The following is an excerpt from the "21 Day Yoga Body!" on-line course. If you would like to enroll in the course, click here.
Whether you're trying to lose a few pounds, find inner peace, heal your heart or anything else, you might have to fake it till you make it. Even if you don't feel as strong, fit, balanced or capable as you would like, you're going to act like you are. You will literally take the actions of healthy, happy people until you're one of them. And then you will be.
As you begin this process, as easy as it may be to do what I'm suggesting, you need to be aware of one pitfall I've seen people fall into with other programs. Not this one! We're going to sidestep this baby before it gets a chance to stop you in your tracks.
Whenever you're making the decision to go to that next, best level of yourself (and boy, are you ever in the right place for that!), you can count on one thing: self-sabotage.
Even if you really, really want an incredible body, a mind focused on your goals and a heart that's free from old dramas, you may find that on other programs or in general, you've lost willpower easily, suddenly find yourself having that big dinner or extra dessert, skipping days of the course, falling back into familiar but dark ways of behaving or otherwise limiting your own success!
That's because old habits are strong. In yoga, we call them samskaras (saam-scar-ahs), the ruts, or places where we get stuck thinking and doing things that take us off our best path instead of keeping us on the fast-lane to transformation.
We all have them, though they express themselves differently for each of us. Some common samskaras are:
• Excuses for why you can't do your transformative work today • Truths you believe that cause you stress, anxiety and limitation • Ways of seeing your experiences that promote lack, not abundance • Allowing other people's needs to come before your own • Stories you're sticking to that make you the victim of your life instead of the master
Luckily, since we created these grooves in our thinking and actions, that means we can unstick ourselves, too, but it takes more effort at first than it will later on. Today, get ready to push yourself out of the muck and onto a new path that serves you the best.
Whatever your ruts are, you must stay vigilant against them creeping back in to slow your progress. Any time you want to grow and change, they will rise up and attempt to stop you. This may have worked for them in the past, but not now.
What I'm here to help you do is to not let self-sabotage win. You CAN eat well, stay focused on your fitness and reach your ultimate body and life goals. It's all up to you, and with my guidance, you will create miracles.
Hold your own hands right now, look into a mirror, and make a promise to Self:
We can do this!
Ready to begin? Let's go!
Note: The following action steps can be done in a row, or throughout the day, unless I specify a certain time.
TRANSFORMATIVE EATING TIP DAY 1:
Simple Morning Detox:
Each morning before breakfast is a prime time to clean out your filters, like the kidneys, liver and GI tract. This means that in just a couple of minutes, you can make a huge difference in how your body processes your food the rest of the day. This makes for less fat storage, easier digestion and a more efficient metabolism.
Instead of expensive, messy detox powders or fasts, all you need is a cup of lemon tea!
Directions:
8 oz of hot water (a small tea or coffee cup is fine) Add juice of 1/2 lemon Add honey to taste
Drink this yummy brew 20 minutes before eating any food, and let the skin-clearing, calorie-burning bonfire begin!
CORE YOGA SEQUENCE DAY 1: WHITTLE YOUR MIDDLE
About Your New Yoga Practice:
Here's how this part works: as well as you work it.
If you want to change your body, you'll have to commit to moving it in new ways. You'll feel at times wonderful, uncomfortable, sweaty, hot, blissful and a host of other sensations and emotions. These are all appropriate signals of transformation. Welcome them all! They are leading you straight to the body you really want.
What's more, my style of yoga, Core Strength Vinyasa Yoga, is the only style to give you this much body-changing in less time, due to the addition of deep body core muscles and the focus you put not only on the poses, but the transitions between them as well. Where most other styles have you doing two poses, I have you doing three, and from the inner body as well as the outer. Just follow my instructions and cues, and watch your body, mind and spirit totally transform.
Remember, the yoga sequences are the core of your transformation practice. 10 minutes per day is the minimum and of course, the longer you can do your postures, up to 60 minutes a day, with one or two days scaled back to 10 minutes for a rest-- the more transformation you'll see.
