Day Five

Day Five

Focus: Warrior II, Virabhadrasana II

Reading: Chapter Five of One Simple Thing

Mouth: The Yoga Bible (pages 50 & 51)

Anatomy: The Yoga Anatomy Coloring Book, Pose by Pose (pages 34 & 35)

Instructions:

Welcome to Day Five!

  1. Read Chapter Five of One Simple Thing.

  2. Then, color page 34-5 of The Yoga Anatomy Coloring Book Pose by Pose. Practice the pose after coloring. Notice how the hips open to the side.

  3. Finally, read aloud the cueing for this pose from pages 50 & 51 of The Yoga Bible. I love the instructions to say "ha" to your foe as they overlap with the info in the anatomy book about the pose being one of a sword drawn.


Bonus: Spend some time moving in this pose, pulling the shoulders up and then releasing them down. Straightening the front leg and then bending again. Pressing down with the outer edge of the right foot.

Extra credit: Look back over each of the pages that you've colored in your Anatomy Coloring Book and notice where the three regions of the spine are in each pose.

My Journal Entry from Day Five:

From One Simple Thing:

  • Two parts of today's reading really resonated with me. The false identity of getting caught up in the stuff of yoga--the clothes, the mat--(page 90-91) spoke to me. As a city-dweller there is a lot of yoga theater that happens in studios and in classes. As we walk around these streets we spend a lot of effort (myself included) demonstrating that we are going to or coming from yoga class by our matching outfits and yoga mats in slings.

  • I also enjoyed the classification of our states of being into different "bodies" and "sheaths." "The mind is important because we spend so much of our waking hours in it--thinking, planning, remembering, feeling, absorbing information--but it is not the deepest or most profound part of us; its just a way station for incoming experience. What lies below the mind is where peace is experienced, and for that, we have two wonderful tools to lead us: breath and awareness" (page 94).

  • I must remember this. I spend a lot of time in my way station for experience--my mind--, but yoga--my breath and awareness is a chance to go deeper.

From today's yoga class:

  • Key Words: Transitions

  • Today, my teacher Dorian, designed a flow for us that moved through different standing and one seated posture. Throughout he encouraged us to think about transitions. Dorian uses a three part structure to his classes which I enjoy. First learning the movements, then performing them in more of a flow and with some more advanced options. It is a very active class that I always enjoy. Dorian is also always smiling which lifts everything.