3 Ways to Improve your Chaturanga

Chaturanga Dandasana, or four-limbed staff pose (sometimes called low-plank pose) is a foundational pose for vinyasa flow yoga classes.  It is a pose that pose risk for injury when done with improper alignment.  This video is intended to give you a couple ways to practice the pose to fine tune your alignment and get in touch  with parts that should be engaging to keep your body safe and healthy.

Strategy number one is to really dial in youner alignment, finding the lines of the elbows facing forward, setting the elbows over the wrists and lowering the shoulders to elbow height.  This can be practiced with knees lowered to the ground or with consistant practice, knees lifted.
Strategy 2 is to strap around the elbows creating a hammock-like support for the torso.  With the weight of the body out of the equation it can be a great way for you to tap into the parts of the body that need to be working and tune into the more subtle energetics of the pose.
The third strategy is to use a set of blocks or a bolster under the ribcage.  This is another way to take the weight of the body out of the equation and fine-tune the alignment and structure of the pose so you use more awareness and less effort

LOVE: a poem

Take things slow and move with love.
When you slow down, you may realize how much space is available for love.
Love can dwell in every space around you.
Love is not something you have to look for, it is something you uncover because it is there in every moment. Love dwells underneath chaos, stress and fear.
Love is the deepest element inside.  
Love is an unbelievably powerful force. Love has no edges, no walls, and no limits.  Love can transcend your body.  
When you let love inspire your life, you will be lead in the right direction.  When challenges arise, turn to love to help you through.  Love will carry you farther than any train, bus, plane or car.
Love defeats fear.
When you act from out of fear, you will be limited in what you can accomplish, but when you act from love, the impossible becomes possible.
Love wins. Love breaks down barriers.
Begin your day with love, continue your day with love, end your day with love.  Embrace the power of love and let it heal you, nourish you and transform you.

-Chelsea Brady :) 

Kids Yoga Activity: Calm Pouches

This is a great activity to help students relax that can be made for little to no money. All you need is some fabric, some herbs, and string. I collect herbs from my yard and around my neighborhood, using whatever is in season.  I prefer to use fresh herbs, but you can use dried herbs as well.  

 supplies needed: 

-Fabric squares- cut a 5x5 or larger piece of fabric into a square (old t-shirts work well!) 

-Fresh or dried herbs 

-String or twine: (you can also use old t-shirts for this by cutting strips and stretching them out) 

Above: Herbs from left to right- Mint, Lemon verbeena, rosemary, lavender, sage 

Have students smell each herb and find the ones they think are calming or soothing. 

Tear off small pieces of herbs and place them in the center of the pouch.  

Use the string or twine to close up the pouches. 

While we make the pouches I like to engage students in conversations about things that make them feel calm.  Then use them for a relaxing savasana practice.

10 minute Morning Yoga Flow

Need a nice quick yoga routine to start your day?  Here's one I like to do that gets energy moving and gets your day off to a nice start! 

Challenge

Challenges happen in every aspect of life.  Challenge is what makes us grow and build strength in the body and mind.

What do you do when you find yourself in a challenging position?
Do you resist it? Give up? Do you try to get out of it?  or change it so it isn't so hard?

Yoga is a great way to practice facing challenges. When you practice challenging yourself physically, you exercise the mental muscle of enduring and moving through so when challenges happen in life you are better prepared to face them and move through with grace and ease.

What poses do you find challenging? Put yourself into those poses.  Get comfortable being there.  If you have a hard time finding ways to challenge yourself, find a teacher who can challenge you.
Notice at what point you want to give up and then hold it one or two breaths more.  Keep doing that every day.  What originally felt really challenging will eventually become less of a challenge.

Eventually when you are faced with challenge you will feel calm, in control and aware of your own energy.  When that happens, find another way to challenge yourself. Keep moving into the struggle and facing the challenges head on!  

How to play and sing to a singing bowl

I made a little video about how to play and sing to a singing bowl.  I love using these in my classes and also in my personal practice as a singing meditation.  I highly recommend using them- they are a wonderful way to open energy and create positive vibrations in the body.  It's really important to tune into the breath and sing from your heart!  

Yoga Kids Craft: Affirmation Flower

I recently started teaching yoga to a group of 8 and 9 year olds and found at this age, there is a tendency for them to be very mean to each other. I wanted to teach the importance of affirmations so I created a lesson that they received very well and thought I would share.

To begin the lesson I used the book "Hidden Messages in Water" which is an awesome book that shows pictures of what happens to water when frozen in different conditions.   

The first picture I showed them was top crystal is what formed when it was told "you're cute" the bottom photo is what formed when it was told "you fool!" 

The students responded with a lot of compassion.  

The next photo I showed them was a crystal that was told it was beautiful compared to a crystal that was just ignored.  Some students chimed in about times they felt ignored and saw how the water could feel that way.  

In the book there are several pages about how water reacts to different kinds of music so for that I downloaded the songs on my phone and played them as they looked at the pictures.  

The students were excited about seeing what crystal formed to the music.  

The last photo I showed them was what happened to water when exposed to tv and phones.  I thought I would have to make the connection for them, but they were able to understand that exposure to technology could have an impact on the way they feel and a number of they reported feeling funny after spending a lot of time on the phone.  

To tie all the information together, I asked them "So what is one of the main things our bodies made of?" they immediately answered "Water!"

"So now that you know about how water reacts to words, music, and technology, what can you tell me about how our bodies might respond to these things?"  

The students were able to draw really good connections to how treating others and ourselves can be impact our state of being.  From there I opened up to an activity of creating affirmation flowers. we created colorful flowers with positive messaged on the petals. On each petal they wrote something nice about themselves and on the stems we passed the flowers around and wrote nice things about each other.