Yoga Archives - Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Butterfly Pose Wellness For Tight Hips Opener

Butterfly Pose is a much needed pose for tight inner hips and hip opening. This article is about how to get the most out of the pose and good exercises you can do daily to help open your hips when they don’t want to or you want to keep them flexible. 🧘🏻‍♀️

Which btw, our bodies are natural wonders and so is the total eclipse that gave solar chills and happy tears this week, that I’m still reeling over and you can too days later.

…Even if you’re not spiritual, the palpitable feeling can be deeper than even seeing the phenomenon. And if you want the lasting effects, you can make and enjoy a cake that celebrates the moon and eclipse. 🌘 Cake recipe and steps below.

chocolate eclipse cake. — This is a healthy chocolate cake representation of the moon where you can add your Baily’s beads too.

But first things first: when you have tight hips, you know it immediately when you move around. And I didn’t know about this because I didn’t feel it until one day.

And like the Butterfly name implies, the pose looks like opened butterfly wings. Or if you speak in chef language like I often do, you know what butterflying means on a plate. Butterfly pose looks also like an open lotus flower. 🪷

Opening your hips this way is a metaphor for opening yourself up and while you’re sitting still in patience and peace.

In life, butterflies wait before they can flutter about. It’s one of the fascinating creatures out there in nature I think and a symbol of transformation. They are fragile like we are. 🦋

Similarly, we start out as caterpillars in life crawling along and hopefully like most, make it to adulthood. Then we transform into our adult butterfly bodies.

As sweet reward, we get tastes of honey along our journey and feed back honey nectar to our community. We contribute to the environment we’re in where we spend time. And this is a metaphor for making our individual impact in the world that’s one of our highest callings.

this is a real butterfly pose in life next to a caterpillar. — From caterpillar to adult butterfly is a natural transformation And seeing them together one day is a phenomenon. Can you see the butterfly in the photo?

Butterflies are unique in colors and design patterns like the Peacock Butterfly commonly found in Europe or Asia, or a Monarch Butterfly that I see often in North America.

They are something we can globally appreciate like the sun, the moon, and the solar eclipse.

Butterfly Pose When Hips are Tight

If your hips are tight, to open your Butterfly pose, do it gradually. Don’t force it along.

Use metaphors of appreciating time and never giving up persistence to help you on this journey.

You can use a block or a towel to raise your thigh until your hip loosens up (one side is usually tighter) and you can get to your ideal Butterfly pose.

Maybe someday your knees and top half of your leg touch the mat, or they don’t. Some people are naturally more flexible in those areas.

…But a good goal would be to not feel any tension or pain in the hip muscle, inner hip, or groin areas. Both men and women seem to have this common issue.

If you sit a lot this could be a reasonable cause. And if it shows up one day, it could be a new habit position you were sitting in that simply needs to be adjusted so you can restore.

In the meanwhile, you can complement Butterfly Pose with Triangle Pose and Pigeon Pose that are other yoga poses that will help open up in slightly different angles.

Also try the Seated Spinal Twist.

As usual in yoga, one side is usually tighter than the other for different poses, so workout a little longer for the side that needs more TLC.

Balance and alignment comes from asymmetrical efforts. So if for balance ⚖️, this means intention or laser focus on the side or area that needs attention.

Another yoga pose that can really help is a 5 star yoga pose on the mat with your legs straddled open to each side, and arms under and through your legs.

If you’re not familiar with the more common star pose, your head arms and legs make up the 5 points.

Doing this stretch faced down on the mat will also give you a good stretch through your legs and arms.

And combining physical therapy type exercise that you can do at home will help. These often use repetition vs. weights. And repeated repetitions.

One of the best exercises I found is the side hip abductor exercise that you can do on your mat. You turn to one side and bend your knees and then lift the top leg up and down for 10 repetitions or more at a time.

This helps the inner hip to open. And should feel good. It’s also a killer butt toning exercise!

A second exercise is: sit on the side of a regular height bed or a chair that allows a hip-leg to anchor straight down on the floor either straight up perpendicular or slightly shifted to the back while the other hip-leg (the tight one) is on the bed or chair.

Take the tight hip-leg (on the bed) and bend, so that you can see the bottom of your foot. You should feel a light stretch (that does not hurt) in the tight hip area that’s slightly different than on a mat.

