Yoga Flavored Life » Lifestyle

Increase Your Home Office Productivity in Just Two Steps With Yoga and Ergonomics

Charlotte Bradley — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:03:11 +0000

Thank you to Denise Zangoglia of TheHomeOfficeCafe.com for this guest post about the benefits of yoga and the importance of ergonomically correct tools to keep us healthy as we toil away at our computers!

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Working from home yields wonderful benefits such as a flexible schedule and working at your own pace. But there are a number of “side effects” that can really take a toll on anyone working at a home based business. Number one among these is lack of productivity. Ah yes we all have great thoughts and picture vividly a wildly successful home based business where we work for only a few hours a day with the rest of our time spent enjoying friends, family, hobbies and pursuing our interests. But the reality is it is hard to work at home.

A huge factor that stands in the way of getting as much done as we intend is the stress we place on our mind and body, sitting for long periods of time. Some of the hazards of long hours in a stationary position are: carpel tunnel syndrome, neck strain, back pain, stress, eye strain and weight gain. This is especially true for those whose work require them to sit at a desk in front of a computer for long hours. But there are two “natural” factors that can drastically improve your comfort and relieve stress and strain leading to a happier healthier more productive home office life.

Think Yoga …

While yoga has become quite popular many people may not realize how easy it is to incorporate these movements into their schedule and within minutes feel the benefits of reduced stress and strain and a greater sense of calm. You don’t have to be especially flexible nor an expert in yoga to reap the benefits. Simple stretches and movements can be done either sitting at your desk or standing. Look for visual as well as written instructions to be sure you are performing the movement correctly. Only stretch as much as comfortable. Your flexibility will increase with practice.

Although yoga is for everyone, it’s always a good idea to check with your doctor before starting any new physical activity if you have any medical conditions.

Here are a few movements to consider:

Twists are good for your neck, your lower back, your upper back and to release overall tension.

Forward bends bring flood flow to the head and in doing so refresh and re-energize you. Bends relax and lengthen your back muscles.

Eye movements reduce eyestrain. Relax your face and open your eyes wide. Move your gaze from the stationary position of staring at a computer where the eyes tend to become dry from lack of blinking. Your eyes will re-lubricate and soften.

Wrist, finger and arm stretches reduce tension, increase flexibility and increase blood flow to the extremities.

Take a breathing break. The breath is at the core of yoga. By taking several deep breaths you will instantly feel calmer, more focused and relaxed. Don’t rush this simple exercise. This relaxation solution is literally right under your nose! I think of these movements as mini meditations. Simple and effective, with immediate results.

Think Ergonomics…

While often overlooked as an essential investment in a home office, ergonomically correct chairs are one of the most valuable tools for increased comfort, stress relief and improved productivity.

Ergo chairs reduce the stress and strain of muscles by supporting the lower back and reducing pressure on the lower portion on the body as well as promoting good posture.

Ergonomics is about design that benefits the needs of human physiology. Here are some tips to choosing the right chair for you:

Functionally for your needs, consider controls, frame construction, adjustability, swivel, casters, back height, tilt function, arms or armless, headrest for taller users.

Consider quality craftsmanship- strong, durable frames, high-density foam core cushioning, choice of seating material, mesh for breathability, leather for luxury, and be aware of the warranty offered. There are many eco friendly ergonomic chairs that are made from recycled materials or manufactured at eco friendly plants and that can be recycled after use.

By incorporating these two powerful tools, yoga and ergonomic chair design, into your home office life you can relieve stress, reduce fatigue increase focus, productivity, energy, and improve decision making with long lasting benefits.

You’ll reap the rewards of reducing tension in your body and mind as well as increasing overall well being and work performance, which will extend into all other areas of your life.

About the Author

Denise Zangoglia, a home-office professional since 1999 created her website TheHomeOfficeCafe.com to support work-at-home professionals and entrepreneurs. She offers tips and resources for optimizing your own home work experience. Denise is an expert in office setup/design, and in maximizing productivity as well as home-based business resources such as offsite backup services, website creation and marketing strategies.

Why Prayer Hands in Yoga?

Charlotte Bradley — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:53:11 +0000

Anjali Mudra (pronounced UHN-juh-lee muhd-RAAH) is a gesture that is a part of almost all yoga classes. It may be used at the beginning or end of class as well and hearing sun salutations. Anjali mudra is also referred to as prayer hands. The palms of the hands are brought together in front of the heart.

