Hi Everyone,

For all of you who want to do yoga, but don’t know how! There’s no time like the present to start practicing , Just start…, begin with this part one. Slowly get used to some of the basic standing poses that I will go through in this part and the next few. Your body will begin to get stronger with repetition and you’ll get used to the instructions. Most important of all is to end with a few minutes of relaxation to let whatever you’ve done integrate in the body and to observe what it has done for you.

The poses I demonstrate here are:

cat pose / marjaryasana

cow pose / tibilasana

mountain pose / tadasana

standing forward bend / uttanasana

low lunge / anjaneyasana

downward facing dog / adho mukha svanasana

warrior I / virabhadrasana I

warrior II / virabhadrasana II

enjoy,

Esther

Dandasana / Staff pose

benefits:

• Strengthens the quads
• Improves core stability
• Strengthens the muscles of the back

Click on Staff pose to find out how to perform this pose step by step.

Staff pose / Dandasana

step by step instructions:

• Sit with your legs together and stretched out in front of you. If you find it hard to sit with a straight back, sit on a block or folded blanket. Place your hands next to the hips on the floor.
• Your feet are flexed, extending out through the heels. Pull your thighs up in your hips, the top of the thighbone (femur bone) descends to the floor. Actively press your sit bones into the floor and a little to the back, to help you sit straight, your spine lengthens, the lower back arches a little forward towards your belly.
• Open your chest by puling your shoulders back and down along the spine. The bottom of the shoulderblades curl in towards the chest. Keep your front ribs soft. Your neck is long.
• Check that your shoulders are over the hips and your ears in line with the shoulders.
• On an inbreath you can take your arms out and lift them overhead. if you feel your upper back rounding with your arms all the way up, lower your arms a bit so you can see them from the sides of your eyes, so you can maintain the length in the upper back.
• Stay in this position between the 5-15 breaths, you can really feel your core working to maintain this pose.

Click on Dandasana to see the benefits of this pose.

Hi everyone, do this pose at the end of your practice, after you’ve properly warmed up your shoulders, upper back, lower back and thighs and groins. Its a playful, opening energizing pose that is good fun to do, not to mention challenging. I love it, but keep being challenged by it. Some people are by nature better in forward bending, others in backbending. For me forward bending poses are much easier, but than especially, backbending is so good, gets you out of your comfort zone and they’ll inspire you to be more outward going! Anyway, Enjoy your experience of it…..

the poses I demonstrate here are:

wheel pose or upward bow pose / urdhva dhanurasana

Esther

Paschimottanasana / Seated forward bend

Benefits:

• Stretches the spine, hamstrings, shoulders.
• Calms the mind, prepares you for meditation.
• Relieves mild depression.
• Stimulates internal organs like ovaries and uterus, liver and kidneys.
• Good for digestion.
• Therapeutic for high blood pressure, Insomnia and sinusitis.

Click on seated forward bend to find out how to perform this pose step by step

Seated Forward Bend / Paschimottanasana

step by step instructions

• From dandasana, sitting with your legs outstretched in front of you and your feet flexed. If you cannot sit with a straight back it means you have to sit on a block or folded blanket.
• On an inhalation lengthen your spine, gently pressing your sitting bones into the floor (or block) backward. Slightly arch your lower back forward towards your belly. Your hands are next to the hips on the floor, press into your hands to help elongate your spine .
• Pull up the thighs and let the top of the thighs than descend to the floor.
• Keeping the front of the body open and long, on an exhalation you gently begin to fold forward hinging from the hips, not bending in the back.
• Keep length from the pubic bone till the breastbone, moving first your belly, than your ribcage, chest, than your forehead towards the legs.
• Let your arms slide down along the floor, if you can, hold the feet, wrapping your 1st two fingers and thumbs around the big toes, if elbows are bend doing that keep them lifting away from the floor out to the sides and keep your shoulders away from the ears. if you can’t hold your feet, loop a strap around the soles of the feet holding the strap with both hands, keep arms straight.
• To go deeper into this pose, with every inbreath you remind yourself of the length along the front of the torso, lifting your head slightly, on an outbreath you see if you can fold deeper into the pose, still with a long spine hinging from the hips. Keeping your neck in line with your spine. If you hold a strap, just walk your hands slowly in as you go deeper, straight arms.
• In time you may be flat over the legs, spine long and you can maybe stretch your hands out beyond the feet on the floor, maybe even holding the opposite wrist.
• You can hold this pose anywhere between the 5 breaths and 5 minutes.
• to come out, on an inbreath lift head, chest and lengthen out through the front of the body, press into the sittingbones, ground tailbone down, coming up to straight.

Click on paschimottasana to find out about the benefits of this pose.

HI everyone,

Twisting is such a great thing to do, you give your organs a nice detoxing squeeze, not to mention the benefits for your spinal column and back muscles. Bring a twist into any practice you do and sometimes just focus on twisting only. Here are some of my favourite twists, Enjoy..

Esther

The poses I demonstrate in this sequence are:

standing forward bend / uttanasana

chair pose or powerful pose / utkatasana

twisted chair pose / parivrtta utkatasana

reversed side angle pose / parivrtta parsva konasana

half revolved belly pose / ardha jathara parivarttanasana

downward facing dog / adho mukha svanasana

high lunge

This is what yoga is all about in the end… it is to help you relax!!!

After a yoga workout it is important to relax, not just nice. When you do yoga, you work on an intense way on the body, you balance and stretch energy channels, muscles and organs are being affected, your nervous system needs time to integrate all this.

So please take that extra time for yourself and enjoy it! So stop reading, lie down and close your eyes and enjoy deep relaxation.

Esther

Just to let you know I’m still here, but I am a bit busy with preparing a seminar on stress management, that is on, coming Thursday. It’s always good to do these things, it reminds me again of how important certain things are in life! Especially relaxation….. what are you all doing for yourself to stay healthy and relaxed? what am I doing on a regular basis to maintain health?

We all know the things we ought to be doing, but are we..? and if we do, are we doing them for longer than 3 days?

Are we as aware of the things we do want, as we are of the things we don’t want. This is very important, since the strongest “want” comes true. Meaning that, if what we want to avoid is stronger, than wanting something positive, we get the thing we want to avoid!! That sucks, but it is true, so it’s important to know what lives inside your mind! Do you?

Try this a couple times a day

Ask yourself :

“What am I doing now?” both internally as externally and answer the question - externally you can be walking, internally worrying about work

“Is there anything I really want at this moment?” -I want to enjoy the walk

“Is there anything I really want to avoid this moment?” - I want to avoid being unprepared tomorrow

So are you being present in the moment, enjoying your walk? NO! not at all and it’s not relaxing me either this way!

Being aware of this can draw you back in the moment and than you can begin to enjoy the walk! Try it and I would love some feedback on this.

Esther