If there’s any pain, you should stop as you may have injured the area somehow. Remember, we’re fragile like butterflies.

And if you don’t feel anything in your hips, that’s something to be grateful for.. and now you’re more aware of what to do and what people (aka older people) are talking about when they say they have tight hips… Not feeling your hips is something else to celebrate. 🎉

Now, this is the chocolate total eclipse cake (of the heart) recipe that you can make to embrace life and wonder.

I could’ve made this a vanilla cake 🌕, but chocolate is more decadent and mysterious like the moon. 🌚

Print Recipe

Total Eclipse Chocolate Cake of the Heart

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Equipment

scale (optional)

Ingredients

1-1/2 cups combined flour (plain and gluten-free flours are good)
1/3 cup sugar (healthy version)
1 tbsp espresso coffee (optional)
3 tbsp baking cocoa (70% dark cocoa for healthy)
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp white vinegar
6 tbsp oil (coconut oil, or light EVOO for healthy)
1 cup cold water
1-1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
matcha powder, beet powder, and ginger powder and edible candy pearl (decorations)

Instructions

Combine ingredients. For two 8" pans, you'll want to double the ingredient amounts (e.g. 3 cups of flour). Bake at 350°F for 50-55 minutes or until a clean toothpick skewer comes out.
To give the moon look, use a tea diffuser or strainer to alternate decorate with color food powders (Matcha green tea, beet red, ginger yellow) in desired spots. You can add edible pearls randomly to represent the moon craters (that create Baily's beads effect for eclipse enthusiasts).

Vinyasa Yoga Common Mistakes and Creative Flow Moves

Vinyasa yoga flow is good for getting movement and activity flow through your systems. Learn some of the common mistakes below.

healthy chocolate mousse dessert gluten free. — Creative expression flow from winter to spring in a healthy (gluten-free) chocolate mousse dessert. 🎉Recipe below…

Vinyasa was introduced a few years after I started regular yoga that was just starting to grow in America. We were slow to catch on, immersed in our busy Western ways.

And the Vinyasa series was repeated.

Classic Vinyasa yoga includes 4 parts: Downward Dog, Plank, Chaturanga, and Up Dog.

vinyasa yoga flow. — Start at Down Dog and end in Up Dog.

These poses help your arm strength and back flexibility. All are great for flexing your back if you’re having back tension issues.

Vinyasa flow is good for life balance rhythm especially when you’re having a tough season and wanna work out your Pitta frustrations on your mat. And of course, yoga helps your body balance in the process.

The Vinyasa front down, on-the-mat poses complement your Plow Pose restoring your back.

We can easily need a tune up. And learning good form in the beginning helps to use as a guide.

When we don’t know any better, we choose the easiest form for our bodies.

To start, get into your Downward Dog pose. Feet are firmly grounded on the floor. You’ll then transition into Plank, Chaturanga and then Up Dog (Up Dog vs. Cobra vs. Sphinx).

Note: by the time you get to Up Dog, your tops of feets will roll transition and be on the mat vs bottom of feet. So your feet position is evolving as you move into the Vinyasa yoga pose.

And is often forgotten about.

On that topic, these are some of the common Vinyasa Yoga mistakes:

We forget to flow our feet. In Down Dog, our heels are not on the floor. Or our toes can be curled under on the mat in Up Dog, like in Plank Pose.

We forget to pause. You can slow down (as also a metaphor in life) and insert in a Child’s Pose from the Up Dog to Downward Dog transition if you would like a rest.

Another common mistake is in the hands. Hands are partially flat relying on finger strength on the mat (when it’s good to have full hands flat on the mat). Ideally, hands and fingers are flat on the mat that also helps to protect your wrists and awkward arm bends that could send strange sensations to your hand parts.

In Up Dog, often the position of hands are too low beside the body as you shift the top half of your body forward. Try to align with your shoulders.

And while we focus on hands and feets, we forget about our mid areas, where:

The buttocks are not peaked high enough in Down Dog for a higher pronounced “V.” If you’ve been to a class and received individual instruction, often the teacher will pull your mid-section body up. And that feels lighter and totally different than in a comfy “V” where the body feels weighted toward the ground.

