NOTES

January 2015

YOGA
Your success
and happiness
lies in you.
Resolve to
keep happy,
and your joy
and you shall
form an
invincible host
against
difficulties.

- Helen Keller

Face forward, look up, be open ..

.. to a new year. Give it, and yourself, your full attention
Attention and Intention

You know that I am not a big fan of

resolutions, as I think they tend to be set
too high and we end up disappointing
ourselves more than we deserve. As I am
sure we all know what is best for us, what
we need to be happy and to feel good. But
life is interfering and we have to make
peace with it.

So, for this new inspiring 2015; try to think

of your true intentions. Of what you want
to do, feel like or become and then give it
your full attention.

One of my intentions is to do my utmost to

continue sharing the love I have for yoga,
with my full attention, with you in 2015!
Please try that approach too, no matter
what you wish for this year. To give up
smoking, loose weight, help others, learn a
new language, travel somewhere, get a
new job, learn to dance tango or do yoga.
Give it your full attention, simply because
you are worth it!

As we still feel a need to evolve, to be able

to lift our gaze, to open up to change, to
life and to have a positive outlook for the
year ahead, I would like to suggest a
different approach: by attention and
intention, or maybe intention and

attention in that order!

Whether I see you soon or not, once or

often, I am grateful for the opportunity to
I think of the quote from Wayne W Dyer:
The more you see yourself as what you'd share this new year with you and wish you
like to become, and act as if what you a beautiful 2015 - open up your eyes, your
want is already there, the more you'll mind and your heart
activate those dormant forces that will
Namaste
collaborate to transform your dream into
your reality.
www.yogamarie.com | twitter @meyogamarie |

YOGA NOTES January 2015

Urdhva Mukha Svanasana

Upward-Facing Dog Pose

1. Lie prone on the floor. Stretch your legs back,

with the tops of your feet on the floor. Bend your
elbows and spread your palms on the floor beside
your waist so that your forearms are relatively
perpendicular to the floor.

Deepen the Pose

To increase the strength and lightness of this pose,
push from the backs of your knees along the calves
and out through the heels. The tops of your feet will
press more firmly against the floor; as they do, lift
the top sternum up and forward.

2. Inhale and press your inner hands firmly into the

floor and slightly back, as if you were trying to push
yourself forward along the floor. Then straighten
your arms and simultaneously lift your torso up and
your legs a few inches off the floor on an
inhalation. Keep the thighs firm and slightly turned
inward, the arms firm and turned out so the elbow
creases face forward.

Preparatory Poses
Bhujangasana
Setu Bandha Sarvangasana

Follow-up Poses
Backbends
Urdhva Mukha Svanasana will help you learn
to lift the chest in poses like Tadasana and Virasana.

3. Press the tailbone toward the pubis and lift the

pubis toward the navel. Narrow the hip points. Firm
but dont harden the buttocks.

Beginner's Tip
There's a tendency in this pose to "hang" on the
shoulders, which lifts them up toward the ears and
"turtles" the neck. Actively draw the shoulders away
from the ears by lengthening down along the back
armpits, pulling the shoulder blades toward the
tailbone, and puffing the side ribs forward. If you
need help learning this, lift each hand on a block.

4. Firm the shoulder blades against the back and

puff the side ribs forward. Lift through the top of the
sternum but avoid pushing the front ribs forward,
which only hardens the lower back. Look straight
ahead or tip the head back slightly, but take care
not to compress the back of the neck and harden
the throat.

5. Urdhva Mukha Svanasana is one of the positions

in the traditional Sun Salutation sequence. You can
also practice this pose individually, holding it
anywhere from 15 to 30 seconds, breathing easily.
Release back to the floor or lift into Adho
Mukha Svanasana with an exhalation.

Benefits
Improves posture
Strengthens the spine, arms, wrists
Stretches chest,lungs,shoulders, abdomen
Firms the buttocks
Stimulates abdominal organs

Contraindications and Cautions

Back injury
Carpal tunnel syndrome
Headache
Pregnancy

Modifications and Props

Often it's difficult to keep the legs strongly
suspended above the floor. Before you
move into the pose, position a thick
blanket roll below your top thighs. When
you are in the pose, lightly rest your thighs
on this roll as you press the tailbone closer
to the roll.

Relieves mild depression, fatigue, sciatica

Therapeutic for asthma

www.yogamarie.com | twitter @meyogamarie |