Feeling Fresh with the Spring Line from Be Present

Ahh Spring, we welcome you with open arms! Well, we would if you'd ever decide to show up.

It's been a dreary winter in Chicago, seemingly endless and quite depressing. Although Spring technically arrived last week, we've seen little evidence of it so far. 

That being said, I was thrilled to check out the new spring styles from Be Present, my absolute favorite yoga clothing company. 

Made in Colorado, Be Present offers something completely different to the yoga community -- comfy, stylish yoga pants that are not skin tight. Don't get me wrong, leggings have their place, but I can honestly say I have never met a more versatile, comfortable, and lightweight yoga pant than Be Present (the Kona pant being my personal favorite).

That's right, I was so excited that an upward bow pose was in order :-)

Pictured is Moon Kona pant in Black and Striped Modal Tank w/ Moon. Can you tell that the moon is my favorite spring design? It's so whimsical.

I literally have not removed it since it arrived. I won't go into details, but yes, it's that comfy. Perhaps I will swap it out for the Sun Tank once the sun finally shows its face in Chicago... 

Happy Spring everyone!

10 Favorite Savasana Songs

Oh, sweet corpse pose. Nothing is better after a stretchy and sweaty practice than a long and fluffy savasana.

I try to give my classes between 5 and 9 minutes to marinate in savasana, and even then I feel like I'm not allowing ample time to savor the sweetness.

A great savasana experience is something that you'll carry with you for the rest of the day, and hopefully long afterwards.

Here's a few of my favorite tunes to whisk troubles away during relaxation:

• Aqueous Transmission - Incubus (My personal favorite)
• Things Meant to Be - Xavier Rudd
• Forever - Ben Harper
• I Am Willing - Liquid Mind (Wonderful instrumental)
• Grasses Grow - A Fine Frenzy (Overwhelming response from students - their fave)
• Om Namo Narayanaya - Deva Premal
• Be Not So Fearful - Bill Fay (Walking Dead fans may recognize this one)
• Settler - Balmorhea
• Butterfly - Xavier Rudd
• Everything - Ben Howard

*Pictured: Juicy Savasana after SUP Yoga with Tracy at Three Oak Recreation

Bridge the Gap & Keep the Chi Flowing

Saying that Breath & Yoga are like Peanut Butter & Jelly wouldn't even do the pair justice... it's more like Peanut Butter and Peanuts -- as in, without Breath, Yoga would not exist.

As simple as it seems, breathing correctly can be the most difficult part of our practice... the same can be said of life as well. Shallow breaths and poor posture add unnecessary stress to the body and mind.

This is why yoga teachers place such a HUGE emphasis on breathing -- inhale to plank, exhale chaturanga, inhale up dog... that being said, even when the breathing cues are right on point, it doesn't mean that we are breathing correctly. Just when you think it couldn't get any more confusing, right? It's not as difficult as it seems!

One of the biggest takeaways from Yoga is bridging the gap between the body & the mind. And how do we attain this? Why, through breath of course!

When we think about how we breathe, the most direct channel between the body & mind is the neck. If the neck is constantly out of alignment, this channel is interrupted (think waterfall static on an old antenna TV). When our shoulders are rounded forward, neck arched and strained, our breath has to work a lot harder to make it from our lungs to our brain.

Don't believe me? Drop your chin down to your chest and try to breathe. Then tilt your head back and try to breathe. Now bring your head right atop your shoulders, bring your fingertips to the back of your neck and feel for softness in your neck muscles (if they're hard keep sending the head back and gently tucking the chin until they become soft). Now try to breathe. Can you feel that direct channel in action? Much easier, right?

This is what carries our chi or life force through our body. Once we lose that pathway, it's no longer yoga -- it's more like torture. Twisting, turning and stretching the body without proper fuel (breath) is like attempting to run a marathon while dehydrated.

Do you ever get that stiff feeling after looking at the phone or computer too long? How about that scrunchy crunchy feeling in a pose like Utkatasana (chair) or Navasana (boat), like you're so crunched that all you can think of is your closest escape route? How long is she going to keep us here? My legs/abs can't handle this! 

When we get stuck in our heads, we lose our yoga. If we're not breathing correctly, we lose the benefit of the pose.

Simple fix: Keep that channel open.

No matter where you are -- in yoga class, at your desk, computer, on the train or driving in the car -- make that conscious effort to keep that pathway clear of obstructions. Don't get caught in your head. Allow your heart to communicate effectively with your mind, and feel the simple difference.