About Your First Sequence:
SEQUENCE 1: LIGHTING YOUR FIRE
This is a series of moves I designed specifically to light the calorie-burning bonfire of center the yogis call "agni" or "belly fire". Sparking agni is what most exercise forms neglect that rely more on the arms and legs. The heat you create is more superficial, and the workout will stop burning calories when you stop moving.
If you start your day or workout session with poses that focus on the deeper belly area, you'll trigger your metabolism to fire up as soon as you do it, and run hotter all day long. You will notice increased energy, smoother digestion, and your body will transform faster than a day begun without igniting your agni.
What's more, you get a host of other benefits from these moves, from better sex to detoxification to self-confidence, many of which I've included below.
This sequence should take you up to 5 minutes to do once through, but I encourage you to repeat it 2-3 times for maximum effect.
POSE: BELLY SUN BREATH
Often, we don't breathe using our deeper core muscles. This is a problem, as breathing without core support means we're missing out on stoking that inner heat all day long. Let's change that starting today, shall we?
Benefits:
• Instantly lights agni, and fires up your metabolism • Promotes more energy and detoxification through deeper breathing • Calms and focuses your mind, busts anxiety • Brings new circulation to the belly area, improving digestive and reproductive health • Tones the pelvic floor diaphragm, which can prevent loss of bladder control, uterine prolapse and BONUS: also strengthens orgasms along with your core!
How To: Come to sit on the floor or in a chair. Place your hands on your knees.
Sit up tall. Begin to breathe a bit more slowly and deeply through the nose. You don't need a ton of oxygen here, so don't pump the breath too hard. Keep it slow and easy.
NOTE: Beyond the Belly Sun visual you're about to practice, I want you to get acquainted with the Yoga Detox Breath (yogis call it "Ujjayi (oo-jai-ee) or "Ocean-Sounding Breath). This is the common yoga breathing that you will want to use during all your active yoga poses until we rest at the end.
To do it, as you exhale, open your mouth and act like you're fogging up a windowpane. This makes you contract the back of your throat and vocal diaphragm a little. Keep this action in the throat as you close your lips and continue to inhale and exhale through this smaller space in the throat.
It might feel weird at first, but it's a brilliant breath, one that, just like lifting weights, will provide resistance to tone your cardiovascular system and abdominal breathing muscles all practice long. This Yoga Detox Breath also gives you proper intra-abdominal pressure so your spine stays supported.
• Now, as you use the Yoga Detox Breath, let's add the visualization that turns it into the Belly Sun Breath. Close your eyes and imagine a heavy sun sitting in the center and base of your pelvis. It's not touching the floor, but is a few inches higher, about halfway between the navel and floor. • On your inhales, let the sun drop a little lower, softening your pelvis and infusing it with heat. • On the exhales, without activating any of the muscles closer to the floor, but using the ring of muscles inside your pelvic bones, try and hug around that sun and lift it up behind your navel. Note: especially if this is a new practice to you, or you've had children, the pelvic diaphragm muscles might be elusive at first. Don't worry, they will build in time, and you will begin to feel them, at first subtly, then more obviously. You might try squeezing the muscles of the more superficial pelvic floor, like you're trying not to go to the bathroom, but eventually you want to localize the muscular action higher than that.
Do this breath for 1-2 minutes, then move on to the next pose, BUT make sure to use this breath throughout every pose in this sequence, unless instructed otherwise. It's also a great breath to do while you're walking or even sitting at work, to spark a belly fire and keep that metabolism burning hotter.
POSE: SEATED SPINAL ARCH/CURL
Benefits:
• A safe, total body strengthener that releases an incredible amount of stress and tension from your hips, lower back and shoulders. • Sculpts and strengthens the abdominal muscles, sides and back waist.
AMP IT UP: To get more benefits much more quickly from this pose, we're going to Superset it, by moving in a more concentrated way than usual.
