Tag: Accessible Yoga

Ann Grace Yoga, Grounding, Relaxation, Yoga, Yoga for Everybody

The Power of Savasana

Ann

What Heals You – A Seasonal Column by Ann Grace MacMullan published in The Swarthmorean, October 27th, 2023

“To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.”

Ecclesiastes, 3:1

The autumn leaves fall like embers, floating earthward with a fizzle. I imagine the tenuous connection between leaf stem and branch, growing more fragile – over days? Hours? Until that sweet moment of release, and the leaf is sprung free to its delightful descent. It’s the time of beautiful decay; a month in which to witness the beginning of the end. Winter is coming. How many autumns have you seen in your lifetime? How many times have you observed this elegant process of letting go?

Despite witnessing this perpetual change, this relentless turning of the seasons, we somehow think of our own lives as immutable, permanent. We hold on so tightly, to our health, homes, or families; and we can’t fathom letting “it” go. And so, when goodbye comes, we have never practiced it, and it’s unfathomable.

In yoga there is one posture, saved for the end of every session, which helps us practice this surrender to the divine. It’s called Savasana, or Corpse Pose. When I first started with yoga, this was actually my least favorite pose – I couldn’t lie there doing nothing! Alone in silence with my thoughts racing! But after years of yoga, it’s one of my favorite poses; and through its valuable teaching, I recognize it could be the most important one.

Try this powerful pose for yourself. Lie on the ground or your bed or couch and make yourself comfortable: pillows under the head and knees, a blanket for comfort, maybe even a lavender eye pillow over your eyes. Breathe in; then follow your exhalation all the way out. Feel the imprint of your body on the ground, and little by little, try to soften into the support below.

Take a breath in, and on the breath out, let go of one body part at a time, moving from head to toe. Imagine the earth receiving you, holding you. Stay for anywhere from five to ten minutes.

It’s clear to me when I practice this pose of letting go, I’m more than just a body. I can imagine myself dancing joyfully or flying like an eagle. My “me” becomes lighter. Some believe that this essence, soul, or true self, is in fact eternal and will live on beyond the loss of the shell we borrow for this lifetime. So while Corpse Pose helps us recognize that we have to let go of certain aspects of our human experience, lying on the ground doing nothing may also connect us with the bliss of the infinite.

Ann Grace MacMullan is a certified yoga therapist and teaches Chair Yoga and Gentle Yoga classes at the Park Ave Community Center in downtown Swarthmore. She loves to wax poetic on all things wellness related.

Ann Grace Yoga, Meditation, Yoga for Everybody, Yoga Nidra

A Guide to Intention Setting

Ann

If you’ve ever been asked to form an intention during a yoga class or meditation exercise, and found yourself floundering or resisting the request, you’re not alone. Me too, friend. Once I tried Yoga Nidra, however, I was hooked on intention-setting. I learned that the purpose is not to manifest your wishes out of thin air, but to create strength in the structure of the mind. Studies that used such intentions during meditation have shown that cognitive restructuring processes are stimulated.

While it’s better to try and find your intention (or sankalpa) in the relaxed state, some of us can get very distracted trying to find the right one during practice. To assist my Yoga Nidra practice, I sat down and did some journaling to get me started. Here’s what I came up with:

Step by Step: Finding the Seeds of Intention

  • Close your eyes and think of your current daily life.
  • Create a list of “wants” and “needs” — stay away from the trivial, go for the deep.
  • Take a break from your list and come back to it a day later.
  • When you come back to that list of wants and needs, what stands out as the most challenging, or maybe even a little scary? (Mine are highlighted in pink.)
  • Create an intention that is short, positive and present tense surrounding that.
REST AND MANIFEST – meets live on Zoom once a month

While you can set intentions at any time, they are more effective when they’re planted into a very relaxed mind. That’s where Yoga Nidra comes in. Yoga Nidra contains a systematic sequence of body awareness and breathing that can activate the parasympathetic nervous system and increase the amount of alpha-waves in the brain – a perfect time to plant those seeds! That little bit of pre-journaling work you did while in a more conscious state might help you refine your intention once you enter alpha states.

