Septmeber is YOGA MONTH

To celebrate yoga month I have been leading my students into gaining an awareness for the poses that they are doing in class. The first week of the month we revisited the idea of TREE POSE, Vrksasana.

Too often we enter, hold, and exit a pose in our yoga practice but forget WHY we are there. Once we progress past the "beginning" stages of a pose, we often go into it through muscle memory.This month we have been CLOSING OUR EYES in the pose. Often, we must lower our elevated leg to assist us with balance. Our eyes play a LARGE part in our ability to balance. When we take away our vision and ability to focus on a point, we end up swaying in the wind...perhaps swaying like a tornado is going through the space.

When we revisit tree with our eyes shut, we must use the muscles in our feet to help keep us upright. The muscle activation in our feet spreads up our legs and we do find ways to become tuned into our muscles and how they must work to make the pose happen. An option in this experiment is to place a hand on a wall or chair, some support.

Many people and organizations have set "challenges" for yogis during the month of September. A popular one is to complete 30 classes in the 30 days of the month. My challenge is both personal and professional. I am going back to basics and making sure that I approach my practice with awareness. I am sharing those subtle nuances with my clients as well. Together, we can work on deepening our yoga practice through awareness of the movement we are asking from our body, rather than just "going through the motions". We need to be concerned with muscle activation rather than how we look in a pose. As we shut our eyes, we look from the inside out and learn to use the muscles the way they were intended to be used...to support the bones!

Yoga is part of a HEALTHY BODY AND HEALTHY LIFESTYLE. We must find ways to get the most out of our practice and reinvigorate our practice from time to time. September is a GREAT time to go back to basics so we can grow!