March 2008 Newsletter

Keeping Focus by using the Breath

In the past few classes, we have been working with various themes around our breathing.  Breathing into specific areas develops mindfulness, awareness and brings aliveness into blocked areas.  Students often ask me how to breath into specific areas.  I'm not asking students to imagine breathing into these areas, I want them to physically do that.  You must breathe different internally to access different areas.  For example:

•  To breathe into the lower back, bear down internally and hold the abdominal wall so the breath fills down into the back and not the belly.
•  To expand or telescope the ribs, work on filling up the lungs in all three directions and example the sides of the ribs, the back ribs, and the front ribs.  The intercostals or rib muscles need to expond so breath can freely fill the lungs.    My teacher Ana Forrest says "Don't be stingy with the breath!".
•  To breathe into the chest, pull belly in on inhale and spread the ribs so the breath can enter the chest. 
•  To breathe into an injury or attitude takes more skill.  Locate where these issues exist in the body and then work on breathing into that area.  Bring new energy and breath in on inhale and dissolve and release old patterns on exhale.  This can change the deep set patterns in your body and mind.

We do breath work in the beginner class sometimes but the intermediate class always begins with 5-10 minutes of breath work.  Some of the breathing patterns we do are:

•  Uddiyana - used to work the abdominals and lengthen the spine
•  Alternate Nostril Breathing - used to balance the breath and the brain. 
•  Kapalabhati (skull shining) - used to clear out old stagnate energy
•  Sitali - used as a cooling breath
•  Bramari - a humming breath used to enliven the chakras or energy centers in the body

For those of you in my beginner class that have been working with me for six months or more, if you are interested in the intermediate class, please let me know.  This class is for experience beginners in Forrest or intermediate yoga practitioners and will take your practice to a deeper level, not just with poses but also with breath work and longer savasana and relaxation. 

January 2008 Newsletter

Why do we work the core muscles in every Forrest Yoga class?

Every Forrest Yoga class, from the beginner to the advanced, works and enlivens the core of the body.  There are several purposes for this.  The first is to warm up the body from the center on out.  Second, this work ensures that important areas of the hips are lubricated and warm for the rest of the class.  Third, it increases the student’s connection to the core of their body, which they are often disconnected from. 

I have worked with strong fit people but I have never worked with anyone that doesn’t need more core work.  Sometimes people are very strong in their abdominal wall but it is very tight and constricted.  This constriction is a trap for energy and injury.  Strong, flexible, and moveable core muscles are what we are after.  We often don’t know how to be both open and strong.  Ana Forrest says:

“Strength is about being able to feel, process and move through an experience, not shield from it.  Openness is about being able to be affected, to fold oneself around an experience, and then unfold.  All this is tempered with the intelligence and the guidance of the spirit – what should stay and be integrated, and what should not stay passes through the emotional and physiological colon of our being.”

And you thought you were just working on getting a six-pack!  Use this new knowledge the next time we go to work our core in class and feel excited about how great it feels to be in the moment and really feel. 

October 2007 Newsletter

Why Do We Do “Active Feet” in Forrest Yoga?

All Forrest Yoga poses have the practitioner do “active feet”.  “Active Feet” means to spread the bones and muscles of the feet.  We do active feet in every pose except savasana.  The benefits are many:

• Gives  strong foundation for toes
• Supports knees, hips, and back
• Brings health to the feet bones, nerves, and muscles
• Stimulates the whole nervous system
• Keeps you present in your body

Warming up the feet with this move greatly helps the human balance system.  If the toes are spread, we can balance more easily because there is a broader foundation.  The way we walk, run, jump, and climb through life starts with the connection with our toes.  If the toe and feet are stiff, they don’t transmit the information they are getting as they move across the earth and gait can be affected. 

 A great article on toes is here: http://yogajournal.com/for_teachers/2543

September 2006 Newsletter

In Forrest Yoga, we teach everything while doing a strong, deep, rich, nourishing breath.  Why is this?  In the air we breathe exists prana or energy. 

From Wikipedia: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prana )

Prana (prāNa) is a Sanskrit word meaning 'breath' and is understood as the vital, life-sustaining force of living beings and the vital energy in all natural processes of the universe.

Forrest Yoga asks us to breathe everywhere in our body and not just to imagine the breath going everywhere but to physically feel the breath.  For me, this is easier in the trunk of my body, my hips, and even my head, than it is in my extremities.  Sometimes in class, Forrest asks us to focus on a particular body part – an injury or an area where an emotion is stored (like grief in the belly).  One time, I worked with my many-times-over sprained ankle – it was hard to get the breath in there but I was able to do it on some breaths.

To move the breath into different areas of the body requires different movements.  For example to breath into the lower back, one must push, bear down internally, and hold the abdominal walls steady so that the breath fills down into the back and not the belly.  [1]  To breath into the chest, one must pull the belly in on inhale and spread the ribs. 

Breathing also keeps us in the present moment.  When we do ujaii breath, we can hear it and we can start to notice what it sounds like.  Is it jagged?  Is it smooth?  Is the inhale shorter than the exhale?  One time during teacher training I went to a 3 AM class with just a few people. Ana came up behind me and said, “Your breath is struggling at the end of the inhale – you are struggling in practice.  Take the struggle out by smoothing out the breath”.  Sure enough – I was struggling, and she could tell by just listening to my breath.  Once I made my breath smoother, I was able to practice in a more struggle free manner. 

As we begin to think about breath containing prana or energy, we begin to realize that breath is life and we become more aware of our breath outside of yoga class.  Try taking a deep breath when you are tired and need energy.  It works wonders.

After a while, you will realize how delicious, how precious, each breath is – and you will relish each breath during your practice and your life.