The first section of Journey Into Power is Integration. In this section, we focus on finding presence through our breath and experience how our body is feeling at the beginning of the yoga practice. Before class starts, you may have been rushing to get to your mat, you may have been coming from a difficult conversation, or haven’t been very present throughout your day. This part of the sequence helps you arrive on your mat and prepare you for the rest of practice. Becoming aware of your body and breath will allow you to determine what you need during your practice. Will this be a practice where you challenge your body, or will it be a practice of modification to support the rest you need? Arriving on your mat mentally allows you to make the best choice for yourself. The four poses of Integration are Child’s Pose, Downward Facing Dog, Forward Fold, and Mountain Pose.
Child’s Pose
Child’s Pose is the first pose we generally take in our practice at Bright Heart. Occasionally, we will start with other poses, and as teachers, we find child’s pose to be a great place to start during the practice. With your face looking down toward your mat, it allows you to connect with yourself and your body before the practice even starts.
This is also a great pose to take when you are not feeling in your body anymore throughout your yoga practice. One time, I was practicing in class and I was feeling so tired and heavy in my body. I felt it was so challenging to push through class, and in the past, I would push my body to keep going even if it was yelling at me for rest. I would normally say to myself, “what is the point of resting when I showed up to take this yoga class and move my body?” I decided to take child’s pose despite my reason for showing up to practice, and I fell asleep for 20 minutes. I felt refreshed and renewed when I finally woke up. After that, I was able to continue the practice. I used to resist taking this pose, and what I’ve learned is sometimes what you need in your yoga practice is rest. Child’s pose is a great place for rest.
Alignment tips for child’s pose:
- Big toes touch
- Knees are spread as wide as your mat, if tolerable
- Sit on heels, if not able check out modifications below
- Rest forehead on mat
- For a more restful child’s pose – keep forearms on the ground, for a more active child’s pose – lift forearms off the mat
Modifications:
- If you are unable to sit on your heels, place a block underneath your butt for extra support
- Place a block under your forehead if your head doesn’t touch the mat
- To increase the stretch through your arms, place a blocks underneath your triceps
Benefits of Child’s Pose:
- Improves mobility of your knee, hip, ankle, and shoulder joints
- Improves flexibility of your quadriceps, the muscles on the front of your shins (anterior tibialis), lat muscles (the muscle on the side of your rib cage to your arm)
- Creates a place for rest to help the mind calm down
Downward Facing Dog
Downward Facing Dog is a pose that we continue to come back to in the Power Yoga practice. When you first start practicing yoga, it can feel like we are hanging out in this pose forever and you may want to know when we will be done with it. The more you practice yoga, the easier it will start to feel to be in this pose. I won’t ever say this pose is totally easy! Let’s break it down so this pose can be a little more accessible to you.
Alignment Tips
- Your hands and feet should be about 4-5 feet apart depending on how tall you are. The best way to know if you have the correct distance is by taking a plank pose. Keep your feet and hands where they are located and then lift your hips up to create a V shape with your body.
- Have a soft bend in your knees.
- Your heels do not need to touch the ground–in fact I encourage them to stay lifted. This puts less stress on the nerves on the back side of your legs and spine.
- Hands are shoulder width apart and fingers are spread on the mat. You want to grip the mat with your finger tips as this will place less strain on your wrists.
- The crown of your head reaches down towards the ground so that your neck is nice and long.
Modifications
- If you are experiencing wrist pain or your arms are really tired, place your knees on the ground so you are in a table top position. As you gain more strength, you will be able to tolerate downward facing dog for more time.
Benefits of Downward Facing Dog
- This pose helps to stretch your hamstrings and calf muscles.
- It strengthens your core and your triceps, biceps, and muscles through your forearms and hands.
- If you want to advance your practice to arm balances and inversions, hold this pose for a long time, it is one of the building blocks.
Forward Fold
Many times, people avoid coming to yoga because they say they aren’t flexible enough or they can’t touch their toes. And I say, that is the reason to come to yoga 🙂 Not necessarily to become more flexible in your body – although that is many times a benefit. It is to become more flexible in your mind; to move away from the idea that for to be able to do something – yoga or anything – you have to be a certain way. How you are right now is perfect and the way you do or don’t do yoga is perfect. So, let’s get to one of the poses I find often confuses people!
Alignment
- Toes are pointing at 12 o’clock and are touching. Unless in Rag Doll – then feet are hip width distance apart.
- Bend your knees! That’s right, even if you fold completely in half, always have a slight bend in your knees. If you are really struggling with the fold, bend your knees even more. This does two things! One: it protects your hamstrings from over-stretching and two it protects the sciatic nerve from getting overly pulled on. When the sciatic nerve is pulled on a lot it can start to create back pain. Again, bend your knees in forward folds!!
Modifications
- If your hands don’t touch the ground, place your hands on blocks. If you don’t have blocks, water bottles are a great substitute.
Benefits of Forward Fold
- This pose helps to stretch your hamstrings.
- It also helps to relax your neck. You get a natural traction from gravity when folding forward.
Mountain Pose
This pose is the foundation for all of our poses in our yoga practice. In each pose, we try to recreate Mountain Pose. It is our True North Alignment as we say in Baptiste Yoga. It is a great stance to take while you are standing throughout your day as well. This posture will help you maintain any flexibility or strength changes you have created in your yoga practice.
Alignment
- Toes are pointing at 12 o’clock and are touching. You can leave space between your heels if you do not like your ankle bones touching each other.
- Engage your quadriceps (front of your thigh) muscles.
- Pelvis is neutral. So what does this mean? The front of your hip pointers are facing forward (not down or up) and you will notice a small curve in your low back when doing it correctly. If your hip pointers are facing down, you will have increased extension of your low back. If your hip points are facing up, you will have a rounding in the small of your low back. This is something you will have to play around with to determine what works for your body
- Arms are down by your side with palms facing forward.
- Slightly drawing your shoulder blades towards each other. Don’t over squeeze your shoulder blades together here. That is beneficial when you are trying to strengthen the muscles between your shoulder blades. However, in a “relaxed” standing posture it is not necessary.
- Crown of your head stacks over your shoulders. When we sit at the computer or look at our phone, our head naturally moves forward. In Mountain Pose, we attempt to move our head back. This might be incredibly difficult if you don’t normally stand or sit like this.
Benefits of Mountain Pose
- When standing in your tallest posture, it helps to create confidence and a sense of power in your body. Not only will this make you a more confident yoga practitioner, it will make you more confident in your day to day life.