let’s look at a few of those poses now.

Child’s pose

Twist

Standing Forward Fold

Making space for your body is easy and creating modifications and adjustments is part of every yoga practice.

Number Five #5

You don’t have to be balanced or coordinated to start taking beginner yoga classes. Beginner yoga classes will help you become more balanced and coordinated. In beginner yoga classes we will teach you how to balance better. We will do this by teaching you about drishti, finding a point to focus on, how to connect your feet to the ground for better balance and using props that you already have in your home like chairs and walls. Regardless, we’ve got you covered, your balance will get better and we can help you if you are unbalanced.

Here are some blog posts I’ve done on balance that may be helpful:

http://www.melissawest.com/ankles-and-balancing/

http://www.melissawest.com/balancing-poses-to-help-avoid-falling/

http://www.melissawest.com/how-to-balance-in-lunge-pose/

Number Six #6

You don’t have to be flexible to start taking beginner yoga classes. Beginner yoga classes will help you become more flexible :) Beginner classes will focus on poses that are not too demanding for your flexibility. Simple yoga poses make flexibility accessible, uncomplicated, effortless and straightforward. In yoga we have something called an “edge.” That simply means you get to choose when a yoga pose feels like too much and then you back off. Let’s try it now.

Keyhole Stretch.

I have a whole free beginner yoga class on this concept of choosing just the right stretch in your body if you are a beginner.

http://www.melissawest.com/251/

Number Seven #7

Wrists! I hear this one a lot, “Every time I try a beginner yoga class my wrists hurt.” This is not surprising given the number of hours we spend typing on keyboards, whether they be laptops,

Three easy ways to care for your wrists in yoga

When I asked beginner yogis what their biggest obstacle to learning yoga was, a lot of people responded with trouble with their wrists. Today I am going to share with you three ways to care for your wrists in yoga.

1. warm them up

Before doing a pose where your wrists are in a flexed position such as plank pose or even cat pose. Take a few moments to warm your wrists up.

(Make a fist and circle your wrists in both directions)

2. stretch them

After you do a yoga pose where your wrists are in a flexed position such as plank pose or even cat pose take a moment to stretch them.

(Flex the wrist and stretch it with your opposite palm)

3. rest them

Take time after yoga poses where your wrists are in a flexed position such as plank poses or even cat pose to take a counter pose and rest.

(child’s pose with your hands down by your feet).

I highly recommend the following value added classes from our membership site for your wrists as well.

Intro Hand Connective Tissue Class

The Hand and Wrist Class from the Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes series from the Membership Site.

We’d love to have you as a member of our community where we house our value added content:

What are your best care practices for your wrists in yoga?

Namaste, Melissa

Sway Back

:Today’s question comes to us from Namaste Yoga member, Darlene. BTW, Darlene has performed some incredibly generous karma yoga for me by cataloguing all our membership videos, so thank you Darlene!

Melissa,

Joining this community and practicing with you has really brought an awareness of my body to my attention. Now I realize that I have a sway back that also results in a protruding belly. Can you recommend some poses to help correct this?

Thank You,

Darlene

Dear Darlene,

So first of all it is normal to have an inward curve in your lumbar spine and low back. So I would definitely make sure you get this checked by a medical professional to see if this is anything out of the ordinary. Excessive lumbar hyperlordosis occurs with an excessive forward tip of your pelvis.

Here is the thing about this, for years we as yoga teachers have been telling our yoga students to tuck their tail bones under and this has been flattening out the natural curve in your lumbar spine.

Judith Hanson Lasater teaches that your spine is like a river with curves. The structure of your spine is most stable and congruent when you have those curves.

We are a sitting culture. We are used to tucking our tailbones under when we sit in chairs and this further flattens out our low backs. Yoga teacher and core walking instructor Jonathan Fitzgerald  says that many people lean forward in their thighs and back in their trunk. It doesn’t always pull the pelvis into a tuck, but often it does.

Like Lasater, Fitzgerald says we need to have a curve in our lower back, albeit the smallest possible curve. Although our low back curve is essential, it does not need to be large. If your curve is too big or does not exist, the spine is not going to work well.

The benefit of standing with a natural curve in your lumbar spine, or a relaxed buttocks is that your legs will be under your pelvis. Jean Pierre Barrall  also explains that when your lumbar spine is in its normal curve it supports your organs. If your tailbone is tucked under, your organs will fall down onto your prostate, bladder and uterus.