Using a body mirror can help you better assess if your form is good.

Then naturally as we just hiked ourselves up: when we move into Plank pose, our Buttocks are too high in the air resembling a hill in Plank pose. Lower just a bit, so in a mirror you look more like a down sloping seesaw. There aren’t bumps in the middle.

And then in Chaturanga, don’t be in a hurry. Stay there longer for a few breaths and gain the arm strength building benefits. You feel control over your body.

Then Up Dog if you choose is your last part of the flow. There are slight differences between Up Dog, Cobra, and Sphinx. Up Dog is the one with the highest energy vibes.

Then before you get back into Downward Dog, pause into Child’s Pose if you like a rest.

And this is also a good place to insert other inspiring creative poses for Vata especially if you need more energy in your life (feeling Kapha tired).

Your Creative Vinyasa Flow

When you feel comfortable with the basics, you can also add your own yoga spin. Just like each yoga class is different, you can make your own yoga pose moves with your basic Vinyasa Yoga flow series. And these movements will benefit your body.

Yoga is about feeling good and getting the kinks out. And being physically creative can do just that!

One instructional move is that yoga is different than other forms of exercise.

For one, many of the yoga up moves are inhale breaths and down moves are exhales. It’s the opposite in many other forms of exercise.

Like, in weight lifting, when you lift up, you exhale and let go of the air. So switching up your breath inhale and exhale for yoga can be helpful and tricky. The most important point is just to breathe naturally and then let the rest follow. It’s more important to follow good breathing habits in weight lifting where you can unintentionally hyperventilate if you overexert yourself.

Give yourself grace in yoga!

Another move that’s fun to do (if you see it that way) is when you’re in Chaturanga: shift your toes and arms forward and backward on the mat where your height or plane distance on the mat doesn’t change. You’re constantly moving. 😊

What makes Vinyasa special is it keeps you flexible and moving and this helps your creativity. As you use your breath in flow, you get in touch with your deeper senses inside you. And this can help you tap into your creativity that can be missing in your life.

In modern life, unless we surround ourselves in creative environments and inspired, we can get out of touch with creativity.

That’s my story (and maybe yours) in corporate where creativity is as far removed as personal expression unless you have intentions to improve those areas in your day.

One easy way is create your own Vinyasa yoga flow. Maybe you add a Pigeon pose in between your Downward Dog and Plank pose. Or a Hare pose coming out of Up Dog. Or you add a Mountain pose after your Plank pose and then step or take a jump back.

You can reach your Mountain with just a ‘lil creativity and nudge. Sometimes you just need the suggestion or permission and then you’ve enhanced your day with a few more calming breaths and moments without breaking a sweat.

And if you’re feeling energetic, you could get into your hands up Tree or full Dancer poses. And then come back to your Mountain, fold down and jump or step back to Plank. And from there get back to Chaturanga.

The possibilities are endless in your creative day of activities that take just escape break minutes away from your work and devices.

Healthy Chocolate Mousse Dessert Recipe 💕

Print Recipe

gluten-free chocolate mousse dessert recipe

Chocolate Mousse Dessert (Healthy, Gluten-Free)

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Ingredients

2 oz Dark chocolate
1 tbsp Coconut oil
1-1/2 one egg and one yolk
1 tbsp almond flour

Instructions

Prepare baking vessel. Brush coconut oil and dust with cocoa.
Melt chocolate in bain marie with coconut oil.
Beat egg and any flavors (optional)
Add eggs to chocolate.
Fold in almond flour.
Pour into baking vessel. Bake for 12 minutes on 350°F. Do not overbake for a soft, gooey center.
Zhugh with healthy ingredients: raspberries, coconut shavings, mint leaves, pistachios, other chopped nuts, or orange zest.

Plow Pose For Stress Ease and Back Pain

Plow pose yoga is one of the best stretches for releasing stress and back pain. You don’t have to love yoga to love what this pose can do for you! And when you have surrounding healthy inspiration in your life, then you breathe in balance.

