Our neck is our connection between our heart and our head. Often they get tight and tense from sitting, stress, overuse, poor breathing habits, holding the world up on our shoulders, spending too much time living up in our heads and not in our hearts etc… There are many very simple stretching exercises that can be done to alleviate the discomfort of tense, tight muscles. Just taking a five minute break during the day can do a lot to release that stress and make you feel more relaxed and centered ready to face the next thing. Here is my favorite neck stretching routine.
Yoga is a journey; it is not an outward adventure, it is an inward voyage. Just like any trip you would take it is helpful to know where you are headed (at least what direction to start out in); it is even more useful to have a map and a guidebook and it is most supportive to have a guide that is familiar with the area. Here are 9 fundamental building blocks every beginner should know before getting started with the yoga positions. This foundation includes the big picture, the guidebook and I will be your tour guide. The asanas/postures are the maps that you will use to explore the terrain of yourself. Yet it is imperative to walk the journey yourself; I can not carry you and there is no benefit in staying home and just studying the map. These 9 fundamental building blocks chart the journey ahead, what you need to bring, what you can expect and what you need to know before we get started.
The teaching of sthira and sukha goes back through history to one of the earliest written classic texts about the practice of yoga, The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali. There is a story from Indian mythology that beautifully illustrates these two qualities. It is the story of Ananta, the king of the snakes, the king of the Nagas. It is told that Ananta floats on an ocean, his long body is curled up to form a comfortable couch for the god Vishnu, his thousand heads come up like a protective umbrella over Vishnu on which lies our world. Ananta is firm and steady enough to hold the world yet soft and comfortable enough to be the seat of a god.
The qualities of sthira and sukha are essential to ones yoga practice. Without it there is no asana. Early on in my yoga practice, when I started taking classes, I learned about these qualities. I learned at that time that these words simply meant ease and effort and that each pose should posses each of these two qualities equally. Yet there is a richness and a depth to these concepts that I have just recently begun to unravel and shed some more light on. In turn they have brought a deeper awareness, sensitivity and joy to my practice.
Yoga Positions for Beginners Session 1
When I first started exploring yoga in 1997 I remember being very delighted to just practice some basic yoga positions by myself with a routine I created from a book I found on my mother’s shelf. It was called Savitri’s Way to Perfect Fitness Through Hatha Yoga by Savitri Ahuja. It was a very sweet book from 1979 with beautiful hand sketched drawings of people performing the postures and cute yet curious sayings at the top of each page. It wasn’t until a while later that I actually ended up in a class with my first teacher, Judith Dahn. Classes and personal instruction are incredibly valuable and rewarding. However, I would not change how I got started for the world. I highly value my time starting slowly by myself in my living room. From the very beginning I was tuning into myself and my own inner teacher. I invite you to do the same. I am offering here a simple, short sequence to those of you who are just getting started on your own journey of yoga or seasoned studio goers who want some basic yoga positions to practice at home.