In Sanskrit, mudra means sign or seal. It refers to sacred hand gestures and body positions that bring about a certain inner state and have symbolic meaning. Anjali comes from “anj” in Sanskrit and means “to honor or celebrate”.

When the hands and fingers are placed in a particular pattern, the energy within the body can be redirected and changed. Mudras are often used during meditation and in the East, mudras have long been used medicinally. Anjali mudra opens the heart, calms and balances the mind and reduces anxiety.

By bringing our hands together at our heart center we are connecting to both the right and left sides of the brain. This is symbolic of uniting both our masculine and feminine energies. It is said that the right hand represents our divine self and the left hand represents our worldly nature.

The hand gesture of Anjali Mudra is often accompanied by the greeting Namaste which means “The light in me bows to the light in you.” We use Anjali mudra to communicate our heartfelt energy. It is a humbling gesture offered to family, friends, students and strangers.

Yogis view the spiritual or energetic heart as a lotus flower in the center of the chest. Anjali Mudra acknowledges the energetic heart and directs it to open to the light. Practicing Anjali mudra is an excellent way to induce a meditative state.

Prayer hands are often incorporated into various seated and standing postures, such as Mountain Pose (Tadasana), Tree (Vrksasana), Warrior 1 (Virbhadrasana 1) and Squat (Malasana). During Sun Salutations (Surya Namaskara), Anjali Mudra can be practiced at the beginning, at the end and during the lunge sequence. Used during asana practice, this mudra is balancing and harmonizing and helps to keep us centered and positive.

Take care not to harden the pose by slamming the hands together! Press the hands together gently, maintaining a slight dome shape between the palms.

A Short Exercise for Discovering Union and Centeredness with Anjali Mudra

Start by sitting in Easy Pose (Sukhasana).

Feel your spine lengthen as your crown reaches towards the sky. Extend the back of your neck and tuck your chin slightly.

Notice the energy that rises and flows from your tailbone to your crown. Take two deep breaths here.

On your next inhalation, cross your legs the opposite way.

Open your palms and extend your arms to the side. Slowly draw your hands together at the center of your chest gathering the energy into your heart. Take two deep breaths.

Notice how both sides of our nature connect here at the heart. Bring an awareness of this centered state into your yoga practice and your day.

Yoga and Aging

Charlotte Bradley — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:04:01 +0000

photo credit: Saad.Akhtar

This is a guest post from Shirley at LifeByDesignOver50.com. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the benefits of yoga as we age.

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The aging process is something that we cannot avoid but how we take care of ourselves now will make a big difference to the quality of our life later. As we age, one of the biggest differences we notice is to our agility. We generally start to feel more stiff and sore, arthritis is more prevalent as are other issues that can stress our joints and muscles. We need to stay active and keep our bodies as supple and agile as possible. A great way to do this is through yoga.

No matter how active we have been previously, there comes a time when we need milder forms of exercise such as walking and yoga. Yoga offers exercises to strengthen the spine and improve joint health by circulating synovial fluid. Also as we age there is a greater risk of osteoporosis. Studies have shown that yoga poses stress the bones in a healthy way stimulating bone growth. While the yoga postures themselves are very beneficial, the breathing exercises and relaxation are also very important. They can help with digestion, reduce feelings of stress, normalize blood pressure and help us reach a state of inner peace. (Editor’s note: For more on the benefits of yoga as we age, see Yoga for Seniors and Asthanga for Aging)

The yoga poses that will be best for you depends upon age, abilities and overall health. Some yoga poses can be quite challenging so it’s a very good idea to work with someone that can assist you in finding the best yoga poses for you and help you do them properly and safely. If you injure yourself you will probably be out of commission for awhile and unable to practice your yoga moves until you heal. It could well put you off doing any form of exercise.

Yoga is a favourite pastime for many people and can complement other forms of exercise. Some of the most enjoyable activities are related to our hobbies. It’s nice to have a hobby that we can practice well into our retirement years. Golf is a perfect example of this. If you leave the motorised golf carts parked, it is a great way to get your walking in, enjoy fresh air and also get together with friends. And even when you don’t get out on the golf range, you can still practice with your golf swing training aid by Medicus in your own back yard or on your deck. Your golf game will be more enjoyable if you are fit and agile.