Do you have a healthy inspiration board? I think it’s a fun way to bring more of that intentional energy and balance into life. 🌱

And Plow pose fits right in. Like the name “plow” implies, Plow pose loosens your body up. In farming, plowing is essential prep-work so seeds can be planted. And in your back’s case, plowing for a loose and limber back will support your daily movements…

If any of these apply, you may just need some restoring Plow Pose love in your life 🧡:

✔️Sit in a chair most the day

✔️Hurt your back doing daily activities

✔️Are as tall as a baby giraffe that towers over most of us

…And in those cases, doing this pose often, you may never cry again to go see a back specialist. The easy pose may be all you need in your wincing daily back pain that can come from accumulated tension.

Some of us already do this pose regularly to restore our backs.

And below I get down to the nitty-gritty of how to get in the pose with ease… and not hurt yourself, that’s a point not to miss!

Because warning: you can hurt yourself. And I’m emphasizing that because people think yoga is just light movements, but some of those movements come with intensity.

That goes for other yoga poses too, but in Plow Pose especially because you’re carrying most of your body’s weight with your upper body half. It’s pretty cool-phenomenal when you think about it.

Yoga is awesome in this way because you don’t need equipment or weights to do weight lifting that’s also good for building strength.

Body weight is self-equipment and you want to use what you have! And like any weights, you want to use good form.

That’s not to scare you away because yoga does good for your body, health, and wellness. And it’ll only help you on your journey!

Sometimes “use it or lose it” can be a good motivator. Or one I heard recently was that if you don’t make time to exercise (or do yoga), then plan to make time for illness. Sad, but true. And you have a chance to use that mantra as a gentle reminder. 🧡

…We all need reminders to take action today.

Sometimes a new perspective or healthy kick in the pants, works (as it has for me, ha!). I look at it as investing in yourself now, so that you can have lasting healthy habits and good results in later years that creep up and you start to feel your joints and parts you never felt before. 😭

You have a chance to Plow now for benefits tomorrow..

For starters, I’ll begin with… in one of the first few times I did Plow Pose, shifting my neck in the pose taught me an unforgettable lesson you can avoid in aches.

But done properly, the pose is a life saver!… Just keep your mind focused on good form and you’ll be in great shape. 😊

And if you have ceiling exposed beams or a ceiling fan you can stare at one spot easily, that’ll do the trick. Or turn your popcorn ceiling into a positive feature.

…And more recently when I relocated and had to sleep on a floor mattress for a month before my bed furniture arrived, Plow Pose saved me and my back. I had used the lessons I learned from Plow Pose yoga years back to revive my back… and restore me back!

The simple restorative move over the course of a week provided the much-needed relief. It was very little effort that’s always a crowd pleaser plus. So if you tend to get the lazy Kaphas or consider yourself a tired Kapha, Plow Pose can be a huge problem solve. You can restore yourself without leaving your digs.

The area where the pose feels best is in the mid-back and some lower back if you dig deeper into the pose when your toes and parts of your feet are planted on the mat.

You can use that as a metaphor for getting deeper in your life. Even just a few seconds feels sooo good.

The other benefit is you can do this pose anywhere. If the travel bed you’ve slept on gave you trouble, you can lay a towel down on the carpet-padded floor or yoga mat on floor or flat ground. You could even do this on the therapeutic beach sand. 🏝️

…So, ready to get your plow-on?

Always start with a warm-up move to loosen you up and also get in the mood.

Do a stretch before the stretch. If you’re feeling lazy, you could rest a block behind your mid-back and another block under your head if you’re at home or at a yoga studio. This stretches your verterbrae without much energy.

But the one move I like that’s portable is…

Seated, and with arms wrapped around bent and tucked knees like a tight ball of yarn, roll back down to the floor and then back up. Keep doing this several times to warm up your vertebrae so you’re more back limber.

…I like to call it the roly-poly move (…would make a good pose name, yes?). That’s actually a protective interior move for isopod insects that have the nickname. And you can look at it as protecting your body from any snaps from not warming up.

And then when you had enough of that, lay flat back on your mat or towel. Scoot down on your mat quite a bit, leaving just enough room on your mat above your head where your feet will land on the mat (if they do). If your buttocks is about at the 1/3 mark of your mat, you’re good.

It can be hard to imagine if you’re new to the pose, but you’ll be glad you did when you’re in Plow. When you’re new to yoga, figuring out space on your mat is interesting.

….The good news, it’s not that important as everywhere you land is flat and you’re low-grounded already.

