A special yoga practice on “Intention Setting”. As you contemplate your vision for the year ahead, imagine the body as a vehicle for your highest dreams and ambitions. The body, through yoga asana (postures) “contains” spirit, shakti, and your powerful life force and energy. I will be teaching a special class on intention setting this week, and wanted to share some guidance on how to practice with intention.
Take a comfortable seat, move the head of the arm bones back, feel your shoulder blades gather down the back. Feel your heart lift with every inhalation, crown of the head reaches for the sky. The word “asana” means the seat, the seat of the self. Make your seat a regal seat. Sit regally, sit with intention.
Meditation: Visualize the year ahead. See yourself growing, expanding, and achieving your goals. See yourself experiencing the full flavors and textures of your life experience. See loving relationships grow and develop, see yourself celebrating your success and the success of others.
Pranayama, breathwork: Breath in all of your hopes and dreams for 2012, and as you exhale, breath out any self-limiting ideas, behaviors or habits. Breath in a sense of nourishment and support, breath anything that s that may have held you back in 2011. Take 3-5 rounds of this breath work, inhaling all the way down to the base of the pelvis, exhaling all the way back up through the crown of the head.
Asana: First principle in Anusara yoga: Set the foundation, Open to Grace. Mindfully, set up each pose with intention, while you breathe and open yourself to the greatest possibilities of 2012. This practice is a slower, deeper flow with longer holds (try for 5-10 breaths each hold). Invision the body giving your hopes and dreams a context and direction.
Sequence:
Low lunge, plant left hand down, twist to the right
High lunge, prayer twist
Lizard pose
Sun salute “A”
Sun salute “B”
(longer holds, 5 breathes in down dog)
Side angle pose
Warrior II
Peaceful warrior
Triangle
Chair prayer
Eagle pose
Pigeon prep, w. thigh stretch
Pasarita (standing wide angle), with shoulder stretch
Bridge/ or full wheel (urdva danurasana) (3x times each, 5-10 breathes)
Child’s pose
Janu Sirsasana
Happy baby
Supine twist
Savasana
–Megan Kuczynski, Anusara Inpired (TM) yoga instructor
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