Release & Uproot
Two days ago my student came to yoga class in tears. She had just been fired. Completely at odds, she was terrified how she’d pay her rent next month. We would usually start our session with meditation and gratitude, but that day she felt like she’d been taken for a ride by the Universe. Her body was stifled, her hips and shoulders – achy, her mind – restless, and her heart full of anger and resentment. I felt I wanted to comfort her, but my intuition told me to throw her into a rigorous, fast paced yoga routine of hip and shoulder openers, backbends and twists. And, indeed, it was the right remedy to heal the wounds she had inflicted upon herself. It turned out that she hated her job for years, but was afraid to take a risk. Throughout the years she had been accumulating toxic residue in her hips, harboring unreleased emotions into her stomach, locking in fear into her shoulders. The fast paced routine did not give her the time to think about the cause of sadness and slowly the fear evaporated, the pressure dropped, and the negative patterns were released. Two days after, out of the blue, a new job found her – something she’d been dreaming for all her life, but never asked for it.
We often tend to dread the circumstances we are in, making no effort to change them. But whenever we do not take charge of our destiny, the Universe does it for us by presenting challenges as opportunities for growth. I often experience this supportive embrace of the Universe when I am grateful. It feels like everything is divinely orchestrated, and the more I trust this natural flow, the more I honor myself, the more abundance I get in my life. Hip & Shoulder opening and twisting asana routines are probably the best and fastest way to dissolve old structures from the mind, eliminate stiffness in the hips, relax tight shoulders and help unclog the system by releasing and uprooting. By uprooting we open space to see every stumbling block as a stepping stone. Then we can let go and let God.
Give it a try, and engage in a hi-paced flow of detoxifying twists, invigorating backbends, releasing hip and shoulder openers, and soothing forward bends. It’s fun, it’s groovy, it’s wholesome!
Release & Uproot – Advanced Intermediate YOGEA Routine
This hi-paced advanced intermediate YOGEA routine is intended to shift your mind into your breath and extend the gap between your thoughts, so that you can let the body heal itself. A wide variety of shoulder openers alternate with subtle and deep hip flexor stretches to help release old patterns of belief that impede the natural elasticity of the joints and ligaments in the pelvic and shoulder girdles. The deliberate shift in planes, directions and levels targets multi-purpose extension, flexion, abduction and rotation of the joints and stimulates the muscles’ ability to work synergistically, so we can stretch the hips, the shoulders, the quads and the psoas simultaneously. The deep hip openers are balanced with invigorating backbends that provide the opposite action for muscular and joint support. The sequence stimulates the first four chakras (energetic wheels in the body) and helps practitioners to connect to the Earth, find their center, boost their vitality and retrieve their identity by honoring themselves. Deeper detoxification is promoted by wide-ranging twists that further the effect of the hip and shoulder openers, by wringing the excess waste out of the lower abdominal cavity. Reclining forward bends, and subtle twists are offered as a delicious dessert for the body and a calming remedy for the mind.
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