Get Energized

Enhancing energy is at the heart of every yoga practice—it's designed to release energy blockages and optimize the healthy flow of life force (prana) throughout the body. When energy is moving throughout your whole body, it's easier to attain health and happiness. So each time you do a yoga practice, you're taking one step toward improving your health.

Certain kinds of poses are particularly good for unblocking and stimulating the body's energy. Backbends in particular are energizing, since they stimulate the nervous system, open the heart, and expand our breathing capacity. Breathing practices help cultivate and maintain our life force, increasing our health and vitality. But while focusing on backbends and breath work can help our health, all we really need to do to start feeling better is unroll the mat. Each and every practice takes us one step closer to greater well-being. - Yoga Journal

Bend It Backward

You may think that backbends are extremely challenging, but this isn't true of each and every one. In fact, some backbends are gentle and easy, even for beginners. It's true that backbends tend to be energizing (which makes them an excellent alternative to substances such as caffeine), but this energizing effect doesn't have to come from struggle.

Any pose that extends the spine and the chest out of the hips has the elements of a backbend. For example, you can lie on your stomach and then lift your torso and legs off the floor to perform a gentle backbend. You can also go more deeply into such poses as Urdhva Dhanurasana (Upward Bow Pose or Wheel Pose), which requires lifting the hips to the sky while balancing on your hands and feet with your chest toward the ceiling. But such depth isn't necessary to experience a good backbend.

You need not fear backbends or to wait too long to try them. Ask your teacher about beginner backbends that are appropriate for your physical condition, and then practice them regularly. Over time, they will become easier, more comfortable, and even empowering. - Yoga Journal

Gentle Nighttime Routine

Whether it's breathing to slow the heart rate or massage to calm the mind, a simple yogic routine can be effective for a better night's sleep. The next time you have trouble sleeping, follow these simple steps, and observe their soothing wonders: Know your timing. Institute a regular bedtime; maintaining consistency will help keep your circadian rhythms—the biological changes that happen every 24 hours—steady. Eventually, your body will naturally understand and crave sleep during these hours. Create a wind-down period. Create space between your busy day and sleep time. Honor your time at home and play relaxing music, or light candles. Think of the yoga precept of pratyahara: Withdraw your senses in order to turn inward. Strike a pose. Notice how you feel before doing a nighttime yoga routine. Are you wired or tired? If you're amped up, do poses like twists or standing poses to burn off excess energy. If you're tired, do some restorative poses or breathing until you feel more refreshed. Get warm. Remember to stay toasty while practicing your nighttime poses—have a blanket, socks, and a sweater nearby. Drink a warm cup of herbal tea or take a bath based on your dosha.

Spotlight on Viniyoga

As we travel through life, it's no mystery that we are constantly evolving on all levels: physically, emotionally, and intellectually. So why not tailor a yoga routine that will help address and integrate these transitions? Viniyoga is an empowering and transformative practice designed to do just that.

In this gentle practice, created by T.K.V. Desikachar, poses are synchronized with the breath in sequences determined by the needs of the practitioner. According to Gary Kraftsow, owner and teacher at The American Viniyoga Institute on the Hawaiian island Maui, Viniyoga is a methodology for developing an integrated practice for each person's needs as they grow and change.

"As children, our practice should support balanced growth and development of the body and mind. As adults, it should protect our health and promote our ability to be productive in the world. And as seniors, it should help us maintain health and inspire a deeper quest for self-realization," Kraftsow says.

Spotlight on Jivamukti Yoga

Looking for a highly meditative but physically challenging form of yoga? Try Jivamukti. You won't be alone.

Each week, more than 2,000 people visit the Jivamukti Yoga Center in New York City. Its popularity lies in the teaching approach of cofounders David Life and Sharon Gannon, who opened their first studio in 1986, combining an Ashtanga background with a variety of ancient and modern spiritual teachings. In addition to vinyasa-style asanas, classes include chanting, meditation, readings, music, and affirmations. This spiritual resource center also offers specialized courses in Sanskrit and the sacred yoga texts.

"Over the course of time, students will get a broad yoga education," Life promises. "One week, a class may focus on a particular asana, while the next week's theme may discuss more metaphysical issues."

Beginner classes start by emphasizing standing poses, followed by instruction on forward bends, backbends, and inversions. These classes also introduce chants.  Yoga Journal

Spotlight on Restorative Yoga

Let's face it: Some yoga poses taste a little bit sweeter than others. And if yoga were a smorgasbord, restorative postureswould most definitely be at the dessert table. These soothing and well-supported poses offer us the opportunity to linger quietly for a few moments and savor the simple sweetness of life.

In an ideal world, every asana would feel restorative. But those that fall into the special category of restorative poses have a particular ability to leave us nourished and well rested. These postures are usually deeply supported by blankets, blocks, or other props and are held for several minutes at a time.

Restorative practice can be intimidating for beginners—all those props! But just a few guiding tips will help you start a regular restorative practice of your own. Start out with a few minutes of gentle movement before settling into a restorative pose or practice. A little stretching will warm the muscles and create space in the body to prepare it for relaxation. Movement will also give your body a chance to shed its restlessness and activity before settling into a place of stillness.

Spotlight on Ashtanga Yoga

Ashtanga is an intensely physical and athletic form of yoga. Ashtanga yogis practice a prescribed set of asanas, channel energy through the body using bandhas (locks), and concentrate on singular points using drishti (gaze) in asanas. Classes typically begin with an invocation to Patanjali chanted in Sanskrit.

