Pose of the month: Arm Balances

A few days late I realize but here anyway, ladies and gents, I present to you a month of arm balances!  Your mission (should you choose to accept it):  jump into the great unknown of balancing on your hands.  Scary? A little.  Fun? Most definitely, and to top it all off- you will probably realize you are stronger than you thought you were.

I love arm balances, especially in the Summer time, a great time to play and see what is possible, to try new things.  They ask that you be strong, focused and graceful at the same time.  They ask you to trust yourself a little bit, to push your limits.  The only way to learn them is to try, to fall, to try again.

Throughout the month we'll be working on lots of different arm balances but there are a few themes that run through all of them that we will highlight here:
1) In order to find lift, you need to get grounded.  I always use the  basketball analogy here:  In order to bounce the ball you have to push it down, the harder you push, the higher the ball bounces.
2) Keep breathing!!  It is easy to hold the breath as you move into new and challenging things but it works against you making balance more difficult and causing strain. 
3) Use your core.  Think of all your movements coming from the center of you, it is different than hardening the belly, it is an awareness, an energetic lifting of the belly button in and up (slight Udyana Bandha and if you want more info on the Bandhas let me know).
4) Trust, you are stronger that you think, just try it.  If you fall you fall, it happens to everyone (I toppled over in class just the other day, it happens)
5) Have fun!!! Yoga helps us untie our knots, not create new ones! This is a learning process for all of us, see what is possible today.