Savasana may be the most important pose our world needs right now

There's a whole lot going on during a yoga practice...
Whether it's the resonant sound of AUM, a sweaty booty, desire for spiritual enlightenment, a physical breakthrough or perhaps the admiration of a yogi in a wild & crazy upside down pose,
your mind has a lot to concentrate on. Your body is being called to dynamic action.
You came to your practice for a purpose. So when it's all over, do you hit the ground running? Or do you take time to process what the heck just happened?

No matter where or why or how you practice, you certainly want to include into your routine the best posture ever :::
... S A V A S A N A ... {pronounced SHA-VA-SA-NAH|}. AKA Corpse Pose. Yes it sounds morbid but we are literally practicing "dying". . . as in letting go, releasing, surrendering unattached.

Essentially, you get to lay down on your back & do nothing. Sounds good right?
So why do so many people skip it?!

Savasana is basically the rest after a race, the enjoying of a meal you just cooked,  the happy hour after work, sleep after a long day....the peaceful harbor of love after a crazy thunderstorm.
Without confusing cocktails with clarity, you get the point.
Savasana is the much deserved integration, soft space, rest, rejuvenation, relaxation, unplugging, & reaping the fruits of one's own labor....
it's the cherry on the top of a badass practice!

One time years ago I went to a Bikram yoga class...you know the kind where you feel totally out of place, way OVER dressed, completely wimpy next to that eldery man who has been practicing for years, & unable to breathe because of the hot, sweaty, junior-high-boys-locker-room smell that has permeated every square inch of the carpeted floor.....
yes I said carpet....weird.
What I heard was the instructor saying that we should all take at least a 2 minute Savasana after a long, hot, grueling & quite physically challenging practice. TWO MINUTES? are you kidding me? I mean, at least Savasana was recommended. But 20 minutes sounded way better to me.

Only 2 minutes of rest after a deeply detoxifying practice was the minimum, but in my opinion not nearly enough. It's been recommended by many teachers to offer 5 minutes of Savasana/rest for every 30 minutes of practice. If I just powered my way through 1 1/2 hours of staring at myself in the mirror (locking my knee in dancer....PLEASE DON'T LOCK YOUR KNEES!).....sweating my ass off in the company of 35 determined & somewhat militant folks....my God I need to take it easy for a bit! INTENSE!

Now to each his or her own. A little Savasana is better than none. My homegirl Angela, a most excellent massage therapist, friend & wise ole soul in a young gal's body, said that some people in her hot yoga class don't even take Savasana! We joked how that's like running a race only to run home & do the dishes, take care of kids, pay the bills, what have you. Is your Nervous System even ready for that shit? Hell no. You are totally in fight-or-flight mode / Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS). Most folks are living in that mode already, so give your Nervous System a break! That precious time at the end of class is YOURS TO CHERISH! YOU EARNED IT! YOU DESERVE IT! BY GOLLY, TAKE IT! Get yourself into rest & relax mode / Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS) & enjoy the calmness of life.

There was a period of time where I would skip Savasana in my personal practice. I didn't have time for it. I thought I didn't "need" it. Within a few weeks my muscles were aching, my body stiff & the progress of my triangle pose was zilch. I was more anxious & I felt like I was wasn't progressing, but rather regressing! At first I thought, "Oh this is when it gets worse before it gets better. Yeah that's it!"
Well it wasn't.

It was just me skipping the integration, the rewiring, the recalibration of my physical & energetic body. There's a lot going on during a yoga practice...yeah that hot girl in tight pants or your powerful sweaty hot yoga moves.....but really you're making changes, moving breath & offering vital life force energy to various parts of your body. You're strengthening your physical form, expanding your perspective, increasing flexibility & getting grounded in your center. You're improving concentration, focus & intention.
But if you skip that seemingly pointless end part....do you really allow those very dramatic changes (they're happening whether you realize it or not) to sink in? Do you let your body, mind, spirit... your life, actually RECEIVE your awesomeness? Your whole practice was probably YANG or physical, masculine, moving & working. The YIN side comes in at the end! This is the cooling, the relaxing, the receiving, the surrendering. Embrace the duality.

. . . Savasana may be the most important pose our world needs right now. . .

. . . So much that I'm reassessing how I offer Savasana in my weekly Hatha Gong. My intention is to share a Gong meditation, THEN offer a quiet Savasana.....ample time to let it all meld together into a delicious cocktail of YOU :) Drink it up....you earned it!

Whether you practice yoga, hot yoga, work out in the gym, hit the weights or walk the treadmill.....consider giving yourself AT THE VERY LEAST 5 MINUTES OF REST AFTERWARD. DON'T SKIP IT!  Let your body heal.

On that note....I'm gonna go lie down.

WORD! XOXO

4 square healing breath

the luminous bridge between the ego & the heart

It's time for the realness to come through. It's time for an Energetic Breakdown!

