Yoga Underground

Happy Winter Solstice. May we honor our depth, the darkness and the teachings of our shadows. The gift of these teachings may we celebrate the returning and rebirthing of light. #wintersolstice #returnoflight #honoringthedarkness #yogaundergroundlove

What you should know to live your yoga! Shift #2: Clear & Connect After you create space to practice, it’s time to tend to your spiritual chores, I stole that from a friend. Heehee I like it! ... Shift #2 is to clear and connect to your body. First to clear you have to move or generate movement either physically or energetically. That means your body moves and/ or your breath moves. Practice. Practice. Practice. Show up and practice to purify the body, mind and energy. This is not an all or nothing mindset, this is consistent showing up to practice as little or as much as you are able consistently. This is Tapas, discipline, not punishment, but active participation to clear the line so you can connect and stay connected to your voice and universal voice. The objective is to differentiate between fear and love and choose to the best of your ability in that moment to follow a path that leads to love with discernment and balance. Again this is not an all or nothing practice. Its not about eliminating fear, but working with it to create love. It’s about being clear to see balance and connection. Clear & Connect! 1. Asana practice 2. Breath practice 3. Gratitude practice 4. Journaling practice. 5. Meditation 6. Prayer All of these support Clearing and Connection. If you are looking for support, need a guide, want to learn how to integrate yoga into your life, book a call with me. Let’s talk. Link in bio. #yogaundergroundlove #clear #connect #tapas #asana #breath #gratitude #journal #prayer #meditation #rootgrowfly #buildahomeforspirit

What If I fall? Oh but Darling, What if you fly? -E.H. #yogaundergroundlove #rootgrowfly

What you should know to live your yoga! Shift #1: Understanding Foundation The space you create is part of establishing a strong foundation. ... It’s a space of acceptance and nourishment which fuels root chakra. If you don’t feel welcomed and nourished in your practice space, whether it’s asana or breath/meditation or journaling why would your spirit want to go there consistently? Your practice is the place to come home. Maybe you experienced a nourishing home growing up, but maybe you didn’t. So, now is the time to create the space that inspires you, feeds your senses and spirit within you. You might not know what it really feels like to love and care for yourself. So here are some things I do to create my space: candles, Incense, oils, inspirational words, crystals, oracle cards, plants, pictures, twinkle lights. Feed your senses nourishment, rather than the harshness. You have permission to enjoy your practice to enjoy space and time with yourself. Learn more! join the Yoga Lab: Building Home for Spirit Facebook group #yogaundergroundlove #understandingfoundation #createspace #timewithself #nourishment #acceptance

I was talking to my little plant babies today as I was getting ready for class. It was a bit cold last night so had to bring the ones outside indoors! Today’s class I shared how plants have become a reflective mirror for me to measure how well I am caring for myself. Because the weirdest thing, when I take time to care for my plants and love on them, i feel cared for too. And when I assume they will survive and only give them attention when they look as though they are ...ready to die, guess what I am not doing so well then either. I realized this is just how I used to care for myself. Only give myself water when it looks like my leaves are all shriveled and dry! It’s true that’s how I used to care for myself. When I would think every once in a month doing something for myself would sustain me. But now I see as I have practiced and have come to see this connection between myself and nature, caring for myself is a little bit all the time. I love when my Christmas cactus and orchids are blooming and my money plant has bout quadrupled in size and height and my spider plants are sprouting babies everywhere . My monsteria plant is ready to jump ship to a new bigger container because I see I am taking care of me too. This makes my heart feel loved. As I tend to the everyday things of my life watering them consistently I grow as they grow. They remind me to just be and grow and bloom when you are ready. They remind me to be consistent with my love, this is a big one!! Not just love at the beginning or when there’s an urgency to save them, but consistent love a little bit consistently. Not smothering them or drowning them. Consistent love. So simple, yet I missed it for a long time. Yes sometimes I loose one, that’s ok. Sometimes I loose something of myself too. It’s ok. Just do your best and keep loving consistently. This is Yoga. Consistent Love. #yogaundergroundlove #thisisyoga #consistentlove #root #grow #bloom #fly @yogaundergroundlove