If you are practicing yoga at home it helps to create a space that enhances your experience. It is ideal to be looking out over the ocean or have some other peaceful view of nature. This isn’t possible for everyone so it’s important to create the best environment that you can. One of the nicest home spaces I have seen designed specifically for yoga, relaxation, and meditation includes a big window looking over the garden area that has backyard water fountains. You may want an indoor water featture, wind chimes, floor cushions, crystals, candles or any other items that symbolize peace and tranquility to you.

Regardless of age, yoga is a very beneficial practice. If you have never done it before find, a program that is right for you and your body and mind will thank you!

About the Author

Shirley Price resides in a picturesque community of Vancouver, BC, Canada. Shirley is a mother and grandmother. She moved to Canada from the UK over 20 years ago. Shirley is the author of a social website for over 50’s LifeByDesignOver50.com

The Mental and Physical Benefits of Yoga for Golfers

Charlotte Bradley — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:25:36 +0000

photo credit: blmurch

Today’s article is a guest post from John Bolt of Golfequipmentsource.com. Although I was once an avid golfer, it has been several years since I have seen a golf course with any regularity. Since then I have discovered my passion for yoga. Maybe it’s time to revisit the game and see what my yoga practice adds to the mix…

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Golf is not only a physical game but a mind game as well; yoga for golfers helps to clear the mind allowing the player to concentrate and play in a relaxed state.

No other game is as subject to over self-analysis than golf. Golfers that have not learned to play the mental side of golf may become frustrated and often give up before learning the physical side of the game. The practice of yoga helps develop the mental discipline that the game of golf requires.

The effect of stress on one’s golf game is immediately apparent while playing. For example, say you are “in the zone” feeling like you are at the top of your game and hitting the ball well. Then the stress of self induced pressure to perform well sneaks in and your game falls apart; your over-analyzing conscious mind convinces you that your technique is lacking and there goes the game. Most of the time when a good game falls apart it is not due to improper technique, but rather to negative chatter in the mind that disturbs concentration and impairs the ability to perform.

“If you don’t clutter your conscious mind with endless pointers and tips, you make it easier for your subconscious instincts to guide you.” ~Earl Woods, father of golfing great Tiger Woods

You cannot ignore the physical game and expect to progress. Practice is always a necessity as are learning fundamentals and focusing on technique. But, there is a time that the subconscious needs to take over to enable all those hours of practice to flow as intuitive, instinctive actions.

A free flowing subconscious requires the body to relax; only by entering a complete state of relaxation is a person capable of clearing the mind and living in the “now”. When all the mental chatter in your mind becomes quiet you can play your golf game with awareness and focus.

The mental benefit of Yoga is that it brings peace to the game of golf. Yoga teaches players how to focus by clearing the mind of chatter and as a result, be able to concentrate on the game without negative thoughts.

Yoga is a wonderful way to become physically tuned for playing golf. The very basis of Yoga is balance and symmetry; Yoga programs have long been used to eliminate body tension by returning the body to a balanced, symmetric state. Yoga guides golfers to develop equal strength on both sides of the body so that both sides perform equally well. In order to attain a truly good golf game one must develop a flexible, balanced body. A good way to measure your improvement is to invest in a golf range finder or choose from among golf gps devices to measure your drive distances as your yoga program progresses. One look at Augusta golf pictures should be enough to convince any golfer that flexibility and balance are important to playing well.

Yoga improves strength and flexibility for greater accuracy and distance off the tee; improves overall fitness to lessen the risk of injury, increases breathing awareness for better rhythm in the swing, enhances balance for more effective weight distribution and club control and lastly, it quiets the mind allowing for increased concentration.

About the Author:
Golfequipmentsource.com is the brainchild of John Bolt who sincerely wishes to make the site a valuable resource for Golf lovers everywhere. John, lives in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. When he’s not working he loves to spend time with his family, play golf, admire his Augusta golf pictures, and read or cook. John’s goal is to use his creativity to make a difference by making things special for others.

How Yoga Can Benefit Cyclists

Charlotte Bradley — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:49:55 +0000

Yoga is a great practice for cyclists who want to stretch their muscles and balance the tightness that can occur from using certain muscles intensely and repetitively.

Why add yoga to your training regimen?

When the body moves through the same plane on a regular basis it can become unbalanced. Some muscles are overworked while others are underused. Yoga can help to strengthen and elongate muscles that are overworked and chronically tight from repetitive use. It is also a great form of cross training.