So if you don’t care so much, you can let your free spirit lead you!

What’s a universal agreement is you don’t want to have your devices or anything else damageable around you, so you can relax!

…Now you’re ready and on your mat, can go into a pause pose like Shoulder Stand or a hugging Upside Down Child Pose for a few breaths. Or go straight into Plow Pose by gently throwing your legs up in the air and back behind your head. Try and do it with mindfulness and control, one verterbrae at a time.

But however you get there is good. You can use your hands to help guide your buttocks and body.

And in good form, stare at one point on the popcorn ceiling 👀 or above. Avoid shifting your neck. You can move your eyes. but if you want to keep your focused gaze (Drishti) still 😳, that’s up to you. Just remember to keep your neck still. And remember to breathe naturally and not hold your breath.

I think those last points are worth remembering. 📝

And then you’re doing your pose!

You can decide if your toes or parts of your feet touch the mat. Those moves are the deeper pose that’ll stretch parts of your upper back.

But if you don’t go that far back (on your back), you’ll still get a good stretch in your lower and mid-back, that works in the beginning. And that’s where most of us have back pain in the mid-lower area sitting in a chair.

Plus, there’s always next time…

Next time will be when you’ll be more prepared and your body cells will remember the pose that makes the pose easier as you do it more times. And that’s why you can go deeper and further with less effort as you get more comfortabe.

Enjoy yourself and let time melt in your mat. Even a few breaths is beneficial for your back… and adding moments longer is good for de-stressing.

When you’ve been in the pose long enough, then slowly unwind your back, vertebrae-by-vertebrae. You may have done that with self-control getting into the pose and balancing the move out of the pose. This time use patience as your mantra.

That’s another point to not miss: yoga teaches us good lessons in character alignment we need without long trials and hard lessons.

And right away you’ll feel rewarded with a better feeling back as you roll out of the pose. And when you sit back up, you should feel less back tension.

If you feel the stretch in a good way, then that means you need to do it again more often. When you don’t feel the stretch, that’s when you can focus on other best yoga poses. There are hundreds to choose from on our planet for the amazing creature you are.🧘🏻‍♀️🐶🐬🐪 🐗🐱🐦‍⬛🐇

Crow Pose Yoga For Stability

Do good and Be kind are heart action messages worth taking into the day!

Crow Pose is one yoga pose that can help you feel strong along with the messages you feed yourself.

Maybe when you start your balance pose initially, you’re not able to hold the Crow Pose without your feet or toes touching the mat or floor.

…But as you practice regularly, you’ll be able to! 🐦‍⬛

Crow Pose could be a goal this week that gets your mojo back to blood flowing activity and to keep moving and growing. 🥅

Building Strength Stability

If you want to become stronger, gaining arm strength is one impactful way. Strength represents resilience that’s needed to get through tough times… and build stability and progress.

One starter exercise way is to be in your push up pose. Alternating legs, pull one knee at a time closer up to your shoulders one side at a time.

Then like a push up, push straight up and down. Your hiked up leg is extra body weight to use as muscle weights for your arm. 😉

Then switch leg sides. After a weekly habit of doing arm strength building exercises, your muscle memory will remember (fostering stable reinforcements) and that’ll help you in your Crow Pose…

If only you could see how cool you look!

This exercise I just described (that I’m not sure if it has a name) helps you get to used to vertical arm strength that Crow Pose needs. Chataranga pose is another.

In good form, vertical arms will support your body along with your strong ab muscles. And speaking of the gut, I share below some strong food ways that complement your pose.

…But let’s not got ahead of ourselves. For starters, you may want to see where you’re at with your Crow Pose today. So give it a try today (or now) and fail forward or beam in your Crow!

Keep reading 👇 for tips…

Crow Pose For Beginners (Or Starting Again)

As a beginner, you can have a yoga block in front of you for strength and moral support. Set the soft-place-to-fall security block on the floor on the lowest setting side where your forehead would fall on… don’t worry, as this likely won’t happen.

The placebo effect is a confidence booster. 🤸🏻

…And that way you can enter the pose confidently without fear of injury that can stall your progress or hold you back unintentionally.

Especially when you want Crow Pose to build your confidence (and not build a fine line wall divide that keeps you stuck).

