Love muses us into big ideas and inspires us to meet those ideas with passion and effort.
Love can help us take up more space in our own bodies and our own lives.
Love can shift us from sadness to joy and from fear to courage.
That we feel the emotion is one thing; that we can participate with it to the fullest of our being is quite another.
Love, in all her forms, is the greatest teacher.
I invite you to step into your relationship to the sensation, feeling, and emotion of love.
How do you love?
Do you love out loud and tell those you that you love that you do?
Do you let them quietly sense it while you hold them in sleep?
Do you listen for love and let it fill your soul like the greatest song you’ve ever heard?
Are you willing to let love fill your calendar, your days, hours, and weeks?
And those loves you have lost, are you ready to close your eyes for at least an instant and say thank your for being in my life, for the lessons, for the reflection of grace left behind.
Love shows us what we are made of.
Love, it shows us how…
Love, Shan By Shannon Paige Schneider Living fully as an author, sacred activist, motivational speaker, dedicated teacher of Shiva Rea’s Prana Flow, and founder of Anjali Restorative Yoga; Shannon is an expressive student of the symbolic nature of Tantra and mystic poetry. She interweaves her student’s unique purpose driven inspiration into the divine play of body and breath to unlock the secret wisdom held within the heart. Her classes are dedicated to a sense of mystery and wonder within a vinyasa of self-honoring, self-cultivation, and radical self-participation. Shannonis the founder and director of om time yoga centers, tours, teaches and speaks nationally and internationally.
Asymmetrical Backbending Prana Flow Arm Balancing Prana Flow
The first one is the easiest of all. Whenever you sit-on a chair, in the car, on the couch, sit with your hips elevated higher than your knees. You can do this by rolling up a towel or a blanket and placing it underneath your “sit bones”. You can replace your desk chair with an exercise ball. These exercise/therapy balls are great for labor and birth. If you don’t have one, get one! Just make sure your knees are lower than your hips. It will be more comfortable to sit up straight, and it will also help your uterus align properly in your pelvis. And most importantly, according to Spinning Babies it will help your baby get into the right position for birth. The second thing you can do is lots and lots of pelvic rocking. Start on all fours with knees under hips and hands under shoulders. Tilt your tail bone up, then tuck your tail bone under, so the only part of the back moving is the low back and the pelvis. This is different from cat/cow where the upper back moves. This isolates the lower back and belly. When you get in your third trimester, it feels even better as it takes pressure off the pubis and the pelvic floor and improves circulation. Doing 100-150 each day is best. Now, I know that sounds like a lot but it will only take a few minutes out of your day. Your back will feel so much better. This exercise stretches and strengthens the belly and the back and has also been touted as helping your baby get into the right position for birth. Opposite arm and leg balances are helpful in strengthening the lower back and belly muscles. I have my students do these in every prenatal yoga class. Start on all fours. Make sure your hands are right under your shoulders, and your knees are right under your hips. Inhale as you extend your right leg and your left arm in the opposite direction. Hold for three breaths. Exhale and place your hand and knee back down on the floor and round your back into a cat stretch-tuck your chin and your tail bone toward the floor as you round your back up toward the sky. Repeat on the other side. Do about five on each side daily-or more if it makes you feel better. Follow these with Cat/Cow poses. Inhale and arch your back. Exhale and round your back. You can also twist around to look back over your shoulder as many times as it feels good to do it. Seated twist. Sit sideways on a chair facing the side of the chair. Take hold of the sides of the back of the chair and inhale, and as you exhale, twist toward the back of the chair. Do the other side by sitting on the other side of the chair and repeating. Wide legged forward folds feel great but if you find it uncomfortable as your belly and baby get larger, then rest your arms on a chair bringing your torso parallel to the floor.Let your belly alternately relax with each inhale and gently contract with each exhale. You can also do a wide legged forward fold with a twist. If you are comfortable in the full forward fold, then go for it. It feels very relaxing and helps to stretch the back of the body. Just remember to keep a tiny bend in the knees. The more you bend the knees, the more you release the lower back. And lastly, do squats every single day. This will help you prepare for labor and birth by making your legs stronger and ready for second stage labor. If you round your back and curl around your baby it can also be a great back stretch while you squat. Instead of bending over to pick something up, squat down to get it. Use your legs. Take your feet wider than your shoulders and hips. Turn your toes out at a 45 degree angle. Bend your knees and place your hands on your knees as you tilt your tail bone up. Then squat down fully. If your heels are off the floor, you can roll up a towel and place it under your heels or you can take your feet a little further apart. by Liza Janda E-RYT 200, AAHCC Liza Janda, has valuable experience as a Certified Fitness Instructor for 27 years, Bradley Method Certified Childbirth Educator for 16 years, and Yoga Alliance Certified Yoga Instructor for 10 years. She has worked at some of the world's leading spas: The Golden Door, Cal-a-Vie, and Rancho La Puerta. Liza Has a passion for yoga, especially Prenatal Yoga. Her dedication to helping women during pregnancy, labor, birth and post-partum is a top priority. In addition to her educational programs she provides support, information, and fellowship for mothers-to-be and new mothers. Liza feels blessed to be doing what she loves and is excited to share the gift of health and contentment through yoga with her students and friends.
