Slowing Down

The school year is gearing up which means it's a good time to think about slowing down. Just as nature provides foods to cool us in the hot, hot, heat, (see Summer Lovin') it's good to bring balance to a busy schedule with some slow movements which can act as a foil to new and hectic schedule. In yoga, it's sometimes suggested to flow through your asanas at an extra-slow pace. Beyond the desire to break the habit of wishing a difficult posture or sequence to be done with, moving very slowly through your poses can indicate where you need to adjust your stance or which part of your body is holding tension. However, I generally like to keep things as simple as possible and so, there is a very basic "sequence" I prefer to run through in the morning which helps to slow me down and bring a greater awareness to the day before I get up and go, go, go. And because your schedule's already busy, I made a video to save you some time. Enjoy!

References to the "third eye" shows up quite a bit if you know where to look ;)

Before we begin, however, I'll spell out a few things that didn't make it into the video based upon the lack of storage in my phone. Child's pose is pretty much the best. I remember doing it when I was young before I knew that yoga or any eastern philosophies existed. And speaking of which, the mentioned pose and its variation play a bit on the Ayurvedic concept of chakras or "centers of energy" in our body. The chakras begin at the pelvic floor and make their way up to the crown of one's head, focusing on different desires and needs at each "pit stop". However, I bring up the concept not because of esoteric theory but rather for the very practical coincidence that our Ajna chakra comes up a lot in yoga postures.

The Ajna chakra (located at one's "third eye" so to speak) is nodal of energy associated with intuition and balance. Physiologically, however, the Ajna chakra is located at the center point between (and a little above) the eyes on the lower forehead where our "third eye" and/or pineal gland exists. So whether it serves as a pivot point between our feminine and masculine energies in the Ayurvedic sense or between the right and left brain in the Western one (perhaps it simply serves as a link between past and present philosophies) the Ajna chakra is associated with balance. And who couldn't use a little balance as the new season begins. So to give our intuitive chakra or our bundle of nerves between our brain hemispheres a little massage in the morning to prepare for the day, do the following...