How to Balance in Dancer Pose

I would recommend that our members do the upper back rehydration sequence before this class.

As we are making the transition from 2016 to 2017, one of the many reasons to sit out or dance could be your balance system. As you know so far from our series, your ability to balance is made up of your somatosensory system of your proprioceptive system, your vestibular system and your visual system. It is your central nervous system that receives feedback about your body’s orientation from your proprioceptive system, your vestibular system and your visual system and generates corrective and stabilizing reactions throughout your body by activating your muscles.

Most people rely on 70% proprioceptive feedback, 20% vestibular feedback and 10% visual feedback for balance when they are on a firm and flat surface. However When you are on an unstable surface (and I encourage you to practice your balance on an unstable surface) this changes to 60% vestibular feedback, 30% vision and 10% proprioceptive feedback. It almost turns upside down! The training we are doing with our vestibular system and visual systems in these yoga classes is so beneficial, because it is unusual that you are going to fall on a flat, smooth, stable surface.

Proprioception means your skin, muscles, and joints all contain sensory receptors (proprioceptors) that are sensitive to stretch or pressure in the surrounding tissues. It helps your brain recognize where your body is in space, even if your vestibular and visual systems are compromised (for example if your eyes are closed or your ears are plugged)

Sensory information about things like motion, equilibrium, and where your body is at in space is provided by something called a vestibular system. Your vestibular system is the part of your ear that includes the utricle, saccule, and three semicircular canals. The utricle and saccule detect gravity and front-to-back or side-to-side movement. In contrast, the semicircular canals detect rotational movement.

With your eyes, your visual system figures out where your head and body are in space and also your spatial location relative to other objects.

All three systems are important to developing balance in yoga poses like dancer pose so that when you have the choice between sitting out and dancing, you can dance.

Yoga Postures/Asanas: Sphinx or Salamba Bhujangasana, Half Bow Pose or Ardha Dhanurasana, Eka Pada Raja Kapotasana or Pigeon Pose, Eka Pada Urdhva Virasana or Lunge Using Wall, Warrior One or Virabhadrasana One, Warrior Two or Virabhadrasana Two, Dancer Pose or Natarajasana, Uttanasana or Standing Forward Fold, Reclined Twist or Supta Matsyendrasana, Savasana or Corpse Pose

Props: wall, blanket, bolster, strap

Thank you for your donations: Sonja, Diane, Donna

If you are receiving value from Yoga with Melissa you can make a monetary donation below.

You can also contribute of your time and influence the direction of the next Yoga with Melissa by answering the following question in the comments:

What balancing poses do you find the most challenging and why? I am planning on doing a whole series on balance and I will include the yoga balancing poses that you find most challenging in this series if you leave them in the comments

How to Balance in Dancer Pose I would recommend that our members do the upper back rehydration sequence before this class. As we are making the transition from 2016 to 2017, one of the many reasons to sit out or dance could be your balance system. As you know so far from our series, your […]

Without Effort

As we are only a couple of days away from the Christmas here, it is easy to get caught up in the energy of excessive effort and struggle. We overwork and exhaust ourselves. Today we will explore letting go of effort, starting right here.

You have a choice whenever you do something, to try harder, to apply effort or to let go and allow yourself to flow naturally with the world around you. Focus on what you are doing, allow your attention to go into it, but you do not need to strain.

Restorative yoga can be a fabulous container to practice without effort. We can come into the poses and allow the props to support us. Then when we come back into our lives we can ask ourselves, how can we go with the flow? How can we be conscious and aware and yet have ease as we go about our day? We can still do our work, we probably just do not need to try as hard most of the time, just like in our yoga postures, the yoga posture will do the work on our body once we get into the shape. When we meet our lives half way with effortless action, we do not need to work so hard.

When you focus on letting go of effort, you are releasing tension from your physical, mental emotional and energetic bodies. Deeply relaxes your body, stills your mind and calms your nervous system.

Letting go of effort will open you up to the natural ebb and flow of life. Helps you open a more compassionate understanding towards yourself and others and will enhance your emotional connection with yourself and those you love.

