.jpg)
Although I’ve been a yoga practitioner for more than sixteen years and a yoga teacher for six, I only came to enjoy the full benefit derived from yoga poses after receiving my yoga certification because I now understood the process wholeheartedly.
Every time I see old pictures on Facebook Memories, I would cringe at how flimsy my poses were. If my arms were up and my front knee was bent, I was a warrior! But in those early days, my Downward Dog looked like more a broken Teluk Intan bridge.
No wonder I was constantly - and consistently - getting injured. I didn’t engage; I didn’t activate; I just went the motions without any soul. For me, it didn’t make a difference; I faked it – without knowing that I was faking it – just so I could make it.
I now understand that the little things make all the difference when it comes to achieving positive results. I believe we all should do things well or not at all. If attention and awareness aren’t paired with what we’re doing, everything tends to fall apart rather quickly.
In this week’s video, I want to share little tricks I’ve picked up along the way that have helped me with my yoga. Not only will I be revisiting basic poses such as Downward Dog as well as Warrior One, Two and Three respectively, but I will also be addressing certain key aspects we tend to overlook simply because we are busy trying to mimic the teacher or the yoga practitioner next to us that we forget to concentrate on the most important person – yourself.
I am very particular with poses done ‘perfectly’ because I know how beneficial they are. For instance, Downward Dog is my go-to pose when I’m iffy about things in life. The pose stretches my entire body, right down to my fingers and toes. The amazing pull you experience is simply magical as it impacts not only your hamstrings, back, shoulders and arms, virtually every part of your body is positively affected, including your hair and nails (just kidding).
I always tell my students to imagine as if they are ‘tearing the yoga mat apart with their palms and feet’ by getting them to tuck in their chin in order to focus on the naval, squeeze in their lower belly and push their knees back as far as possible with both heels rooted to the ground.
In Downward Dog, stack your shoulders above your wrists and your hips directly above your knees while maintaining a consistent width between your hands and feet. Don’t worry if all this seems a little complicated at first. Rest assured, we’ll run through it together in the video.
In conclusion, always do everything in life with a li’l bit of soul. Do it wholeheartedly or not at all. Like what Rumi said, “when you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.”