Although Ashtanga Yoga literally translates as "eight-limbed yoga" and refers to the eight limbs outlined by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutra, in modern America it most often refers to the system taught by Indian yoga master K. Pattabhi Jois. Sometimes called Ashtanga vinyasayoga, Jois's Ashtanga comprises a precise series of poses done in sequential order, linked with the breath.  Yoga Journal

Core of Support

When your core is strong, you'll feel easier in your poses and more capable in your life.

By Andrea Ferretti

This sequence by Harvey Deutch and Sarana Miller, a student of Ana Forrest, taps into your core, the literal and symbolic center of power. But this isn't a "Get a six-pack in six weeks" deal. Instead of focusing on the rectus abdominus (the six-pack), you'll work the deeper layers of the abdominal area, such as the transversus abdominus.

Switching from the six-pack to the deeper layers takes subtle awareness, so be patient even if you can't access the muscles right away. (When all else fails, try laughing, says Miller, since you use the transversus to laugh or cough.)

It's important to persevere, but don't work to exhaustion or you'll end up using your lower back and hip flexors. Plan on doing just a few repetitions each day, and your body will respond quickly. The result of all your hard work? A stronger core, more ease in your poses, and a more powerful you.

Before you begin

Mula Bandha (Root Lock)
Engaging Mula Bandha, or the perineum, contains your energy and strengthens the pelvic floor. Sitting in Virasana, roll your sitting bones back and engage Ashvini Mudra (the anal sphincter muscles). Bring your pelvis back to neutral. Now try to feel the perineum, the area right in front of the anus. Engage Mula Bandha by lifting the perineum (the action is very similar to Kegels). Do 30 lifts 3 times, breathing naturally.

Finding Your TA
The transversus abdominus (TA) is the deepest of the four layers of abdominal muscles. It runs from your lower ribs to your pubis and acts like a girdle, wrapping around your body. Lie back with your feet on the floor. Place your first two fingers on your frontal hipbones and move them an inch toward your navel. Exhale and engage the TA by drawing your belly back toward the ground. Take5 breaths, keeping it engaged.

Please click on the images below to see them in more detail

1. Happy Baby Pose, variation  Lie on your back, engage your TA, and reach your arms up. Lift your legs off the floor, with your knees over your hips and your shins parallel to the floor. Keep your TA drawing in as you move your arms and legs back and forth a few inches, like a baby reaching up to play with a mobile. Continue for 30 seconds and then rest. Repeat 3 to 5 times.

2. Toe Taps  With your TA engaged, breathe normally as you slowly tap your right toe to the ground and return to neutral. Do the same with the left foot. Repeat 4 times. A sore lower back or hip flexors means you're relying on them instead of your TA to do the work. Reduce the number of repetitions and try it again tomorrow.

3. Setu Bandha Sarvangasana (Bridge Pose) Bring both feet to the floor. Place a block between your thighs. Reach your tailbone toward your heels and lift your hips into Bridge Pose. This doesn't have to be your highest version of Bridge; focus on keeping the TA engaged. Stay for 3 to 5 breaths. Repeat 2 to 5 times.

4. Dolphin Pose Come onto your hands and knees. Place your elbows under your shoulders and press your palms together firmly. Come into Dolphin, feeling the abdominal area hollow out and the perineum lift. Stay for 5 to 10 breaths.

5. Dolphin Plank Pose Walk your feet back until your body is parallel to the floor. Keep pressing your hands together and hug your inner legs toward the midline. Hold for at least 3 full breaths, using your TA for stability.

6. Salabhasana (Locust Pose) Lie on your belly and bring your arms to your sides, palms facing up. Draw your lower belly toward your spine and lengthen your tailbone toward your heels to engage your TA. Lift your chest off the floor, drawing your heart forward and spreading your collarbones wide. Now lift your legs off the floor. Keep your neck completely relaxed. Stay for 5 breaths.

7. Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward-Facing Dog Pose) Come into Downward Dog. To feel Mula Bandha and the transversus, roll your sitting bones toward the ceiling. Then draw your tailbone toward your heels and hug your thighs as if you're holding a block between them. Exhale, then draw your lower belly toward your spine. Stay for 5 breaths.

8. Low Lunge  Step your right foot forward between your hands into a low lunge. Bring your hips over your back knee. Press the top of your back foot into the ground and tuck your tailbone. Place your right hand on a block and reach your left arm up. Bend to the right to create a stretch in the left side of the belly. When you're ready, inhale back to center, then step back to Downward Dog. Repeat on the other side.

9. Adho Mukha Vrksasana preparation (Handstand preparation)  Stand in Tadasana with your back to a wall. Place your feet a few inches from the wall and hug a block between your thighs. To feel Mula Bandha, roll your pelvis forward and take your thighs back. Then draw your tailbone toward your heels and squeeze the block. Bring the lower ribs toward your spine as you reach your arms up, palms facing the ceiling. Come onto your tiptoes, using the wall for support.

10. Adho Mukha Vrksasana (Handstand)  Now it's time to put it all together-upside down. Place your hands a few inches from the wall. Come into Downward Dog. Inhale as you kick up. Use your core muscles to help you reach your heels higher up the wall. Stay for 5 to 10 breaths, then come into a forward bend.