Yoga Poses/Asana:  guided relaxation, child’s pose or balasana, downward facing dog or adho mukha svanasana, reclined twist, reclined bound angle pose or supta baddha konasana, savasana or corpse pose

Props Needed: blanket, blocks, bolster, eye pillow

Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu

Did you like today’s show?

* If you know somebody who would enjoy today’s show, please feel free to share it with them.

* We put out a new class like this every Friday so if you are new to our channel, then please subscribe so our class will show up in our feed on Fridays.

* Please leave us a 5-star review on Itunes

Thank you for your donations: Joshua, Donna, Hilary and Carla :)

You can also contribute of your time and influence the direction of the next Yoga with Melissa by answering the following question in the comments:

Where does effort creep up in your body? Where do you feel like you are trying too hard in your body?

If you would like a short 10 Minute Yoga for Anxiety Meditation to help with the transitions in life then put your email in the opt in box and we will be happy to send that to you.

Today we focused on letting go of effort in our body. If you would like support in that then every Monday we meet for live class, a guided relaxation to release tension from your body in our membership community. We would love for you to join us for that. :) (Click here)

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Without Effort

As we are only a couple of days away from the Christmas here, it is easy to get caught up in the energy of excessive effort and struggle. We overwork and exhaust ourselves. Today we will explore letting go of effort, starting right here.

You have a choice whenever you do something, to try harder, to apply effort or to let go and allow yourself to flow naturally with the world around you. Focus on what you are doing, allow your attention to go into it, but you do not need to strain.

Restorative yoga can be a fabulous container to practice without effort. We can come into the poses and allow the props to support us. Then when we come back into our lives we can ask ourselves, how can we go with the flow? How can we be conscious and aware and yet have ease as we go about our day? We can still do our work, we probably just do not need to try as hard most of the time, just like in our yoga postures, the yoga posture will do the work on our body once we get into the shape. When we meet our lives half way with effortless action, we do not need to work so hard.

When you focus on letting go of effort, you are releasing tension from your physical, mental emotional and energetic bodies. Deeply relaxes your body, stills your mind and calms your nervous system.

Letting go of effort will open you up to the natural ebb and flow of life. Helps you open a more compassionate understanding towards yourself and others and will enhance your emotional connection with yourself and those you love.

Yoga Poses/Asana:  guided relaxation, child’s pose or balasana, downward facing dog or adho mukha svanasana, reclined twist, reclined bound angle pose or supta baddha konasana, savasana or corpse pose

Props Needed: blanket, blocks, bolster, eye pillow

Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu

Did you like today’s show?

* If you know somebody who would enjoy today’s show, please feel free to share it with them.

* We put out a new class like this every Friday so if you are new to our channel, then please subscribe so our class will show up in our feed on Fridays.

* Please leave us a 5-star review on Itunes

Thank you for your donations: Joshua, Donna, Hilary and Carla

Without Effort As we are only a couple of days away from the Christmas here, it is easy to get caught up in the energy of excessive effort and struggle. We overwork and exhaust ourselves. Today we will explore letting go of effort, starting right here. You have a choice whenever you do something, to […]

Yoga Balance

If you want to have great balance you need to focus on your proprioception, your vestibular system and your visual system.

Somebody who has excellent balance has a high degree of proprioceptive awareness, a highly attuned vestibular system and visual system. However, somebody who feels that their balance is off or experiences a lack of stability or even trips and falls often could have problems with their proprioceptive, vestibular and visual systems.

Yoga is an excellent movement practice to train your proprioceptive system. When you take off your socks and shoes and placing your bare feet on the ground, you are accessing nerve signals through your feet, ankles, knees, and hips. Your proprioceptive experience allows you to feel where your body is in space. Normally a lot of this information is cut off through the shoes we wear. So practicing yoga heightens your proprioceptive system and improves your balance.

Secondly, your vestibular system provides sensory information about motion, equilibrium and spatial orientation. Each ear has a utricle, saccule and three semicircular canals. Your vertical and linear movement is detected by the utricle and saccule when move head up and down. This often happens in movements like cat/cow. When you rotate your head side to side the semicircular canals detect rotational movements. This could happen in a pose like a twist or half moon balancing pose.

