Vitality Blast
Urban Yoga seems to be picking up this summer. From “Long Island” beach classes, through “Bryant Park” group sessions, to yoga at “Times Square” to inaugurate the summer solstice, outdoor yoga activities seem to be spicing up our daily city life. As I watched a class at Bryant Park last week I couldn’t stop marveling a crowd of over 500 people gliding through “updog” to “downdog” in perfect unison. It’s inspiring to watch practitioners floating together in space, creating patterns of sacred geometry with their bodies and breath. Hundreds of yogis amidst the traffic noise, the odors and fumes, tuning together to the pulse of the city, rippling through a sea of poetry in motion, humming the city tunes!
You can get the same kick from the city’s magic if you perch on a rooftop on a summer morning, and instead of bringing the senses inwards, you decide to open up and embrace this urban live band, playing its symphony of interweaving sounds, images and flavors. We often tend to seek peace and quiet in yoga, seeing practice through a narrow perspective of how it “should be.” But what if we embrace the entire live fabric of the city, its explosion of sensitivities, and make the experience more energizing than depleting? The city is indeed, a subtle network of floating sounds, scents, images, ideas, energies. When I practice in the heart of the city I exuberate in this plentitude, indulging into its flavors and observing it from a bird’s eye, with equanimity and delight. As I flow through my empowering practice, I sense the subtle shift of the urban resonance – from mechanical to natural, from technological to organic. I let the sounds come and go, getting lost in them, without grasping them or pushing them away. As I move and open I realize that I can hear my thoughts rather than listen to them, in the same way I let the sounds around me to come into my awareness and then leave. In the middle of the cacophony there is an experience of internal quiet than noise. What invariably follows is a sense of gratitude for all I hear, see, smell, feel and taste in the moment – simple things that are always present, but I seldom notice, such as the sylph-like clouds in the sky, the silhouette of the skyline, the texture of the air within and around me. As I invite the city landscape to come to the foreground, I notice that my world of swirling thoughts recedes into the background. Then the practice becomes an invitation to a colorful reality, rather than an escape from an illusory world, a re-emergence, rather than a retreat. Choose to try Vitality Blast, it’s an urban treat!
Morning Yoga Routine – Vitality Blast
This sequence has an empowering and rejuvenating effect on the body and mind and is best suited as a morning practice. It starts off with a core-building and hamstring-stretching warm up that brings heat into the joints and promotes optimal energy flow, opening the nerve channels to receive morning life force. Special emphasis is placed on externally and neutrally rotated standing poses that stabilize the ball and socket joints, while strengthening the ligaments and toning the muscles. Proper spinal alignment is stressed, while safe backbends are introduced to energize the body, open the senses outwards, and induce a positive and radiant mood. Furthermore, seated spinal bound twists are interspersed throughout the practice to boost the morning detoxification processes in the body and help eliminate excess waste. The frequent meridian crossings stimulate both brain hemispheres to work in tandem and cultivate a lucid mind and a supple body, ready to start the day fresh and positive. The conclusive forward bends help quiet the mind, manage stress locked in the cells, and foster acceptance. Rejuvenating breathing techniques infuse the routine with psycho-physical benefits. The practice ends standing as a reminder that we are firmly rooted in the present moment that is always exciting and
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