How can we be lighter?

This is the question I am playing with in my own practice right now. As I make transitions between poses, as I set my hands and feet into earth, and as I invert, how can it all be done lightly and with minimal effort. The question is--What is really necessary to make this happen? What needs to work, and what can be soft?

As you begin your practice this week take time to first notice the energy flowing in your body. Where do you feel strength? Where in the body do you feel light? Are there places that feel heavy and stuck? Where are they? As you begin to notice these things direct your breath to the places that feel light. From the places that feel light and strong feel each breath growing that lightness and strength. Visualize the breath filling the body with more lightness and strength from the reservoir of that energy within you already--enhancing the growth of it as well as stimulating the source of aliveness in your body.

Then as you develop that growth keep feeding the body your deepest breath and as you inhale keep holding space for an intention of what it is you are willing to rise into (for example more lightness, or stepping into more strength) as you exhale hold space for intention for what you are allowing yourself to be rooted in or grounded in. It doesn't have to be every breath but maybe at pivotal points in the practice. Feel that intention deep within your poses letting the movements of the body wrap themselves around the intention of the breath. Let the energy of the breath create the shape of the pose. Give yourself time in the poses like at least 10 breaths--even more if you can to really explore this practice.

This is good for those moments when you are feeling heavy and sluggish-you might notice some shifts the longer you hold things. You can ask your body "What can I bring to this moment that will make me lighter"? If you have a pose or a transition that doesn't feel right what if you hit the redo button as I call it and try again but with intention of approaching it lightly and experiment a few times. It makes practice more fun I think and starts to take you out of automatic pilot mode.

See if this approach also makes it into the rest of day. How can you be lighter in other ways in your life?

Hope this helps.

Have wonderful practices this week!

Namaste,

Michael