Welcome to Expand June
Expand is about taking up space. Expanding boundaries and confidence, and expanding capacity for self, relationships and work. Expand is the inhale.
As we focus this month on expansion, we will work in sync with what the body needs, and cool down when necessary. With warming temps and sunny days, early summer is a time of excitement, new energy and flow. Most of us are ready to try something new and get moving.
The yoga will focus on specific poses, and pose-sets. I will make sure to include with more instruction than in some other classes to make sure no-one is left behind. This is an all-levels series, no matter where you are coming from, we all begin together.
Week 1: Expand LOVE, Backbends
Backbends can be scary, intimidating and sometimes uncomfortable in people’s bodies. They can also be invigorating, empowering, and EXPANSIVE when done intentionally, and safely. My intention is for you to feel expansive, flowing energy that occurs when opening up the spine and creating more space. The goal of this week is not to nail a ‘big backbend’. Instead, I ask you to approach Backbends with thoughtful, careful movements to create more space.
Whether you are new or have been practicing for a while: this month is about establishing relationship to a “push-pull” in each pose. Depth comes from understanding your relationship to your body in any moment. Here's what I mean:
Push a little further into something that seems safe, reasonable and intriguing. This is where the confidence comes in, do you feel ready to try something new? Do you know your body well enough to know whether it is safe or not?
Pull means using that same confidence to know when it is time for you to pull back. Are you too hot (or are your hands sweaty)? Are you tired today? Have you had a stressful day and any extra push may be aggravating? These are all good reasons to rest and reset.
This back-bend class moves your body towards wheel pose, with sun salutations and deep stretches. 2 blocks and wall space recommended.
Physical Focus: Chest and thigh stretching.
Intensity: Balanced.
Week 2: Expand Creativity, Hanuman and Hips
This week is a balance between fluid creativity and intentional space. Hanumanasana, or the “splits” is a pose that requires our boundaries, and our awareness. At the same time the hips and thighs hold some of our deepest emotions. Releasing energy in this region helps free up energy so that we can feel more at peace.
It is hard to feel creative and attuned to the self when there are layers of stagnant energy weighing us down. This energy comes from relationships, work, conversations and communal stress. It is not bad, but when it takes root in the body, it can make us feel uneasy and agitated. That is why we want to move the hips, and often!
The approach we are taking this week is one of attention and care. We are easing into the big pose and ensuring that we move with safety and body awareness. This may sound counterintuitive for the call for creativity. I assure you that even very aligned movement in the hips will help you feel more at home in your body.
Please revisit my note about “Push-Pull” in the week one notes. This remains important when working with any deep pose.
This class is a slow build towards opening up the hips and backs of the legs and moving into the splits.
Physical Focus: Hips & Hamstrings
Intensity: Energizing
Props: 2 Blocks recommended.
Week 3: Expand Resilience, Visvamitrasana and other arm balances
Resilience is about long-term stability. And to be strong over time, we need to be flexible and adaptable. Forcing our way through a pose or situation often means you face resistance. Instead we are looking for persistence and the ability to adapt. This is how we become more resilient.
There’s a myth out there that we are lacking strength and to do the things we want, we need to get stronger. Our bodies are brilliant and capable, and we simply need to figure out how to move in harmony with the body as whole.
For example, if your wrists hurt in Down dog, or plank, you might benefit from strengthening the wrists. However, with intelligent activation of strength in your arms, shoulders, core, back and legs, you might stay in the pose without pain in your wrists.
Awareness is key in being attentive to your boundaries and your body. Arm-balances are about confidence. Not confidence in whether you can do the pose to its fullest, rather confidence in your capable body. Confidence in your relationship to your movement, your flexibility, and your strength.
There is nothing wrong with never landing an arm-balance, or not straightening your leg all the way over your head. Instead, let’s be flexible and fluid and have FUN while doing it.
This class requires your flexibility, adaptability and resilience. We move through side plank variations, balance poses and binds to help open up into Visvamitrasana prep.
Physical Focus: Shoulders and Hamstrings
Intensity: Energizing
Week 4: Expand Possibility, Pincha Mayurasana
In this final week of June, we focus on uplifting energy, freeing up sticky spots in the body and taking up space. Culminating into Forearm Stand.
This pose is all about balance and tying energetic lines together through body connectedness, and a mind that allows for possibility. This pose is not about force. Often in a challenging pose or situation we try to rush to the outcome, rather than learn from the process.
After years of kicking into handstand and forearm stand at the wall, I am relearning to do the pose without the end as a goal. Instead, I am working on understanding all the potential and possibility throughout the route.
Whether you are seeking a new job (like I was last year), a solution to a relationship dynamic or something else, we can benefit from focusing on the process rather than the anticipated outcome. The truth is we don’t know what that outcome will be, but we can revel in each moment along the way.
This class is about shifting what you think you know about landing an inversion. We're training in force with subtle awareness. This class is a set of poses, without flow, culminating with Forearm stand in middle of the room.
Physical Focus: Shoulders & Balance Poses
Intensity: Balanced
Zoom Recording Links:
This month’s Zoom links have expired ♥