A Few More Examples “in the Moment”

  • If you experience stress and frustration: “I am calm and patient”
  • If you are scattered: “I am present”
  • If you experience illness or disease: “I am healthy and whole”
  • If you’re feeling vulnerable: “I am safe”
  • If you feel isolated: “I am connected”
  • If you experience turbulent emotions: “I am content”
  • If you have trouble sleeping: “I sleep soundly and wake refreshed”

You can use the same sankalpa for a while, and then because we are ever-changing, over time your sankalpa may change too. If you’re stuck in a rut, maybe Yoga Nidra could help. I’m not promising personal transformation, but it’s just possible that like me, you have never really explored your subconscious and practiced opening up your mind-space, allowing it to wander. Plant your intention into this open, liberated mind-space, and trust that the suggestion will take root and grow.

Join me for a live Zoom session once a month, on second Sunday of each month at 4pm Eastern Standard Time. FREE for health care workers and those affected by Waldenstrom’s.

Resources:

Through the practice of yoga nidra, we are not only relaxing, but restructuring and reforming our whole personality from within. Like the mythological phoenix, with every session we are burning the old samskaras, habits and tendencies in order to be born anew.

Swami Satyananda Saraswati
Ann Grace Yoga, Chair Yoga, Yoga, Yoga for Everybody

Chair Yoga is for Everyone

Ann

My very first yoga teaching job – fresh out of my 200-hour teacher training in 2015 – was to “adapt” vinyasa yoga for folks of varying mobility levels living in a senior assisted living facility. One of the most participatory students was my 97-year old grandmother Ellie, who had been really active all her life but had become confined to a wheelchair. I’ll never forget wondering how I would cue the breath to those who might not be able to hear – so I made a sign attached to a paddle: one side said “Breathe In;” the other said “Breathe Out.”

In chair yoga, we move the spine in all directions. We breathe a lot too.

The experience was so much fun, so rewarding, so challenging and so humbling, that I’ve taught Chair Yoga ever since. And I’ve learned so much from the diverse souls seeking and finding freedom in their bodies and minds through this practice. Because…if you have a body, you can do yoga.

If you can breathe, you can do yoga. Yoga is for everybody.

* Chair Yoga is “real” yoga.
* Chair Yoga moves the spine in all directions.
* Chair Yoga can improve your balance.
* Chair Yoga can provide a “good workout.”
* Chair Yoga includes all limbs of yoga!

Join me LIVE ON ZOOM – Tuesdays at 11am ET. Learn calming breathing practices, refreshing stretches, and specific yoga poses adapted for the chair, including some standing poses which are optional. Cap it off with a relaxation practice and tips for how to take your yoga practice into your everyday routine.

“Yoga is not about having a flexible body; it’s about having a flexible mind, and it’s accessible to all of us.” -Jivana Heyman, author of Accessible Yoga (an indispensable book!)

Ann Grace Yoga, Chakras, Grounding, Yoga, Yoga for Everybody

Getting Grounded

Ann

The human is a finely tuned instrument capable of receiving and transmitting an enormous variety of energies – but you need to plug it in! Grounding is like plugging yourself in to the Earth.

“As a lightning rod protects a building by sending excess voltages into the ground, grounding protects the body from becoming overloaded by the tensions of everyday life,” according to Anodea Judith in her book Wheels of Life: A User’s Guide to the Chakra System.

Makes sense to me! I use simple grounding exercises every day to help manage the stresses and challenges of daily living.

5 Take Away Tips to Stay Grounded

  1. Stick to a daily routine
  2. Practice setting healthy boundaries
  3. Sit or lie down and take 5 breaths, feeling your earthward connection
  4. Move your body, go out in nature
  5. Work with your feet – oil feet before bedtime

Grounding starts with your feet, which are your earthward antennae, the foundation of your balance and movement. Try these simple toe exercises to keep your toes in good shape!

Finally, a great way to ground is to actually lie down and do a Yoga Nidra, guided relaxation practice. I recorded this Yoga Nidra with Grounding in mind. Enjoy!

Yoga Nidra – Relax the body and free the mind with Yoga Nidra, the art of conscious relaxation. Today’s recording gently encourages grounded stability, and could be wonderfully healing for any root chakra imbalances.

How do you like to ground yourself?