Home Practice Course

Yoga as Prevention of Injury:  Practicing  yoga  on a regular basis improves the health of  your  bones while strengthening  your  spine and muscles.  It also works the tendons and ligaments, making them less susceptible to breakdown.  Yoga  improves  your  flexibility.  These  yoga  benefits work together to  protect your  body from  injury . The three most common types of injuries:  sprains, strains and tears in their muscles, ligaments, and tendons.  A strain occurs when a muscle or tendon has been overstretched  most common in the lower back and hamstrings.  Sprains occur in ligaments which connect two bones together in a joint.  Pulls or tears in muscles are caused by overloading a muscle and extending it beyond its functional capacity. muscle pulls and tears occur most commonly in the hamstrings, quadriceps, calf back and groin, but still are a...

Week #4 The Play of Matter and Energy What to practice There are a number of ways to think about structuring your home practice. Today we are going to talk about ways that you can structure a home practice so that you might practice "every day." Generally speaking, practice come in two types: Structured and Free Sequences. Structured Flow : are sequences which are set. This means that you do the same practice everyday. Advantages:  If you learn the sequences, you do not have to think! Then you can focus on whatever you are trying to access, learn, develop focus in as you practice.  Even if you like to vary your practice, it's nice to have a structured BASE that you can riff off of and that has different DURATIONS this way you can start you practice without thinking and end your practice when you are "finished" Disadvantages you may risk repetitive movement you may become complacent in your experimentation Intuitive Flow : Sequences are ...

THE KINETIC CHAIN Week #3 Modes of Practice and Kinesthetics KINESIOLOGY: the dynamics of movement Kinesiology  is the study of the dynamics of movement. This knowledge can be indispensable in encouraging the coalescence of the body needed as a foundation for exploration of deeply embodied states of consciousness.   Toning the Spine It is practical and essential to yoga practice that the spine be strong and maintain its curves...this process I call "toning the spine." When the curves of the spine are maintained, the force of movement is distributed properly throughout the body, avoiding injury,  and one is able to take a FULL UJJAYI BREATH. Curves of the spine and development The spine develops curves in utero, and then after birth. When a child is born, they have lived as a fetus in fetal position! so their spine is in KYPHOSIS (convex). The initial process of development  Maintaining natural curves of the spine Symmetry and Al...

USING YOUR BREATH What does breath do? breath moves the body Vayus inhalation and prana and udana vayus:  exhalation and apana and samana vayus Mula (root) moves forward (I) and backward (B) with breath breath is the communication between your mind and your body GRACE What is grace? using just the right amount of effort to complete a task/movement/posture only what is essential moving with your breathing breath leads movement (starts just before the movement does) spiritual grace and physical grace...are they connected? imagining your essential self/nothing that isn't you = self-realization evenness of breath coupled with evenness of movement equals evenness of mind FLOW Flow (inner focus)  is a state where the right amount of effort is applied, no more or less, creating a single minded focus (eka grata) so that the body moves as one coalesced piece. (peak experience) needs a certain amount of challenge to maintain interest ...