Here's a few basic adjustments to keep your chi flowing:

• Bring your fingertips behind your neck, bring your ears in line with your shoulders and feel for softness on the back of your neck
• Rest the base of your wrist on your sternum and bring your index finger to touch your lip & chin. This should be roughly the right alignment for your chin
• Send the shoulders up toward your ears, then straight back and let your shoulder blades slide down your back
• Lift your chest from the back of your heart (think inbetween your shoulder blades). This is where we retreat to when we feel threatened

Turning Inside: When Yoga isn't Asana

My favorite part of every day is when I get an hour of silence as the kids nap and I am able to practice my yoga asana (physical pratice). Don't get me wrong, I love my babies to death and feel like the luckiest mom in the world to have them in my life--but with 2 toddlers, Mom sure loves a break.

I've carried the tension of flat feet and scoliosis for my entire life, so once I discovered the relief that the physical aspect of yoga brought me, I mentally wrote myself a prescription to practice every single day.

Nap time could not have come sooner yesterday. I had been collecting thoughts all morning about what I'd bring to my mat today--things to introduce to my students and things to explore on my own.

12:30 finally came and I laid out my mat. And that was it. I kept looking at my mat, trying to find a place to begin, and it just wasn't happening.

So there I sat, staring at my mat, wanting so badly to practice--wanting to want to practice--but I simply couldn't bring myself to it. I sat there for about 10 minutes until I finally grunted and left the room.

I sank my seat right in the middle of my comfy bed and wrapped myself in blankets. I couldn't help but feel discouraged and a bit angry with myself. Why couldn't I bring myself to practice my asana today?

I decided to sit there in silence, shut my eyes to the world, and review all of the feelings that surged through my body (there just happened to be a lot that particular day).

Breathing deeply, I began asking myself What's wrong? What hurts? What do you need? 

I felt an unusual amount of tension in my shoulders, lower back, feet, and forehead. So I just kept breathing, attempting to send some softness to those areas, but all I kept feeling was pain.

Suddenly, I felt a wave of sadness wash over me and decided to ride the wave instead of fight it... and then I cried. A lot... and then it finally came to me--the clarity I was looking for. Riding this wave of intense feelings instead of sulking my way through the day was exactly what I needed. I came to the realization that I needed and made peace with my sadness.

I felt far from happy afterwards, but those feelings of anger & frustration were gone. The truth that I desperately was searching for was revealed, and instead of displacing those feelings of discouragement and hopelessness, I found peace in my sadness.

Even though we tend to place such a huge emphasis on the physical aspect of yoga (because it just feels good), it is just the tip of the iceberg. Yoga is about turning inwards to find out what is really ailing us. My lower back hurts, and it sure could use a nice supported bridge right now, but why? Maybe we won't always find the answers we're looking for, but finding acceptance with ourselves--body and mind--is the biggest takeaway of my yoga practice today.

Relieve Sinus Pressure with Essential Oils

This winter has literally dragged on forever. Chicago has had snow on the ground since the first week of December--that's over 4 months straight of snow! On top of that, we've battled vicious winds and subzero temperatures like I've never experienced before. So basically, our family has spent a great deal of time indoors lately.

As much as I love a snuggly blanket with the heat cranked on a cold day, too much of that dry & stale air leads to sickness. I have personally been battling sinus congestion in many different forms since Thanksgiving. Nasal sprays and medicine only provide little relief, if any, and sadly the Neti Pot is just not doing the trick.

Enter my sweet yoga colleague, Sarah (check out her awesome blog, Sage and Sunshine) and her endless wisdom about the power of essential oils. She introduced me to this amazing blend of oils that is not only safe & natural, but works instantly.

Here's the recipe for the headache killer: 

• Oregano Essential Oil
• Lemon Essential Oil
• Peppermint Essential Oil
• Melaleuca (Tea Tree) Essential Oil

Combine 2 drops of each into a cup of boiling water and begin to inhale deeply through the nose. 

Really though, does it get any easier than that?! Here's a little more info on the oils and how they work:

Check out Sarah's essential oil shop for more info here on her DoTerra Oil Shop.

Spotlight Pose: Supported Partridge

This endless Chicago winter has left my midsection feeling pretty crunched, scrunched, stiff and just sad. When fresh air is not an option, we often end up in squishy furniture, cramped in a stiff car seat, or hunched over a screen to occupy our time.

So it only makes sense that we've been working on side bends a lot during our vinyasa classes, and partridge has got to be one of my favorite side stretches -- not to mention the sheer beauty of the pose itself. Side bends help to free the stiffness in the midsection and create more room to breathe. Partridge can be sort of intimidating, but can also be taught to beginners in a very simple way.

Here's one of my favorite ways to introduce beginners to this relieving bird pose:

Come onto the knees, hips stacked just above and tailbone pointing downward. Take the right leg straight out to the side and plant the foot. 

