This week’s class theme is ✨Intuition✨
Each of us is born with an internal guidance system of consciousness and wisdom that resides within us. This powerful tool allows us to navigate through life and make the best decisions for ourselves. Intuition awareness is something we can each develop more with practice. Intuition can be a difficult idea to teach because it is something that we all have, and it is merely “felt” with a deep sense of knowing or “gut instinct.” The simplest way to get in touch with our intuition is to sit in stillness and allow our own inner guidance to give us answers to questions we might have. Or, we can simply allow stillness and quiet to create more clarity. Yoga is a great practice to help us get in touch with our intuition because it creates a space for us to be present and for our minds to be calmer.
“Intuition is seeing with the soul.” – Dean Koontz
Our peak pose is Firefly (Tittibhasana)
In this class, the goal is to tap into intuition: oftentimes the way that you know if something is wrong or right is that gut feeling. It’s that exact place that needs to build a fire in order to correctly do Firefly pose. One thing that’s important to reach Firefly, is the lifting of the abdominal muscles and the solar plexus area.
Malasana
How to:
1. From Mountain pose, step your feet out about 2-3 feet apart.
2. Bend your knees and come into a squat. If your heels lift off the ground, you can place a folded blanket underneath them for support.
3. Bring your hands together in prayer and press your elbows into your knees.
4. Lean your torso forward slightly and work to keep your torso right in between your thighs.
5. Keep length in your spine and the chest open.
6. Point your tailbone down towards the mat and shift your weight into your heels.
7. Hold for several breaths. To release, bring your hands to the mat or hips. Engage your core and thighs. Rise up slowly.
Extended Side Angle
How to:
1. Begin in Warrior II pose.
2. Bring your front forearm onto your front thigh.
3. Extend your opposite arm up toward the sky with your fingers pointing towards the front of your mat.
4. Allow the bicep of your top arm to frame your ear. If this is too much, you can keep the arm lifted straight up towards the sky.
5. Keep your chest rotated upward and root down through the outer edge of your back foot.
6. Lift your head up towards the top arm. If this is too much, keep your gaze towards the ground.
7. To advance the pose, bring your top arm and extend your fingers toward the outside of your front foot. To help with flexibility, you can place a block by your front foot and place your hand on it.
8. To come out of the pose, press into your front thigh and activate your core to lift you back up to Warrior II.
Lizard with Shoulder Under Knee
How to:
1. Begin in Plank pose. Step your right foot forward in between your hands.
2. Align your front knee with your front ankle.
3. Come up onto the ball of your left foot and push slightly forward. If you are new to the pose or working on hip flexibility, keep your left knee back down on the mat.
4. Bring both of your hands on the inside of your right foot and begin to move your right foot closer to the edge of the right side of your mat.
5. Engage and activate your core and back leg muscles to keep you balanced.
6. To deepen the pose, you can opt to come down on your forearms.
7. Stay here for several breaths. Release out of the pose gently and switch sides.
Firefly Pose, or Tittibhasana
How to:
1. Begin in in a forward bend.
2. Bring your right hand through your right leg and around your right calf, placing your shoulder behind your knee.
3. Bring your left hand through your left leg and around your right calf, placing your left shoulder also behind your knee.
4. Lift your chest forward and let your legs rest upon the back of your upper arms.
5. Inhale, lifting your feet off of the mat entirely.
6. Point or flex your feet and extend them out long in front of you.
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