Gentle mindful flow

MOVING MINDFULLY
How might you apply mindfulness to your practice today? The essence of mindfulness is bringing one’s attention to the present moment. Being present on your mat during your practice and moving mindfully will help you link to how you are moving, how you are breathing, and how the practice makes you feel. Slow gentle movement gives you the space to listen to what you need in this specific practice and avoid bypassing sensations and warning signs of pushing beyond your limits. Remember when you start to feel sensation, and not beyond it, is your version of the pose. As you move in this mindful way you become more aware of your breath and how you are breathing during different phases of your time on the mat.

SEARCH FOR FEEDBACK
Sometimes we forget what has brought us to our mats, and it becomes habitual as we detached from our practice. Connecting with the feedback your body gives you, with non attachment to perfection, will bring you back to the present moment in the physical body. Moving slowly is no mean feat! It builds stability in the joints as the surrounding muscles work hard to control the movement. It is much easier to quickly step forward from Adho Mukha Svanasana/Downward Dog to the top of your mat, than stepping forward as slow as possible and activating the stabilising muscle of your core and hips, and the strength of your legs to control the movement.

EXPLORING GENTLE MINDFULNESS IN YOUR PRACTICE
As you move gently with mindfulness, search for small change brought on through your practice not big changes and perfection – a gentle stretch, an opening, a quietning of the mind. Before you move from pose to pose consider how you are going to journey there – as slow and controlled as possible.

ALIGNMENT CUES
This one is about being kind to yourself and moving gently. Start your practice lying on your back, with your hands on your belly, and take a few rounds of Viloma breath. Viloma breath breaks the exhale into three and helps to naturally lengthen the breath without tension – inhale completely then exhale, pause, exhale, exhale pause the full breath. As you run through the sequence pause in each pose long enough to register how the pose makes you feel and ask yourself if you need to back off a little or go further to find an appropriate sensation. Pay particular attention to your breath. There are a few mini flows in the first two rows that will help you link breath with movement.

• Spend plenty of time in the warm up phase of the sequence. Feel into the ball and socket hip joint as you move through some of the hip opening warm up poses in row one.

• Find your most supportive version of Balasana/Child’s Pose either arms forward, arms back, forearms either side of the head or a bolser between the knees to support the chest and head.

• In Ardha Uttanasana/Half Forward Fold reach your chest forward and peel your shoulders back. Feel a stretch in the chest and strength in the upper back.

• When moving from Uttanasana/Forward Fold to Tadasana/Mountain press strongly into your feet to ground down as you rise up.

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Ruth Delahunty Yogaru

Hands free flow

RETHINKING TRANSITIONS
Injuries can really test our patience. Wrist injuries in particular can feel like the end of your practice for the foreseeable future! But it doesn’t have to be so drastic. Adho Mukha Svanasana/Downward Dog is the most obvious pose that will cause problems with a wrist, hand, arm or shoulder injury. We predominantly use Adho Mukha Svanasana/Downward Dog as a transitional pose through the standing sequences of our practice. There are more than one way to get from standing pose to standing pose. Often the answer to many sequencing conundrums are answered through the beginners mindset. Stepping forward from Adho Mukha Svanasana/Downward Dog is not an easy transition for most beginners. When teaching beginner students we step them back from Tadasana/Mountain into standing poses, similar to how we transition in Iyengar. Taking a leaf out of the beginners book will help you flow through your practice without having to worry about encountering a wrist intense pose. Once you safely navigate the standing poses, and find your way to the seated poses, there is less of an issue with wrist problems.

ADAPT TO YOUR SURROUNDINGS
A sequence without Adho Mukha Svanasana/Downward Dog can also come in very handy if you are practising outdoors and the ground doesn’t look very inviting. I’ve also sometimes had to adapt my practice to this method in Hotel rooms. Carpets can hold onto the memories of the many previous guests and not be very inviting to vinyasaing through Ashtanga Pranam/Knees, Chest, Chin and Bhujangasana/Cobra! You can start your practise with some standing side stretches and twists and then start from ½ Surya Namaskara on the second row.

