What is your intention? Open yourself up to find your gems held inside

Image © Yoga Robin® (Markatasana, Twisted Monkey pose)"Too often our outer posture is not representing our inner posture, our external behavior isn't matching what we're thinking or feeling, and that conflict drains us. Explore bringing consistency to both your inward stance and your outer posture." ~Elena Brower

What is your intention? You start your class or day with an interesting idea that moves you, or a more serious intent to change a behavior, and then what? Do you tuck it away in your heart? Yoga twists and heart-opening backbends unleash what's within you, allowing the Prana to circulate as you move your body. Before the words even articulate themselves, you know what they are. Often times it's in the silence.

Namaste.

~ Robin Ellen Lucas, MA

Sitting in a chair all day is bad for you

Ardha Matsyendrasana (Image © Yoga Robin®)

Don't sit at desk all day

It's important to take a break while working at your desk. Sitting in a chair all day is not good for you. Even for a few hours it takes a toll on your cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine. It leads to muscle degeneration, organ damage, lymphatic blockage, psoas contraction, circulatory issues in legs, etc. I personally add psychological craziness to the list.

I do quick yoga breaks often in my office, in particular to keep my spine elongated and shoulders open. I practice Ashtanga yoga every morning so it's a matter of reopening what was already open earlier in the day. If I let all of my hard work succumb to the computer, I feel a combination of carpal tunnel syndrome and skeletal misalignment in my upper back.

Getting into alignment in my yoga practice each morning is such a precious thing! Keeping it is my daily at-home or at-office practice.

Namaste.

Pursing a graduate degree: my process

 a celebration, an offeringMy Master of Arts degree?

The hardest question to answer about my Master’s Degree is, “So, what are you going to do with your degree?” It's as if I’m a nomad until I can answer this with precision. However, I have been utilizing my degree all along—for the past seven years as a part-time student—one semester and one class at a time. When I began in August 2008 I was already teaching yoga and I already owned my own business as a writer and digital marketer.

What turned into seven years of one class per semester in East-West Psychology turned into the best type of graduate experience I could have ever imagined. It was, in some ways, like self-led psychotherapy as I put my entire life into each one class, especially the final papers. Each semester I evaluated where I was at in life and it was always changing. I evolved at my own pace and could not imagine seven years ago being where I am now.

What I intend to do with my degree and with my professional life is to enhance it with the knowledge, credentials and confidence I've gained, which will bridge into my writing and yoga teaching. I'll go beyond private yoga lessons and posting my written version of passions on the internet as I've become accustomed.

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Integumentary System, Energy and Ego

Healing the Total Body: Where Western Anatomy Meets Eastern Spiritual Science

Healing Series, part 4 

Read on for more details...

Start here, self that hides: A vision into the yoga self

i write whatever you say to meMy yoga stirs up emotions in me and sometimes speaks as pasts and present all intermingle. As my body moves, and as I breathe, my stories are told. Here is a conversation with karmas that were burned one morning.

vision of yoga self

Dear self who hides,

I don’t want to leave you, or myself, behind. When your words are near (and I hear you speaking through me), I cannot help but smile inside. When I am my body, standing in front of myself, sometimes my heart shuts down. Why? I feel you more after I leave you, as if a piece of me is still with you. And so it is; you are me, left floating through the yoga studio room, melting onto the floor.

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Nurturing your body by taking it easy in yoga vs. being lazy: How do you know the difference?

Is your yoga sometimes an escape? Do you go to class when you are feeling bored or escaping life, and therefore give life its purpose through your yoga practice? It doesn't matter if it's hardcore or not.

take it easy some days

It's not necessary to expend a 100% effort during every yoga practice. Some days your body needs more tender loving care, and it's better that you show up on your mat than not at all. These can be the most transformative days that rewire your brain, in fact—the days when you are not motivated to go to class and you go anyway.

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What happens after yoga class: Where do the toxins and emotions go?

capture who you are

After yoga?

What do you do after yoga class? You went, you opened, twisted, sweat and stretched it all out. You unleashed emotions and thoughts, and sealed it all in with intention in the end (savasana).

Do you then just go on with your day?

Yoga—if done mindfully—can create euphoria and bring you to your happiest self. It can also bring you to the opposite as it acts as a sort of catalyst to making you face your darkness, as all that you hold inside your tightest body parts rises to the surface and begs for your attention.

Yoga opens you

This happens without notice with yoga poses that open the hips and shoulders, abdominal twists and mainly yoga breathing (i.e., ujjayi pranayama). With yoga, you are not only wringing out toxins, but also releasing emotions and setting energy free...

Be with what you find

Whether magical or disturbing, you can capture the essense of all that comes up in your yoga class by working with it. You can write it down (to share or not),

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Don't give away your personal power by complaining

Be empowered when you are injured or in pain. You have what you need inside to heal yourself if you let your body's inherent wisdom do its job. 

keep your power

Are you ever around people who complain, sometimes incessantly? Do you ask yourself if they are actually expecting you to take care of their issues? 

own your own issues, feel your heatWhen you complain, you are giving away the answers and natural healing abilities. When others are in the room to hear you—whether intentionally or not, you put it out there for the person who is potentially listening. Do you think that person should heal you?

no whining

If not, then why

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