And when you move into your first Crow Pose moments, you can feel like you can handle the world in all its cruel ways that can sometimes make any of us feel like we’re broken down. Stay at peace. ✌️

When you look up and out with a grin on your face knowing you’re able to support yourself, the weight of the world crumbles into the mat.

Plus, you’re building up arms that are becoming more chiseled. 😊

And after you’ve mastered Crow Pose, you can advance to a taller Crane Pose or take a slight bend (detour break) into Side Crow.

There’s always a next or side step. Before you know it, you’ll be flying! 🕊️

Side Crow Pose and Crane Pose

In Side Crow Pose, you crouch down and tip your body to the side where the back of your upper arms catch your legs and side buttock. So you get a different muscle workout and perspective.

And if you want to lengthen taller and gain more stability in your moves, you can try a more advanced pose: Crane Pose.

Cranes are the tallest flying birds. They’re powerful so the pose matches the yoga pose name.

What I like about these two other poses is what they’ll tell you more about your core and arm muscle state.

Many women think they’ll build Popeye arms with regular 10 lb weights, but that’s not the case.

We underestimate ourselves and what we can lift. If you can lift your travel carry-on luggage up to the compact overhead bin, then daily 10 pound weights should be no problem.

If you look more compact, then you could have more muscle that’s lean mass which means it will become denser or smaller.

Think of a compact ball of yarn versus a loose skein that yarn is usually sold in. On the shelves, it’s soft. But if you take it home and unravel the yarn and make a tight ball 🧶, then it becomes hard like a rubber ball.

We want our muscles to have shape, tone, and hard compactness that a rubber ball represents. In between, it can be like a squishy stress ball.

Our arm muscles are easy to scope out, but the hidden body muscles that give us the most trouble and least strength are the ones we don’t use or stretch often. And in yoga, you can discover those small areas in poses.

Balancing Food Macros to Support Crow Pose Moves

If you’re like many trying to lose weight, be sure to amp up your protein so your body stays full longer. Proteins burn more calories.

Taking a step further, the body burns fat for energy after it runs out of glucose. And that’s why I’m so gung-ho on intermittent fasting for metabolic flexibility. On and off switching teaches the body who’s boss. 😊

As we age, we lose muscle. Our protein macros help make up the deficit, for especially women. We can include large doses of protein foods with specific amino acids to help us restore what’s lost.

Protein food sources also keep us feeling full that saves us time from taking time to eat so we can spend more time doing other activities we want to get to.

If you’re like me, after graduating from baby milk as nutrients, I started out life with sugary bowls of cereal and milk as a breakfast meal. That was what I woke up to, growing up. Protein wasn’t a priority.

With cereal, it’s not the sugary sides that’s the biggest problem… it was the starting with cereal as a meal. Cereal wasn’t and isn’t filling enough and also begs us wanting more sugar in our veins.

But as a snack treat to fulfill sweet cravings, low-sugar cereals are better and I prefer them over sweet alternatives like cookies (my love 💕). Many cereals are fortified with macros and minerals while cookies are mostly empty calories (unless you bake them with healthy goodness like I do these days).

Gluten-free coconut flour, cocoa, shredded coconut, cinnamon, coconut oil, and water make this cookie batter.

But in my earlier years, I was in double trouble working in catering food management at the Doubletree Hotel known for their large paper weight-dense cookies. 🍪

And that’s how I started my breakfast morning at 8 am…

But decades later with better intentions and experiencing a season of excess sugar bothering my skin with eczema, I changed my ways. I didn’t think I could ever switch to starting mornings with a savory meal.

…I mean, forget protein like lean meats. But I let health motivate me and after many bites, savory foods grew on me.

…So I started adding proteins from leftover meals. Because eggs, tofu, and chicken aren’t necessarily the favorite first thing meal when your gut isn’t even awake yet…

And if that’s you…don’t give up on yourself! The a-ha change I made also made me realize that I could ignore my cravings (like unproductive thoughts) if I wanted to and focus on building healthy habits.

Protein substantial foods are also a better stomach cushion for coffee (that’s acidic).

…And you too can start the habit if you want!

Trust your feelings will follow. 💖

That’s how you can change tastes effectively for your health and build in more protein ma-crows in your life, so you can support your Crow Pose and other bird pose yoga areas calling you!