EXPLORING HANDS FREE FLOW UP IN YOUR PRACTICE
This hands free flow is perfect for wrist, hand, arms and shoulder injuries. It is also suitable for carpal tunnel syndrome and tendonitis. It bypasses Adho Mukha Svanasana/Downward Dog, Four Limb Staff/Chaturanga, Phalakasana/Plank and any poses that puts excess body weight on the hands and arms. Instead of taking Balasana/Child’s Pose as your resting pose you will pause in Tadasana/Mountain and assimilate the practice. When you are stepping back step your left foot back first so that you are practising with the right leg forward first.

ALIGNMENT CUES
Our peak pose for this sequence is Vrksasana/Tree. It will teach you the principle of rooting down, finding your centre of gravity and feeling the surface beneath you.

• From Tadasana/Mountain, hands on hips, inhale, pour your weight into your left foot, draw your navel towards your spine.

• Bend your right knee and open your hip out to the side, place your right foot on your right calf, or at the top inside of your left thigh.

• Press your right foot against your inner left thigh and your thigh into your foot.

• Place your hands on your hip bones to check they are level, press firmly into the standing leg, exhale here.

• Lengthen through your spine to the tip of your crown, bring your hands to prayer position, inhale, raise your hands up over your head, broaden your collarbones gaze forward.

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Ruth Delahunty Yogaru

Self care flow

WHAT IS SELF CARE?
What does self care mean to you and can you allow time for yourself without self judgement? Self care crosses into many different areas of life – it can be about how you talk to yourself, learning to slow down and honouring your time, adding meditation into your day, or as simple as your morning cuppa ritual of quiet ‘me time’. Andrea Ferretti, host of the Yogaland Podcast defines self care as “the conscious act of taking care of your needs so that you can best serve your purpose, or dharma, in the world’. With this definition in mind self care is not just an inward journey, it is also about being of service to the world around us – this is why self care should never be considered self indulgent. Another way of looking at it is putting your gas mask on first before you tend to others. Speak kindly to yourself and you paved the way for kindness to others.

START YOUR YEAR WITH SELF CARE
I’m currently doing a ‘Start your year with Self Care’ online course with Andrea and I’m absolutely loving it. This three week meditation and self reflection programme makes this sometimes tricky subject for some incredibly accessible and doable - in terms of the ability to accept the importance of self care and seeing that the time required to embed this in your everyday life is not overwhelming. Each week four meditations and a podcast with Andrea and Jason Crandell are unlocked for you to work through in your own time. There is the option to journal after each meditation and a Self Care Workbook to help you work out what self care means to you. As I finish off week three I’m contemplating how I can apply the principles I have learnt beyond the comfort and guidance of the programme. Naturally for me the best place to start is on my mat.

EXPLORING SELF CARE IN YOUR PRACTICE
The self care of yoga and meditation helps you stay present and tune in to self awareness – making conscious choices easier to tap into throughout your day. This sequence gives lots of opportunities to ask yourself ‘which asana nourishes me?’. Hips will be opened; spines will be flexed, extended and twisted; and the strong muscles of your legs will be charged. As you flow through this sequence notice which poses you enjoy and which challenge you physically and mentally. Build a picture of what is your unique self care through yoga is. After your practice ask yourself ‘what will I do differently today to take care of myself?’

ALIGNMENT CUES
Move slowly and pause in each of the poses long enough to register how they sit with you. The peak pose of this sequence is Camatkarasana/Wild Thing, which is a pose with nowhere to hide! Love it or hate it, it brings up emotions. It is a full body backbend, a strong arm balance and an inversion as the heart is higher than the head. Read through these alignment cues to get the most out of your pose and feel it ripple through your whole body.

• From Vasisthasana/Side Plank, step your left foot behind your right leg with a bent knee, inhale here.

• Exhale, ground into your right foot to lift your hips up and arch your upper back.

• Rotate your left palm to face the front of the mat, sweep your arm up and over your ear.

• Arch through your whole back, lengthen your neck and softly reach your head back, expand through the collarbones and open through your heart centre, gaze up.

I highly recommend Andrea Ferretti’s wonderful online self care meditation course. The course is a real time three week session with interaction with Andrea and an optional Facebook group, which is the type of online course I find I get so much more out of. Pop yourself on her waiting list to be notified of the next session.

To save the images for personal use click and hold down the image until the ‘save image’ option appears; on Mac hold down ‘control’ and click the image to get the option box; on PC right click on the image to get the option box. Scroll down in the ‘option box’ and click ‘save image’.

Ruth Delahunty Yogaru