My sister Julia, is a track cyclist (that’s her in the photo above!) and she trains intensely. We often end up chatting about yoga and trying to find poses that might help her ease some of the muscular tension that inevitably builds from such intense training. Her most common complaints are tightness in the back and shoulder region as well as the hips.

Hip Flexors

The iliotibial (IT) band is a group of muscle fibers that runs along the outside of the thigh starting from the pelvis, going over the hip and to the knee. In cycling, the hip flexors work very hard and this overuse can cause micro traumas, tiny tears in the fibers that results in strain. IT band issues and injuries are very common with cyclists. In order to prevent injury it is important to stretch these muscles.

For the hips, Thread the Needle is great and is also a good pose to use in preparation for the more intense, hip-opening Pigeon Pose.

Upper Back and Shoulders

Cyclists are hunched over the handlebars of their bikes for long periods of time. This posture can contribute to tension. Yoga poses that focus on stretching the shoulders and opening the back (any backbending pose) may be quite beneficial.

Cat-Cow flow will really help to open up and stretch the chest muscles. Another recommendation — try a gentle supported backbend reclining over a bolster or folded blanket. This allows you to stay in the posture for a longer period of time (you are fully supported) and feels amazing in the shoulders and back.

In the following video, Sadie Nardini teaches a short yoga flow designed specifically for cyclists. It starts out with a seated Cat-Cow flow, followed by Upward Facing Table, then Pigeon Pose and ending with One-Legged Forward Bend for the hamstings.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Yoga for your Hip Flexors

Work Yoga into Your Workday

Charlotte Bradley — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 12:15:15 +0000

Life at work can sometimes be hectic. Stress causes us to tighten our backs and shoulders. Squinting at computer screens all day causes strain on the face and neck. Simply being sedentary at our desks makes our legs tighten or cramp. However, just throwing in a few yoga poses a day can help with all these problems and more.

Certainly you don’t want to spend 15 minutes on every pose you do at work or have to change into spandex before every sequence—your boss and coworkers probably wouldn’t appreciate it. So here are five sneaky ways to slip in some useful stretches at work.

1. I Lost My Contact Lens Pose
Still sitting in your chair, pull back away from your desk. Keep your palms on your desk and extend your torso, lifting your ribs. Slide your shoulder blades toward your desk and make sure your head extends from your spine while keeping your chin tucked to your chest.

2. Meeting Adjourned Pose
After standing up from your chair when a meeting has ended, place your palms on the table in front of you with your fingers pointed back at your body. Gently apply pressure to stretch the forearms and wrists.

3. “What’s Your Sign?” at the Water Cooler Pose
Stand by a wall (next to the water cooler, perhaps) and extend your right arm, placing your palm on the wall with your fingers pointed up. On an exhale, turn your chest away from the wall, taking your shoulder blade into your torso. On your next water break, switch arms.

4. Look Who’s Walking By Pose
Sitting with your tailbone pressing into your chair, plant both feet firmly on the floor. On an exhale, twist to your right, placing the right hand on the back of the chair and the other hand on the side of the chair. Hold for a few breaths and then repeat on the other side.

5. T.G.I.F. Pose
Sitting forward on your chair, open your legs a little wider than your hips. Lean forward from the hips and drop your torso. Let your head and arms hang down toward the floor as far as they can go. Hold for several breaths and try not to fall asleep.

Yoga Complements the Competitive Mind

Charlotte Bradley — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 13:57:02 +0000

If you are looking for the true “edge” in your favorite sports activity, look no further than your yoga practice.

Yoga should be integral to any competitive or personal sports activity for more reasons that just body attunement. Yoga practice will improve flexibility, strength and balance, but it can do much more for activities such as running, cycling and martial arts.

Speaking strictly for body mechanics, yoga is great for increasing one’s range of motion, sense of balance and body alignment—all of which will improve performance in any sport. If you want to increase endurance and strength, yoga poses such as Warrior’s Pose (Virabhadrasana) and Chair Pose (Utkatasana) will engage major leg and core muscles.

Poses such as Tree Pose (Vrksasana) and Half Moon Pose (Ardha Chandrasana) will do wonders for alignment, strength and attention—the three essential elements of balance.

For some athletes, improving endurance and balance are enough. However, gaining a true “edge” in your favorite sports activity does not come from bigger, more limber muscles; it comes from mindfulness and breath.