Come into Gate pose by sliding the right hand down the leg and opening up the left side of the body. Left arm can reach overhead unless it causes the front ribs to jut out, in that case bring the forearm to the lower back. Concentrate on creating space between the left hip bone and the lower ribs. 

Come back to center and look down to your left. Bring your left hand down to plant underneath your shoulder while keeping the lower body in the same position. 

In your Supported Side Plank, elongate the right side of the body by reaching the right arm overhead and turning the palm to face down. 

Bring the right hand to the hip and lift the right foot off the mat, heel extending straight out from the hip. 

Now, bend your right knee and bring the heel as close to the booty as possible.

Grab a hold of the foot and begin to lengthen the foot away from the booty. Use the backward pressure to open the right shoulder and chest. 

If Supported Partridge or any of these kneeling poses are tough on your knees, bring a blanket underneath you or try doubling up your mat for extra padding.

Beat the "Tech Neck" Epidemic with Yoga

Let's face it, our modern day society just does not support correct posture.

We're slumped over, hunched over, scrunched up over screens and monitors on a daily basis.

The effects of this posture have reared their ugly heads in the forms of stiff neck, tight shoulders, sore back--in short, a new epidemic called "tech neck."

Not only do we feel the effects of our poor form, we're starting to see it as well. Plastic surgeons have reported an alarming raise in neck-lifts.

How about a much more affordable option to keeping the neck, shoulders, and back looking and feeling healthy? Try these yoga moves:

Face Yoga: The Giraffe

In a comfortable seated position, bring your fingertips to your collarbone or the base of your neck and gently stroke downwards--don't pull, just get some traction. Tilt your head back, then pout your lower lip out like a really sad baby. Be sure not to jut the jaw forward, just the lip lip. This stretch firms the neckline and jaw area to prevent sagging. Take 3 deep breaths here, then release. 

Chest Opener with Strap

Grab a strap and find a comfortable seat or standing position. Hold strap in front of you with straight arms with palms placed downward and just a bit wider than shoulder width apart. Inhale bring the strap overhead and, keeping arms straight, exhale bring strap all the way behind you. Inhale back up and exhale down in front of you. If that was too easy, shorten distance between hands, if it was too hard, make the distance wider. Repeat for 10 breaths.

Childs Pose with Anjali Mudra Behind Neck

Come to a child's pose and reach arms out in front of you, then join your palms. Bend at the elbows and try to bring the base of the wrists to the back of the neck. This can also be done in a standing position. Hold for 10 breaths.

Wide-Legged Forward Fold with Divers Stretch

Talk about a recharge--this is the go-to pose for any amount of stagnancy or lethargy throughout the day. The forward bend brings fresh, oxygen-rich blood to the head. 

With feet wider than hip-width distance and toes pointed forward, join your palms behind you and interlace your fingers to make a fist. Squeeze the arms toward straight and inhale to lift the chest. On the exhale, hinge forward from the hips and fold forward to drop the head. Try to let gravity take the fist away from the body, and keep squeezing those palms together. Hold for 5 breaths, then slightly bend at knees and come up slowly, shaking out the arms and wrists upon standing.

Neck Circles

In a comfortable seated or standing position, relax the jaw and bring the ears in line with the shoulders. Inhale, then exhale and drop the chin down to the chest. Avoid crunching the neck, and keep length in the belly to get the stretch all the way down the spine. Inhale and roll the right ear over the right shoulder then let the head fall back. Exhale and roll over to the left then back to the chest. Allow the length of your breath to determine the length of your movement. If you come across any tight spots, pause, breathe there, then continue on. Make 5 big circles in this direction, then reverse directions and even it out. 

Yo-Chi and Pi-Yo coming to Rolling Meadows!

Starting June 17th, yoga enthusiasts in the NW suburbs of Chicago will have some new classes to choose from! Offered in 2 separate 4-week sessions, these weekly classes will meet on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings from 10 AM - 11 AM at the Rolling Meadows Park District. 

Registration begins early April.

More info:

Yo-Chi: This class fuses the flowing aspects of Hatha Yoga with meditative Tai Chi movements to strengthen muscles, promote flexibility, ease pain in joints, and improve your overall sense of well-being. The thoughtful and fluid flow of this class is designed for both beginners and even the most well-trained yogi to help discover more balance in your life.

Pi-Yo: Get ready to get strong! This class fuses the targeted core-strengthening aspects of a Pilates mat class with the deep stretches, balancing poses, and seamless flow of a Hatha Yoga class. Meditation and breathing exercises are combined with strengthening and stretching to help align the body and mind. Appropriate for all levels, this class will help to improve your overall sense of well-being. 

