YOGA: Sun Salutations

I've started to include this series of yoga asanas (poses) in my morning wakeup routine (sadhana: "daily practice"), and have found it really gets the day started off on the right foot (pardon the pun).

The purpose of this series of poses is to greet the Eastern Sun as it brings its fresh, new life-giving power into the world. And that is the mood and intention to hold while doing the series. As with all yoga asanas, the drill beyond accomplishing the poses themselves, is to be fully in the present moment. To do both the poses and non-thinking simultaneously can be a challenge, and therein lies the work of self-improvement.

I'm not the world's most flexible person (in fact, I've been famous for being the world's stiffest person--but that's changing), and if you're in the same boat, always remember that depth into the pose is not "doing the pose better." You do the poses to the best of your ability and move on, without self-judgment or excessive thinking. The poses will tend to stimulate thinking and self-judgment, hence the challenge.

My yoga teachers, Bhava Ram and Laura Plumb of Deep Yoga, produced a lovely video of Laura doing the poses. She is an advanced yogi, so don't get discouraged if you can't follow along exactly. Again, do what it is you can do, and that is perfect. Bhava narrates and notice he includes the breathing pattern along with the direction. This is as much a part of the series as the movement.

The other challenge is to notice when you begin thinking, then apply the ancient Buddhist technique of saying to yourself "thinking" when you notice thoughts. Another technique is to do a yoga pose for the mind by chanting to yourself "Om" in the in-breath and "Shanti" on the out-breath--or use any meaningful words to focus on as you breathe. Enjoy!