With any repetitive sport, especially running and cycling, there is an inherent risk of boredom. Sometimes the miles feel like they’ve been spent on a treadmill. Take these moments as opportunities to focus on your breath, and remind yourself of your real achievements, which are the steps or strokes you take as part of a process and not the distance covered.

Keeping this self-awareness will give you new confidence in your sport because you know you are doing the best you can do at that moment. A curious side effect of this realization is fewer injuries from overexertion, and overexertion really stems from distraction.

So be aware of yourself and know that with yoga there are no winners or losers.

Manipura: Harnessing your Personal Power

Anne-Marie Hardie — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 17:25:04 +0000

I love the name of the third Chakra: Manipura: Our Personal Power. The third Chakra’s element is fire: when you place too little wood on a fire or it rains, it will burn out. On the other hand, if you add too much wood, it can get out of control. When you balance your Manipura, you will learn the exact amount of wood (strength and personal power) that you will need to value your opinions and stay motivated.

Society Challenges Manipura

This Chakra is constantly challenged by our home life, work, and society in general. How many times do we feel powerless ? This seems to happen more often when we take on too much, and we feel like we are losing control. Whenever we struggle with voicing our opinions: our manipura has been weakened. When we question ourselves, our intuitions and our personal strength: our third Chakra is suffering. We are lacking the necessary fire (self-esteem) to recognize our own values and beauty.

On the other hand there are times where we can take on too much personal power . This usually happens when we get so wrapped into an idea, concept or argument that we fail to recognize the strength and value of other’s ideas and energies.

You may find that at times, you have gotten into this rut. Have you ever been in a job where you feel that if you have to complete all tasks to ensure that it is done right? Have you ever been accused of being insensitive or intolerant? Have you ever become so passionate about an idea that you fail to consider the opinions of others?

Sometimes when we have too much fire, we fail to recognize the strength of others. However, sharing our ideas, tasks and thoughts, we often create larger successes.

As you can see, it is very simple for this Chakra to become out of balance. By balancing the Manipura Chakra we will develop an equitable approach to others and recognize the beauty of moderation in both or thought and action. According to Alan Finger, in his book Chakra Yoga

Benefits of Balancing the Third Chakra:

Properly proportioned sense of self
Ability to influence/change ones surrounding environment
Strong digestive system

Core stability How to Balance Manipura:

Begin and end your session by focusing on your breath. Bring your personal power, through your breath, to the core of your body. Both Pranyama breathing and the Fire Breath are excellent techniques to focus on this Chakra. The beauty of this exercise: is that you can use the breathing techniques whenever you feel overwhelmed, indecisive, or lacking self-esteem. Harness the power of the breath to empower your own personal power.

Remember Manipura’s energy centre is in your core, so poses that strengthen your core will also help you to balance Chakra.

Some Additional Poses are:

Dolphin Plank Pose

Extended Triangle Pose (Uttahita Trikonasan)

Seated Forward Bend (Paschimottanasana)

As I’m nearing the reality of motherhood, I’m noticing that my personal power is feeling weakened. My energy fades faster and the amount of unknowns is overwhelming. Working on the third Chakra: developing my personal power, will also help me approach the idea of labour and how to obtain some control in this challenging life event. If you choose to work on this Chakra this week, think of your own personal challenges and how balancing Manipura will help you overcome them.

Flying for World Peace

Anne-Marie Hardie — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:40:46 +0000

Imagine a world where there is no war, no fighting and we all love and care for one another. No, I’m not creating my Ms. America speech, but talking about a worldwide vision that director David Lynch widely believes in.

So how do we achieve this seemingly impossible dream? According to David Lynch, we need to start with our children. And he believes that the best way to do this is to have each child practice Transcendental Meditation or Yogic Flying. Lynch has practiced yogic flying for the past 34 years and believes that this technique can help solve some of more challenging world problems.

His mission is to have 200,000 children in every continent practice transcendental meditation on a daily basis. He believes that if we can teach even only 1% of our children the art of yogic flying, they will work together to ensure world peace.

To accomplish his goal he has developed the Foundation: Transforming Lives: The David Lynch Foundation . This foundation is based on advocating and communicating, and ideally implementing transcendental meditation worldwide.

