Magician's Toolkit
Practicing yoga can be life changing.
It’s almost like magic, what happens after we settle into a regular practice... We become calmer, more collected, and the breath and the body begin to change.
That said, it is very important to approach the postures — and the breath work — safely. An all too common mistake is trying to move into poses our bodies aren’t ready for yet. And I get it! It’s very easy to go past that line from being challenged to putting yourself at risk of injury. We’ve all done it. One way to minimize this temptation is to learn more about the postures: proper alignment of the body, how to effectively use the breath, and what variations/modifications we can use that are just as good for us in all the right ways.
Yoga requires patience. If you’re a beginner, that means allowing your body the care, attention, and time it needs to allow the muscles and joints to open up slowly. If you’re asking your body to do something it’s never ever done before, of course if will take some time to get there! You wouldn’t try to pull a rabbit from a hat before mastering a simple card trick, would you?And regardless of how much experience you have, there is always more to learn. I can’t even count how many times, after years of practice, I’ve had an a-ha moment or relearned something I thought I knew, whether from an instructor or from within myself.
In Yoga: The Spirit and Practice of Moving Into Stillness, Eric Schiffmann writes: “If you are stiff or tight in a particular pose, it can always be traced back to one or several of the basic building blocks. Being aware of your areas of tightness and the postures and variations that are relevant to them allows you to tailor your daily practice to your own needs . ”Learning the proper alignment will safeguard you against undue wear and tear or injury over the long term, and it allows the pose itself to “do its magic,” aka help you feel great.
To this end, later this month I’m hosting a workshop. It can help jumpstart you in your physical practice, or get you back on track, or just be a fun afternoon. We’ll look closely at some poses that often don’t get enough attention in class, and others that tend to cause confusion or difficulty.
You can expect:
*Breakdowns of how to enter and refine your poses.
*Focus on detail and alignment.
*Feedback and advice for making the most out of your postures in your body.
Make this stop on your yoga journey and pick up some tools. Or should I call them ingredients for magic?
Sunday January 26 2-4pm, $35 See you on the mat. Come curious!
Laura Zaino, @yogaandalliswell