Kids Yoga Fun: Hosting a Workshop

On Sunday, March 2nd, I hosted my very first Kids Yoga Workshop at The Yoga Mat. It was such a wonderful experience sharing my passion (and lots of giggles) with these little yogis.

Teaching kids yoga, especially little ones ages 3-7, can be challenging when you factor in attention span limitations, nap times, potty breaks, stranger danger phases, etc. Luckily, my group was very involved for the most part.

My biggest tips to running a workshop with kids this age: 

• Keep it short (1 hour max)
• Come with a plan, but be ready to improvise
• Give kids "breaks" to run around and get their energy out -- this will also help bring kids who have "checked out" back into the game
• Stick with a theme that kids will understand. Our recurring theme in this particular workshop just happened to be a monkey. They responded so well to the monkey the first few times that I ran with it and we all laughed. We threw in some bananasana and shouted like a howler monkey. 

Here's a little rundown of how the workshop went:

1. Breathing

Sit with your legs folded and crossed, and back straight. Begin with hands on heart, feel your heart beat. Put the palms of your hands together in front of your heart. Close your eyes & take 3 big breaths. Imagine your belly is an empty balloon and fill that balloon with air, then empty that balloon again. Our breath is food for our body, like how we put gas our cars we need to put lots of air into our bodies to keep them going!

Now bring your arms overhead really big when you breathe in, and bring them all the way down as your balloon empties. Balloon breath helps to keep you focused and calms you down when you’re feeling scared, confused, angry, or a little bit of stress. 

2. Supine Warm-up

Lie down on your back and get ready because we’re going on an adventure walk today! Bring both of your feet up above you with your legs straight and imagine that you’re standing on the ceiling, now start to walk! 

Keep your right leg straight as you bring your left arm straight and switch. Make each step be a whole balloon breath, filling up when the right leg comes up and emptying as the L leg comes up. Now start to go a little faster, we’re running! Run run run, and what’s that we see? It’s a pond! Ready, set, jump! Reach up to the ceiling with your hands and your feet, jump in jump in! Squeeze your knees with your arms like a tiny ball—cannon ball!

3. Belly Warm-up

Come onto your belly and reach forward with your arms and back with your feet. Then start to kick your feet and wave your arms and swim. Remember to breathe as you swim!

Now grab your elbows and rest your head. Take deep breaths, and be quiet…..  because now, on your mat, you’ve become a big, CROCODILE! Lift your head up and look from side to side. Make your neck long like a croc’s nose and let your shoulders relax. Now let go of your elbows and bring your hands to the side of your chest and come up out of the water! Lift yourself up on your hands bring your chest up and look up toward the sky! Breathe and lift yourself up! Show us your big croc belly!

4. Halfway-up warm-up

Bend your knees and come up like a cat, we’ve made it to the shore. 

Flow through cat/cow and explain breathing pattern. 

Let your toes come under and grab a hold of your mat, and lift your bottom high into the ground! Here we are in our big dog stretch. What do we say doggies? Give me a ruff ruff if you feel good! Breathe in and out! Imagine you have a tail and are sticking it right back behind you. Look back toward your feet. 

Look up at your hands and jump where your hands are.

5. Standing

Come up to stand. Now bring your hands to your heart and feel your heart beat. Then bring your hands to your belly and be sure you are still filling up your balloon entirely and emptying it back out. 

Now shrug your shoulders up to your ears and let them fall down. Now reach up bring your eyes to your thumbs get as tall as you can, then fold yourself in half and try to touch the floor. 

6. Low Lunge Sun Salutation

Now we are going to go on a journey to the sun to get nice and warm! 

First you are a strong, tall mountain. Reach your arms up and get as tall as you can, reaching up to the sky, fill up your belly with air and fold yourself in half, step your right foot way back and drop down onto your knee. 

Now look up to the sun and take a deep breath in for energy, then use your hands to push your mat away and step your feet together and bring your bottom up to your doggie pose. 

Take another breath in then step the right foot all the way up to the top again and let your knee fall, look up at the sun! Say, "WAKE UP SUN!"

Now step your left foot up to your hands and let your body fold in half again. Let your balloon empty here. Now deep breath in and reach up, get a little closer to the sun!! Repeat.

7. Basic Sun Salutation

Next time, bring your hands onto the ground and hop your feet back like a frog. Lay on your belly. Use your hands to lift your chest up and look up to the sun, take a deep breath in and lift your bottom back up into the sky. Look up at your hands again and hop up like a frog to meet your hands. This is called our sun salutation, or a way to get energy and say hello to the sun!