In our culture we move our head very little. Because of screen time, our head is often locked in place for hours on end. In addition to that, cameras in automobiles mean that we have few reasons to move our heads to look around. When we were children our vestibular systems were engaged all the time as we did somersaults, cartwheels and swung on swings. As adults it is important that we engage this underused system again, otherwise our balance system suffers.

Finally our visual system contributes to our overall balance. This is the ability of your eyes to figure out where your head and body are in space and also your spatial location relative to other objects. In yoga we often train with our eyes closed, therefore improving our proprioceptive system (our sense of self in space). And we can also spend some time improving and training our balance by playing with our visual system, opening and closing our eyes.

Yoga Postures/Asanas: Guided Relaxation in Legs Up The Wall or Viparita Karini , Figure Four or Keyhole Stretch, Cat Pose or Marjaryasana, Half Cow’s Face Pose or Ardha Gomukhasana, Cow’s Face or Gomukhasana, Mountain Pose or Tadasana, Standing Twist, Chair pose or Utkatasana, Eagle Pose or Garudasana, Sphinx Pose or Salamba Bhujangasana, Front Lying Twist, Child’s Pose or Balasana

Props: blocks, yoga strap

Did you like today’s show?

* If you know somebody who would enjoy today’s show, please feel free to share it with them.

* We put out a new class like this every Friday so if you are new to our channel, then please subscribe so our class will show up in our feed on Fridays.

* Please leave us a 5-star review on Itunes

Thanks to all of you who have contributed to the Dressember campaign to end human trafficking:

Maria, Nancy, Randy, Anny, Sue, Michele, Linzi, Kelly, Hannah, Lisa and Laura I’m at 915/1K goal

If you are receiving value from Yoga with Melissa you can make a monetary donation by clicking .

Thank you for your donations: Peige and Hannah

You can also contribute of your time and influence the direction of the next Yoga with Melissa by answering the following question in the comments:

What balancing poses do you find the most challenging and why? I am planning on doing a whole series on balance and I will include the yoga b...

Yoga Balance If you want to have great balance you need to focus on your proprioception, your vestibular system and your visual system. Somebody who has excellent balance has a high degree of proprioceptive awareness, a highly attuned vestibular system and visual system. However, somebody who feels that their balance is off or experiences a […]

Yoga Balance

If you want to have great balance you need to focus on your proprioception, your vestibular system and your visual system.

Somebody who has excellent balance has a high degree of proprioceptive awareness, a highly attuned vestibular system and visual system. However, somebody who feels that their balance is off or experiences a lack of stability or even trips and falls often could have problems with their proprioceptive, vestibular and visual systems.

Yoga is an excellent movement practice to train your proprioceptive system. When you take off your socks and shoes and placing your bare feet on the ground, you are accessing nerve signals through your feet, ankles, knees, and hips. Your proprioceptive experience allows you to feel where your body is in space. Normally a lot of this information is cut off through the shoes we wear. So practicing yoga heightens your proprioceptive system and improves your balance.

Secondly, your vestibular system provides sensory information about motion, equilibrium and spatial orientation. Each ear has a utricle, saccule and three semicircular canals. Your vertical and linear movement is detected by the utricle and saccule when move head up and down. This often happens in movements like cat/cow. When you rotate your head side to side the semicircular canals detect rotational movements. This could happen in a pose like a twist or half moon balancing pose.

In our culture we move our head very little. Because of screen time, our head is often locked in place for hours on end. In addition to that, cameras in automobiles mean that we have few reasons to move our heads to look around. When we were children our vestibular systems were engaged all the time as we did somersaults, cartwheels and swung on swings. As adults it is important that we engage this underused system again, otherwise our balance system suffers.

Finally our visual system contributes to our overall balance. This is the ability of your eyes to figure out where your head and body are in space and also your spatial location relative to other objects. In yoga we often train with our eyes closed, therefore improving our proprioceptive system (our sense of self in space). And we can also spend some time improving and training our balance by playing with our visual system, opening and closing our eyes.