Personally I've been feeling somewhat of an internal struggle for a little while now. It's a vulnerability I thought I'd successfully hidden beneath a thick layer of pretending everything is ok. I had been telling myself I don't deserve to be so bold, so bright, so open about my authentic self, probably for fear of what others might think, how I'd be judged & what kind of impact my personal growth may have on my closest relationships. But what you resists persists & by golly I cannot resist any longer! Now these conflicting feelings have reared their heads & are holding me accountable to live out my dharma & be my authentic self. I've got some fears about making big changes (huge lift shifting changes) & often plagued by self doubts of inadequacy, lack of self-worth, old programmings of poverty as more noble than wealth & abundance....they all seem to love the dark stormy dance between my Ego & my Heart.

I literally feel this area of my body, the diaphragm, pulsing like a heartbeat, begging to be acknowledged, breathed into, to be nurtured & awakened. Yes as a yogini I breathe consciously & yes I definitely know the correlation between the depth of our breath & the depth of our being. Still, I am a human, a person who is here on Earth to learn & figure shit out. There are times when it can be so hard to breathe into the uncomfortable places of complacency, to breathe into the uncertainty of change. It's feels even more intense especially since I'm teaching it other folks on the regular. 

With that being said, my personal practices of yoga & spirituality as well as my professional teachings & offerings tend to revolve around the connection to & awareness of Energy. Hence my intrigue & magnetism to diving into the Chakra System. Now if you are new to Chakras this might sound a bit "out there,"  but trust me everyone has Chakras...even you! Perhaps you're just not tuned into them yet or have not had the exposure or education to understand their significance. 
Consider Chakras as revolving doors of life force energy, running along your spine (Sushumna) which is your biggest energy channel (Nadi). From root to crown (and beyond!) each energetic center pulls energy in & sends it out. We absorb & emit frequencies, colors, sounds & more. The Chakra System is the inner journey of the Self, an internal blueprint of energy. I liken it to a navigational system for expanding our awareness of physical, emotional, psychological & spiritual growth & understanding. If one or more of these energetic centers is stagnant, blocked, excessive or deficient, the result is you guessed it.....dis-ease. Sound familiar?
So naturally I think to myself....I'm feeling a bit crazy lately, I'm so busy with all these projects yet I'm low on funds & feeling drained. I'm having a hard time deciphering for myself what's Ego-driven & Heart-centered, what's fair?.....fair to whom? Where's my place in this crazy world? 
What's going on with my Chakras? I have a hunch....

Let's take a snapshot of 2 specific Chakras: 
the 3rd Chakra / Manipura: Personal Power, Independence, Fire, Light, Charisma, Forging the Path, Purpose, the Ego, Autonomy, Digestion, Liver, Pancreas;  
& the 4th Chakra / Anahata: Unity, Balance, Love, Joy, Compassion, Air, the Breath, Thymus Gland & Heart.
But there is more....there is an energetic space between these two Chakras. It's an evolving Chakra center....the luminous bridge between the Ego & the Heart. This Chakra is known as the Diaphragmatic Chakra.

When the Diaphragmatic Chakra is in balance we're able to breathe deeply into our awareness of the Self, uniting how we feel with what we need to do. We then are able to liberate that energy upward into the space of the Heart. This way we don't get stuck in our passions or power, and learn to harmonize our personal wisdoms with the good of the whole. Our capacity to release self-doubt & the need to be validated by others for approval resides here. Deeply breathing into the space between the 3rd & 4th Chakras supports us in opening the tightness, the rigidity, the tension & stress which can accumulate into an unhealthy roadblock when one is not living authentically as one IZ. (did ya get that joke there?)

When this Chakra is blocked we cut off the intelligence of our emotional wisdom, unable to feel deeply who we are & what we stand for. And often times the Ego gets a bad rep because of the potentially extreme behaviors guided by arrogance, greed & self-centeredness. Yet the Ego is NOT BAD...it's a necessary component to recognizing the power of your being. Those potentially unhealthy qualities of the Ego are distinctly different than healthy expressions of authenticity, confidence, abundance & self-care. 

So how do you & how do I, cultivate the balanced qualities of a healthy Ego & open Heart?
We practice working with the breath. 

Check out my video (my first ever video!) titled, "4 square healing breath" to learn this technique.

I've been practicing this technique & it really works! You can feel everything slow down & come back into balance, calming the wasteful worries of the mind & truly focusing on the present moment & the fluidity of the breath.

Funny the other day one of my students said, "You probably never need to take a yoga class since you are such an amazing yoga teacher!"
I couldn't help but laugh out loud. "Au contrare!" I replied. "That's like saying once you are a chef you never need to eat food again!" We both cracked up at the realization ....
We are never done learning.

Keep on breathing & keepin' on growing my friends!
love, IZ WORD