Prenatal Yoga 1 Liza Janda Prenatal Yoga 2 Liza Janda Prenatal Vinyasa Flow Jennifer Lux
Its during this postpartum time, and in the midst any other radical life transition, that it’s critical to stay connected to one's practice. Especially as women, who are natural caregivers, it’s easy to forget that we must always secure our oxygen mask before helping another. Often that breath of oxygen, that deep inhale, is found only on the mat amidst the chaos of new motherhood. Perhaps in mastering the transition from hovering half moon to Warrior II, one can also start to conquer the uncertainty and challenge that accompanies any change in life, especially those related to life as a new mom. Committing to time for self-reflection on the mat allows one to move from a human being in transition, to one in transformation. Transformation is intentionally. Is it the choice to change with a certain power and decisiveness. Those qualities of strength, power, and fearlessness gestate on the mat, so that they too can be born into one’s life. Considerations for your Postnatal Yoga Practice Always consult your physician before beginning any form of postnatal exercise. The most common discomforts after having a baby include a weak pelvic floor, loss of endurance, aching neck and shoulders, weak abdominal muscles, and fatigue. Although any yoga is better than none at all, there are certain poses that better facilitate recovery from pregnancy and childbirth. Unlike prenatal yoga, where the focus is usually on opening the hips and stretching the side bodies, postnatal yoga has different goals and intentions, and includes hip neutral and hip closing positions to help bring the pelvis back into stasis. Beneficial standing postnatal poses include: Forward folds, standing splits, chair pose, crescent lunge, warrior I, warrior III, pyramid, and eagle. Additionally, focus on poses that open the heart and stretch the chest, shoulders, and neck. Many hours are spent holding and feeding a new baby, which results in rounding the upper back, collapsing the shoulders, and straining the neck. Beneficial shoulder opening poses include: Forward folds with hands clasped behind the back, cactus arms, creating big circles with the arms, standing backbends with hands behind the head, dancer, bridge, camel, bow, plow, and wheel. Abdominal work is another important focus for new mothers and required especially to weave the rectus abdominis muscle back together if the common separation or diastasis of this muscle occurred with the expanding uterus. Beneficial abdominal poses include: Boat, side plank, knee to chest from downward facing dog, plank. A weakened pelvic floor and associated discomforts are common concerns for the postpartum mom. There are several poses in which we employ a root lock, mula banda, or kegel contraction for stabilization. Beneficial poses to tone the pelvic floor include: child’s pose, downward facing dog, tree, triangle, extended side angle, fish, pyramid, chair, and hero. Its no surprise, the that best poses for fatigue are already listed on this page and offer benefits to not only the postpartum body, but also to a new mother’s mind and heart. On a final note, if you are breastfeeding, it may be uncomfortable to lie on your stomach in cobra and spine strengthening exercises. Instead, come to all fours and take the variation from a tabletop position. Lastly, avoid deep hip openers such as runners lunge, humble warrior, and malasana. By Jennifer Lux Jennifer Lux is a yoga instructor, birth doula, and mother. She teaches for Warrior Academy Yoga, with the philosophy that creating powerful bodies and open hearts on the mat will serve to improve the world around us. As a doula, Jennifer encourages women to use aspects of their yoga practice, including the breath, mantras, visualizations, vocalizations, and poses to ease and invite labor.
Prenatal Vinyasa Flow by Jennifer Lux Restorative Flow by Jackie Casal Mahrou Gentle Hatha #4 by Jackie Casal Mahrou