Today when I was teaching I was sharing with students how you want your set up to support you so your heart can feel safe to rise and you breath can extend. The point is...don’t be afraid to use props or modify your practice so you can really focus on the alignment and the muscles that are suppose to be doing the support work. You’ll find a whole new landscape within you when you provide support where it’s needed so you can release another area. 1. Lower abdominals and pe...lvic floor strength, extension of spine. 2. Supported Camel, isolate extension of thighs and hip flexors, opening of heart extension through shoulders and rib cage. 3. Square hip, straighten legs strengthen quads, hamstrings and glutes. Drive the back leg from the standing leg. 4. Another variation opening heart, shoulders, triceps. Support to root the forearms & Extend front body. 5. Forward fold. Counter pose to back bends. Pull belly in and up. No mind, no head. 6. Release outside of hips and sacrum. Balance and again shoulders/heart without compromising core for balance. #yogaundergroundlove #yogaeverydamnday #propsrus #supportyourself #rootgrowfly

There are a lot of things being brought up for review right now and one of the feelings that I am being asked to look at is that of disappointment. I don’t recall the very first time someone used that word on me, but I do remember the feeling of fear of disappointing someone. It used to feel worse than death to me. My effort to do all I could not to disappoint, especially the people who I looked up to or I held value in them. I do remember a professor writing on my pa...per, when I failed miserably, he said, I am really disappointed in you. At the time, I remember saying to myself, that was the worse thing he could have ever said to me. I did not learn the lesson in that moment how to love myself, it only reinforced this story that It’s not safe to attempt to do anything too challenging or risky. This way they will always see me as perfect and I will always have their love and approval. It’s one thing to be disappointed in an outcome of something that didn’t go your way, that would be healthy, but that’s not what I heard in my mind. In my mind, when someone tells you they are disappointed, it means that I didn’t meet the result THEY wanted and therefore I am not good enough for them or their love. It seems illogical to me that I would have this fear and yet I do. Energy isn’t logical and I can’t think away a fear that is illogical, but I can stand with it and do new things that scare me, where I might fall on my head, look like a fool tripping over my tongue as I try to share what I feel, want and need. My yoga practice has taught me to see this and how it shows up in my life. It’s ok that it does. I have the tools to guide me; The 8 limb yoga path teaches me kindness, truth, moderation, to be pure in my thoughts and body, to burn off the rubbish, to trust in God, and there are more. The tools work together when you practice and connect to your body. With this practice I learn to rewrite the story by taking action in loving support of myself. If you or someone would like to learn how yoga restores your belief in your value. Book a call or share. Link in bio. #yogaundergroundlove #rewriteyourstory #youareworthit

Can you see how one exists in another? The biggest theme in my awareness these days is the existence of feminine and masculine energy within the experience of the other. What does it really look like and why is this important?... A few weeks ago I heard this recording @nightlightastrology about how Mars energy (masculine) and Venus energy (feminine) exist in this dance together and yet they represent opposites; war and love. The example given was around sporting competition. Well this weekend I was able to witness this dynamic. I am at a college football game and if you really let yourself see, you will notice that both masculine and feminine energy are always dancing together at this event. The drive to compete and defeat the opponent is masculine, but within it there is sportsmanship and respect for everyone, this is feminine. The kneeling down when someone is injured, feminine; and the aggression which explodes in collision, is masculine. And then in and amongst men and women yelling for their teams, masculine, we have the cheer and dance squads representing the feminine and I have never seen so many women in dresses at an athletic competition. The prayer and gratitude before the competition, feminine, Venus energy. The duality naturally exists in the wholeness of life. I have found that when I try to separate them and live in only one half of this system there is suffering. But the real question for me is, How do they relate to each other? There are positive and negative expressions of each of these energies and i believe the negative aspects of each surface when we suppress one side of ourselves or of this existence. What if we invite and embody the positive aspects of both to create an amazing Union of opposites that are equal, how does that work? Imagine if we allowed this partnership to exist; to allow our feminine to inform our masculine; No action would be taken without heart. #yogaundergroundlove #equalandopposite #yinyang #venusandmars #oneinformstheother

Join us Friday Nights @ososweetchaddsford @chadds_ford_barn_shops #Repost @chadds_ford_barn_shops with @get_repost a pic from Friday night at @ososweetchaddsford ... always a great time See more