Jonathan Fitzgerald encourages you to relax your butt when you are standing. He says, “Give your butt a room of its own. It’s not meant to sit on your hamstrings, it’s meant to have it’s own space. We all need bigger butts.”

So, when you ask about swayback Darlene, it makes me wonder, is she talking about the natural curve of her lumbar spine? (because this would be desirable) Check in and see. Keep practicing the Intelligent Core class.

If indeed you do have excessive lordosis then I would recommend strengthening your core and buttocks.

Here are two poses that I would recommend.

Setu Bandhasana/Bridge Pose and Plank Pose/ Uttihita Chaturanga Dandasana

The membership site classes I would recommend are from the Strength Building Series:  The glutes class and the Core Class

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Nostril Breathing

:Great class Melissa. (Namaste Yoga 252, Beginner Yoga Class on Breath) Your class helped me in centering today. Alternate Nostril breathing had a very calming effect on me.I also noticed that I was inhaling more from right nostril however didn't have much to exhale from the left. It certainly meant something....how would you interpret this ? I am grateful to have access to this class today :) Namaste

Rashmi, Alternate nostril breathing is certainly a calming breath. Thank you for your question about your right nostril being more dominant than your left nostril. Your nostrils go back and forth in dominance throughout the day. It is also a great breath to balance the left and right hemispheres of your brain.

The term hatha yoga can be broken down into ha for sun and tha for moon. It is all about balancing the solar and lunar or masculine and feminine energies of our body and mind. One of the ways that this happens is by balancing the flow of your breath through your right and left nostrils, which are connected through the Ida (Solar) and Pingala (Lunar) channels of your body.

Dr. David Frawley explains that your breath quite commonly flows more through one nostril than another at any given moment in a day. In fact, your breath will switch back and forth at from one nostril to another at different times of the day. This switch back and forth is a reflection of your energy, activity, and awareness. It is another way to check in and ask yourself, what is happening now?

Your right nostril carries a warming solar energy. This is your Pingala Nadi. When your “ breath flows mostly through your right nostril it is good for digestion, circulation, exercise, movement and other more dynamic activities that result from increased heat in your body.” (Frawley, Neti: Healing Secrets of Yoga and Ayurveda, pg. 46). When you are breathing through your right nostril it relates to the left hemisphere of your brain. The left hemisphere of your brain governs rational, perceptive and masculine qualities.

Perhaps Rashmi was practicing in the morning. Your right nostril channel should be more active in the morning so you are more energized.

Your left nostril on the other hand is related to more cooling and lunar energy. When your breath flows through your left side of your nostril (and body), it is good for relaxation, sleep, the building of tissue and anything soothing. When you are breathing through your left nostril it governs the right hemisphere of your brain which relates to emotional, receptive and feminine qualities.

From a spiritual perspective the when your right nostril is open you are developing Shiva energy, the cosmic masculine force. When your left side of your nostril is open you are developing Shakti energy, the cosmic feminine force.

Resource: David Frawley: Neti: Healing Secrets of Yoga and Ayurveda.

Yoga for the upper back

Dear Melissa

I was wondering if you could point me towards a yoga class that would help increase the strength of my back and eliminate kyphosis.

Jarka.

Dear Jarka,

Thank you for a great question. So first of all, kyphosis is that rounding of our upper back that happens. It is quite common in our culture because of the time we spend hunched over cell phones and computers. Today I am going to show you a yoga pose that helps to reverse kyphosis and then share with you a class that I created to strengthen your back.

Sphinx Pose

As far as a class for a stronger back/kyphosis, Yoga for Posture is in my membership site, where I house my value-added content. I would love to have you as a member or you can purchase this video individually in my shop:

Yoga for Manifesting Goals

Dear Melissa

I do not have the man of my life yet and I was wondering if you could help me. Is there something you could put together in a yoga class that would help me attract a partner?

Jarka.

Thank you Jarka for a great question. To me Jarka is speaking about creating an intention and then attracting or manifesting it in her life.

 

Here is a yoga class that speaks to manifesting through the chakras:

http://www.melissawest.com/234/

This class goes through the steps of taking an idea and bringing it down through all your chakras until it is manifest into your reality. It is based on the principles presented in Anodea Judith's book, Creating on Purpose: The Spiritual Technology of Manifesting Through the Chakras if you are interested in exploring it in more detail after the class.