How to:
• Come to sit on the floor or in a chair. • Place your hands on your knees. • Inhale deeply through your nose, and arch your back. Draw your shoulders back and lift your chest. Keep your neck long. Hold for three more breaths. • Exhale, lean back and round your back. You want to firm your low belly in and up as if trying to put on a too-tight pair of jeans, but don't push out your lower back curve. We want a toned belly, not a strained back. This is more about keeping a lift out of your low back and opening space behind your heart and between the shoulder blades. Lower your chin towards your chest and pull your shoulders forward. Firm those hands down into your knees. Hold for 3 more breaths.
Repeat the sequence 4 more times, then take a few, one breath each Spinal Arches and Curls for one minute to reset the body.
POSE: SEATED SPINAL TWIST
Benefits:
• Works your Oblique muscles, the abs that help your waist get smaller while your spine gets taller! • Cleanses your inner organs, importantly, the liver, kidneys, stomach and GI tract, to help you process out old, yucky toxins and stimulates your digestion to work better. • Releases serotonin, the "feel-good" chemical, to help you feel more relaxed and centered
How To: Come to sit on the floor or in a chair. If on the floor, cross your right foot and bent knee over the left bent leg.If in a chair, cross your legs.
• Ground your seat down and sit tall through your spine. • Keep your spine long as you lightly place your left hand or elbow (if sitting) onto the right knee. • Inhale, get taller. • Exhale, spin your chest and face to the right. Note: Your lower back isn't supposed to twist, so keep your movement coming from the mid-back and higher. • As you hold the twist and breathe, inhales lift your chest, exhales spin you a millimeter more. Instead of yanking with your arms, almost don't use them at all. Work farther down from your side abs and back muscles as you let the left ribcage area generate your movement.
Hold your Twist for 30 seconds to one minute on each side. When you're finished, fold forward over your legs for a moment, then fold to the left and right to counter-stretch your back.
Benefits:
• Sculpts your upper back, chest and shoulders • Works your side waist and back muscles • Releases lower back tension • Amps up your inner heat and raises metabolism • Lifts your energy and your mood
Hold this position for up to one minute or until your shoulders begin to burn. Then switch legs and sides.
POSE: SEATED SIDE STRETCH
Benefits:
• Stretches your rib muscles and obliques, to allow you to build more lean muscle there, making you stronger and longer! • Opens your ribs for greater lung capacity so you detox and breathe more fully. • Opens your hips and lower back muscles so you transform pain and tightness into freedom.
How To: Come to sit on the floor or in a chair.
• Place one hand or forearm on the side of the chair or floor. • Reach the other arm up and over your ear. • Keep the long spine, as always, and this time press your top ribcage (the more open one) towards the sky so each inhale stretches it more. • On your inhales, stretch the ribs. On your exhales, turn your chest a little so it looks forward instead of down.
Hold this pose for 30 seconds to one minute on each side.
When you're finished with the whole sequence, fold forward over your legs and breathe to release your lower back.
CORE ACTION STEP/DAY ONE: Create a Total Transformation Journal
I'm a writer, and I find that myself, and so many of my clients make more powerful, lasting changes when they can see their truth on paper.
I want you to get a journal. It should be inspiring, and something that you feel like writing in. This way you will literally write the book on how and what you need to transform and you can both see the bigger picture form as you write it, and refer back to it again and again anytime you need to remind yourself of what your own Core Values and answers are.
Here's your first entry:
Remember those old habits, or samskaras we talked about?
In black or blue ink, I want you to write on a piece of paper your Top 3 Samskaras, habitual actions you take or ideas you hold about yourself that keep you from reaching your weight loss or happiness goals.
Then, take a red pen or marker, cross out the parts of your story that diminish, demean or block you from success, and re-write them into something that builds you up, makes your goals possible, and are something you can begin to believe instead of the old ways.
For example, "I have no willpower and can't seem to lose weight" might become "The skill of willpower is something I'm dedicating to strengthen in myself." Equally as true, but more empowering, giving you the fuel you need to keep a positive outlook and make shift happen.
Tack this list up on your fridge or mirror. Put it somewhere you can see it repeatedly throughout the day. Whenever your mind defaults to old ways of thinking, repeat your new truth out loud three times. This is an old mystic trick that will negate the samskara and begin to soften the scars that only you can heal.
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