IT'S YOGA TIME :)

So here we go… first of many from the Italian chica.

I have been reading the blog religiously trying to come up with something interesting to say, but I have been too busy doing re-writes I forgot until now, 3 days ‘till the end.
I don’t know if you remember, but the first couple of days of Bootcamp I was one of the two (Sarah D. being the second) riding to school everyday…. Trying to fit a short morning adrenaline booster before class!
The Boulder Girl in me just did not last long….
One week into the Camp I started taking the subway and now days I am actually driving
I know wasting gas is bad, and composting and recycling just doesn’t make up to contributing to Global Warming, but I have been a lazy-ass, city girl lately. (No offence to all of you beautiful ladies, the suite it is just not my favorite attire…I prefer the saggy yoga pants or the chocked-up capris!)
Anyhow, despite my consumer-like, couch potato behavior of the past week or so, I still do claim to be a Yogi and for that reason I shall not drive to work or eat meat, but I do it anyways and that does not make me any better or worse!

Anyhow, let me get to the point (do I have one?)

So why do you care if Fede (Italian Fede) is a Yoga instructor or not? Well, if I would have had my act together I could have given all of us a great, FREE, relaxing yoga class, but I didn’t and now I feel bad.
So here you have it, a long, excruciatingly painful explanation of what I could have said in two words, but just couldn’t stand be the short, dry journalist I have been all along:
SORRY I WASN’T THERE FOR YOU ALL WITH MY ‘WISE’ ADVICES TO TEACH YOU HOW TO RELAX.
But if you give me a chance I will redeem myself with a Yoga routine that will heal your post-news-feature stress!

So here it is:

Sit crossed legged in a dark room, possibly in your own environment, and start inhaling and exhaling through your nostrils, while gently straitening up you backs. Reach the top of your head to the sealing, release the four corners of your mouth and maybe smile.
Ground through your buttocks and try letting go of the heaviness of the thoughts that may come up in your mind.
Stay still for a couple of minutes and just observe where your mind wanders.

After 5 min:

Bring your hands together, palms to palms at heart level and then bow forward.
Again, take a minute to let feelings catch on and then stretch your arms forward, palms down. BREATH!
Now bring your big toes to touch and knees wide to the edges of the mat, keep your arms stretched forward, palms facing down and also keep forehead on the mat.
BREATH! (NO REALLY, BREATH DEEPLY ☺)
Stay in this position for 5 breath cycles, trying forcing the breath to flow from the tip of your hands to your toes, embracing the spine and the hips.

Let go of your thoughts! YOU ARE NOT ON DEAD-LINE!

Adjust the pose by reaching forward with your palms and flip them up to the sealing in offering mudra (as if you where to make an offering to yourself or others that might need it more than you) and keep sitting back onto your hills. You ultimately want to kiss your math while stretching your backs.




After 5 min:

Now, sit on to your knees keeping the palms on the mat, in a table tot position. Inhale and push your tummy in and round your back up to the sealing, like if you were a feisty cat. Exhale and release the tummy out and round your back the other way, lift your neck up and long. Repeat these two poses for 5 breath cycles tying releasing your spine from the crown of your head to the sacrum.

After 5 min:

Push up into downward facing dog, or, more simply called, Inverted V shape pose. Lift your knees off the matt, push onto your hands and let your head fall in the middle of your arms, neck relaxed, look up into your tummy and breath.
Adjust the pose by pushing your hills down into the mat and reaching your sit bone to the sealing. Stay for 5 cycles of breaths.

After 5 min:

Now, from the V shape pose, walk your feet in between your hands, keeping them together, keep legs straight as much as your flexibility allows. Stay bent forward, low with your back, neck and head. Let your arms rest your side and trying reaching your nose to your knees. (IF THIS IS TOO HARD FOR SOMEBODY, JUST KEEP YOUR LEGS BENT!)
Grab opposite biceps with your hands and still hang low, releasing your neck, letting it hang loose.

Take 10 breaths here.

P.S. Inversions are a great stress reliever. Fresh blood leaves your extremities and reaches your brain giving you a “high”. Yet you should not stay there for too long, otherwise it might make you dizzy!

After 10 breaths:

Release your arms, and easily and gently unroll up like a warm bread roll, HEAD COMES UP LAST, AND EYES ARE CLOSED!
Let your arms fall by your side, release your shoulders down and reach your head up. Ground through your feet as if you were growing roots underneath. Now lift your arms up to the sky, and inhale fully and gracefully. Look up and take a slight back bend. Meaning: throw your neck and head back past your hands, push your hips forward, and round your backs, but don’t collapse in yor lower back. Move gracefully, softly.
YOGA IS ALL ABOUT BALANCE AND MINIMAL CHANGES OF BODY ANGLES. Take few breaths here, then fold you hands to your heart, thumbs facing in and fold forward.
Grab your ankles and pull your knees to your nose. Exhale and let go of them.

To END:
Sit back down, crossed legged and repeat the initial meditation.

HINT: You may want someone to read this sequence to you while you do it, before you learn it yourself, it would be a shame to ruing the rhythm if you have to go check out what pose comes next the whole time.

P.S. I will be teaching a class on WED nights from 8-8:55 at the AU Jacobs Center all winter.

Enjoy
Namaste,
Fede~