David Lynch is not alone in his belief, in fact he has brought together a crew of musicians to put on a fundraising event to launch his goal of teaching 200,000 children. On April 4^th, 2009, Paul McCartney as well as Moby, Cheryl Crow, Eddie Vedder and Donovan will be playing in a fundraiser to teach yogic flying to children across the world.

History of Transcendental Meditation

Transcendental meditation is an adaptation of a fairly ancient art of meditation. This form of meditation began in 1957, by Maharisi Mahesh Yogi. Maharishi first begin teaching his techniques in the Middle East and then slowly brought this technique to North America. His goal was to have teaching centres available for every million individuals worldwide. This meditation principle is not based on religion, but on the natural virtues of pure meditation.

Benefits of Transcendental Meditation

Since Maharisi’s launching of this form in meditation worldwide, there have been over 600 studies done on its unique benefits. This form of meditation is different than other forms as it is not based on a particular religion or philosophy, making it accepting and welcoming for all individuals to practice.

Yogic Flying or Transcendental Meditation helps:

Decrease classroom stress
Alleviate learning disorders
Reach your full brain potential
Reduce high blood pressure
Focus on world peace
Increase academic achievement
Reduce clinical depression

In addition to all of these benefits, the technique looks like a lot of fun. Transcendental Meditation is about getting in tune with your mind and body and connecting with both yourself and others. In the first stage of yogic flying, the practitioner sits in a lotus style position and their body jumps up and forward, similarly to a bouncing frog.

So how does this technique help develop world peace? Well, research has shown that because yogic flying is typically done in groups it helps to increase brain waves coherence in the individual which in turn increases social coherence. This increase in social coherence leads to a reduction to war, terrorism and hostility towards others.

Sounds good to me, now my only challenge is to find a place that teaches it in Barrie. I wonder if it’s ok for pregnant women?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Go with the flow: Acknowledging your Sacral Chakra

Anne-Marie Hardie — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 21:24:52 +0000

Have you ever tried to control your emotions? I know I have. According to Emily Butler, an Assistant Professor at the University of Arizona, our Western-European based North American culture tends to selectively suppress our emotions. These emotions that we tend to suppress are our negative emotions. It is this selective suppression that can have a negative impact on developing positive healthy relationships and our physical health.

Our Internal Scripts

In addition to suppressing our negative emotions, our culture tends to relate things in terms of acceptance or rejection. Think of some of the internal thoughts that you have around your job, relationship and personal interests.

If you are like the majority of North Americans your thoughts may sound like this: Does my boss like me? Instead of do I believe that I’m doing a good job? Does my partner feel that I’m attractive? Instead of do I think that I’m attractive? The challenge with these thought processes is that we are placing the control of our happiness onto someone else.

Svadhishthana: The Water Chakra

So how do we change this culturally ingrained pattern? This is where working on our Second Chakra: Svadhishthana-The Sacral Chakra will help. This Chakra is located in our pelvis area and is directly connected to our emotions, creativity, sexuality and pleasure in general. It is the area of our unconscious, intuitive desires.

According to Alan Finger and Katrina Repka, coauthors of Chakra Yoga, our second Chakra is associated with the element of water.

Water has extreme power: without it we could not live. Not only does water provide us with hydration and internal energy, we can also harness the power of water for such things as electricity.

However, we also need to respect water. No matter how much influence we try to place on the direction of water: we cannot control it. It has its natural ebb and flow. The same occurs if we try to fully control our Sacral Chakra: our desires and emotions.

We need to learn to let this energy naturally flow through our bodies into our world. Positive sacral energy allows you to make changes to your life that will focus on positive life energy. When this Chakra is open you are able to recognize your emotions and desires and express them freely.

Developing this Powerful Chakra:

Our root chakra and our sacral chakra work together. When we are focusing on developing our sacral chakra, it is important to incorporate the grounding principles of our root chakra. It is always helpful to begin and end with a reflective meditation. This meditation can be very simple with the intention being becoming aware of your current emotional state. Be aware of this emotion, acknowledge it and use that energy to work with your sacral chakra.

The following are some yoga movements that will help you balance the Second Chakra:

Warrior Pose II: Virabhadrasana II
Seated Wide Angle Pose: UpaVista Konasana
Cobra Pose: Bhujangasana
Downward Facing Dog: Adho Mukha Svanasana
Bound Angle Pose: Baddha Konasana

Enjoy the experience of becoming aware of your powerful sacral energy. May this week bring you creativity, sensuality and help connect you to your emotions, needs and desires.