Yoga moves calling for strength can be the canary in the coal mine indicator to add more daily muscle and protein to your body and diet. 🌱

And doing a daily Crow Pose could just be the starting reminder.

Yoga Wheel Pose For Removing Mental Blocks

Some larger-than-us life wheels are metaphors for us to gain balance in the slow motion! 🎡

You can use Wheel Pose to learn how to gain confidence in your life. Too often we overthink and get inside our heads. Like in Bird of Paradise Pose that can also be challenging…

When our gut instinct and initial thought is often the one we should follow. This is different than a knee-jerk reaction which is based on removing immediate pain and often based in fear or insecurity.

You know the difference because knee-jerk usually causes some pain backlash.

Sometimes we react defensively because we’re hurt, we haven’t processed fully what is hurled our way, or we’re too busy to think through what aftermath our words and actions will cause.

Afterall, we’re busy and have many areas of life that we try to balance in our life wheel: work, relationships, family, health, fitness, spiritual, and finances.

All can be sources of joy when good. Or become a worrisome disturbance that can cause turmoil unbalance, tipping the scale toward what’s heaviest.

In those moments you can use Wheel Pose to be a metaphor for restoring your balance.

It won’t mend your problems, but getting in the yoga pose will give you some encouraging moments and feelings that bring back a smile and some confidence. And help you with mental blocks, being in the moment.

That’s how I feel when I’m making my whole healthy pizzas 🍕 with a whole lotta peace in the pieces.✌️There’s a hole in whole but not in this one!

Shrimp on the barbie with artichokes and homemade barbecue sauce for a new kind of pie

And whatever daily inspires you, here’s how to get in Wheel Pose…

We can find it difficult to get our body off the ground if we’re not used to the yoga pose. That can be a metaphor for anything we are hesitant to try because it’s challenging (and our wintery Kapha minds want us to do the easy and our Kapha bodies like the lazy pose 🧘🏻‍♀️).

And that can keep us away from moving forward or succeeding in our victories. But we don’t have to live that way!

We can cooperate with our Kapha mind-body tendencies. I get it… life is hard enough, our wheels grow, and everything needs a sliver piece on the balanced Wheel of Life.

So to give ourselves an instant helping hand, we can take a known alternate route where the easier path gets us halfway there without effort…

You will still reap great health benefits from Wheel Pose.

The first step is: start by sitting on your bum instead of laying on your back.

Lazy or not, then you’re almost halfway there.

In yoga, we’re often laying on our backs or fronts like on a massage table or when we try to catch a tan on the beach. We forget that seated is another starting position. It’s the one we’re in when we’re driving forward. 🛞

But this easier way starts in a relaxed seat position. Your legs bent with knees up help. You’ll still catch the rays of the Wheel Pose!

Hands on the mat beside you, then you position your fingers and wrists toward your feet (or the opposite direction they normally would face if you were lounging on a beach towel on the beach).

Then use your arm strength to lift yourself off the mat.

When you get comfortable and know how it feels to be in baby Wheel Pose, then you use that confidence of having been-there-done-that to challenge yourself to the full proper Wheel Pose where you peel your entire back and body off the mat when you’re ready.

Now we’re talking!… Then you’re in your merry-go-round feeling Wheel.

You’ll be stronger afterward and have forgotten about your real life at least for a few moments.

Remember to breathe in to take in the moments that feel slow motion in the process (like on a carousel).

Removing Mind Blocks

And in the slower moments, you find balance and can remind yourself that everything is possible, and you’re capable if you get out of your own way.

Often, we can’t get past our mind blocks until we can see glimpses of the other side to believe our way through.

So, round and round we go. Our ego blocks us from seeing what could be ours.

But, we can get off the repeating mind carousel and help ourselves by letting go of what was.

Then when you show and tell yourself you can do a new way from a healthy perspective, you overcome the block. You get a new breakthrough on the carousel that helps your life wheel balance.

And if that isn’t enough to push you over the almost-there hump (you’re so close!), look at others who have gone before you in those areas and defied the odds.

They’ve given Wheel Pose its name. And you can invent your Wheel of Life version.

Life is cheering you on. Give it a spin! 🤸🏻