Yoga Postures/Asanas: Guided Relaxation in Legs Up The Wall or Viparita Karini , Figure Four or Keyhole Stretch, Cat Pose or Marjaryasana, Half Cow’s Face Pose or Ardha Gomukhasana, Cow’s Face or Gomukhasana, Mountain Pose or Tadasana, Standing Twist, Chair pose or Utkatasana, Eagle Pose or Garudasana, Sphinx Pose or Salamba Bhujangasana, Front Lying Twist, Child’s Pose or Balasana

Props: blocks, yoga strap

Did you like today’s show?

* If you know somebody who would enjoy today’s show, please feel free to share it with them.

* We put out a new class like this every Friday so if you are new to our channel, then please subscribe so our class will show up in our feed on Fridays.

* Please leave us a 5-star review on Itunes

Thanks to all of you who have contributed to the Dressember campaign to end human trafficking:

Maria, Nancy, Randy, Anny, Sue, Michele, Linzi, Kelly, Hannah, Lisa and Laura I’m at 915/1K goal

If you are receiving value from Yoga with Melissa you can make a monetary donation by clicking .

Thank you for your donations: Peige and Hannah

You can also contribute of your time and influence the direction of the next Yoga with Melissa by answering the following question in the comments:

Transitions

This past weekend in our Monthly Motivation Meetup, one of our members, Sandrine, spoke about how she takes time when she gets home instead of rushing to the next thing. She makes a ritual of it. She takes off her hat and and her coat and she sits down for a moment or two. She allows herself the time to transition from her work life to her home life with a moment of pause.

This is direct opposition of an awareness that grew out of her rushing from one event to another. She would come home from work, rush as quickly as possible to walk the dogs, so she could have dinner and hurry up and relax.

How many times do we do this in our lives.

Rush from one event to another, rarely even noticing what is happening?

We do this in our yoga class as well. We may pay attention in one yoga pose but then check out between the yoga poses. In this class we are going to pay attention to the spaces between the yoga poses. This was one of my students’ favourite yoga classes back in the day of studio classes. I hope you enjoy it too :)

Namaste, Melissa

Yoga Poses/Asana: Supported Bridge Pose or Setu Bandhasana, Cat Pose or Marjaryasana, Lunge Pose or Anjaneyasana, Downward Facing Dog or Adho Mukha Svanasana, Cloud Salutation, Tree Pose or Vrksasana, Standing Backbend or Ardha Anuvittasana, Legs up the Wall or Viparita Karini, Matsyendrasana or Half Lord of the Fishes Pose, Seated Forward fold or Paschimottanasana, Savasana or Corpse Pose

Props Needed: Wall, Blocks, Bolster

Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu

Did you like today’s show?

* If you know somebody who would enjoy today’s show, please feel free to share it with them.

* We put out a new class like this every Friday so if you are new to our channel, then please subscribe so our class will show up in our feed on Fridays.

* Please leave us a 5-star review on Itunes

Thank you for your donations: Sean and Viola

Thanks to everybody who has donated to Dressember: Hannah, Lisa, Laura and Maria :)

 

If you would like a short 10 Minute Yoga for Anxiety Meditation to help relieve the pressure of your life then put your email in the opt in box and we will be happy to send that to you.

Weekly Yoga with Melissa #361 Photos of Yoga Poses

Transitions

This past weekend in our Monthly Motivation Meetup, one of our members, Sandrine, spoke about how she takes time when she gets home instead of rushing to the next thing. She makes a ritual of it. She takes off her hat and and her coat and she sits down for a moment or two. She allows herself the time to transition from her work life to her home life with a moment of pause.

This is direct opposition of an awareness that grew out of her rushing from one event to another. She would come home from work, rush as quickly as possible to walk the dogs, so she could have dinner and hurry up and relax.

How many times do we do this in our lives.

Rush from one event to another, rarely even noticing what is happening?

We do this in our yoga class as well. We may pay attention in one yoga pose but then check out between the yoga poses. In this class we are going to pay attention to the spaces between the yoga poses. This was one of my students’ favourite yoga classes back in the day of studio classes. I hope you enjoy it too