8. Standing Balance

Now that we have some energy from the sun, we are going to explore a little bit more. As we walk through the sunny jungle, what do we see? Why, it’s a big tall tree!

TREE pose: reach arms up overhead and spread your branches. What’s that in the tree, let’s go down to see!

Fold yourself in half again and come up halfway. Stick your tail back like a monkey and look forward to look for a monkey friend. Do we feel good monkeys? What does the monkey say?

Now come back up and we’ve found another tree on the other side! Repeat.

9. Fold

What’s that I see down at the ground?

Ostrich! Grab elbows and fold forward. Bury your head deep in the ground. What do I see way down there?

Grab the back of your ankles and bring your bottom down. It’s a SPIDER! Rock from side to side, take deep breaths to build energy to make your web. Now skitter around and make your web as big as you can!!

10. Standing Balance

Top of mat, hands to belly & breathe. Imagine you are a mountain, strong and steady, even in the toughest of winds. Mountains don’t blow over in storms. They are strong and steady. Now balance on your foot, and we are going to make wings with our arms. From the top of our mountain, we are going to fly! Imagine you are a kite, your standing leg is your string—strong and steady, and you are floating up in the sky. Graceful and elegant.

Uh oh—is the wind changing? No, it’s that naughty monkey and he’s gotten a hold of the kite string! Drop your foot to the mat and open your legs wide. Swing your arms from side to side and bend your knees a few times. What do you say, monkeys? Are you naughty monkeys or are you nice?

Ready to be nice, monkey? Grab that kite string and let’s try again on the other side.

11. Standing Movement

Now that we’ve said hello to the sun, it is getting late and the sun needs to go to bed. So look up to the sky and reach up toward the sun, reach reach reach like you’re trying to grab it and hold it in your hands. Then squeeze your palms together as you’ve caught a tiny bit of the sun to carry with you. Bring your tight hands together in front of your heart again. You need to make some space in your heart to keep this light from the sun with you, so bring your shoulders wider and lift your chest, and bring your palms onto your heart. Keep this light with you in your heart for the rest of the day! 

So at the top of the mountain, I see bright and shiny a STAR! Step your feet apart on your mat and bring your hands to your sides like a star. Deep breaths to make your star shine brighter.

Turn your toes to point to the front of the mat and bend into your knee. Look at your toes and make sure you can still see them. Reach up with R hand to grab even more of your star friends. Then bring your right elbow to your knee and get those stars with your left hand that you may not have seen. Turn your toes again to Wide FF. See if you can see any falling stars behind you and grab them. Repeat.

12. Sun Salutation (skip if short on time)

What’s that behind you? Do you see it? Oh it’s our friend monkey again! Let’s scoot our feet together and bring our bottoms down. Bring your knees wide and stick your tail out. Here we are, sleeping monkeys. Drop your head down and shake your head no, no, no, no. Now look forward, and get ready, we are going to wake our monkey up! Let’s bring the sun back out!

Hands to ground and step feet back lay on belly, look up to sun, down dog. Hop up like a monkey to top of mat and come up halfway to wiggle monkey tail. Then come all the way up and reach up a few times, say WAKE UP SUN!

13. Seated movement

Sun is shining again, and now there’s rainbow! Come onto knees and stretch to R side. Drop bottom to L side of knees and even bigger stretch. Hand to knee & twist and see if you can see the end of the rainbow. I see more over there! Switch. 

Butterfly, flap your wings. 

Now reach hands underneath your ankles and grab a hold of them. Lift your feet of the ground and balance, and you’ve become a beautiful flower. Bloom, you pretty flower.

I see our safe little homes, our birds nests in the distance. We have to cross a few obstacles to get there. First, I see a slide. Hands behind you and drop to your elbows reach your legs long, lift your belly up stretch your toes. Arch your back and rest on your elbows. (Fish pose)

Now we have to cross a bridge to get there.  Onto back for bridge. Lift your hips.

14. Relax

Come to a tiny little ball and roll around. 

Bring your hands to the mat and swing your hips up to bring your legs behind you. Bring your hands to your lower and lift your legs up—candle pose.

Now bring your knees wide toward your armpits and grab your feet. Roll around like a silly monkey. 

Knees back together and twists. 

One more tight little ball. Stretch yourself out trying to take up as much space on your mat as you can and close your eyes. 

Relax your whole body completely. When I call the parts of the body, do not move them, but just to feel them. Slowly guide children through each bit of the body to relax -- fingers, whole hands, arms, toes, feet, etc.

My music for this workshop was Kira Willey's Dance for the Sun. I highly recommend it!