Breathwork for Cancer’s Eclipse Season

BREATHWORK FOR CHANGING ROOTS

Welcome to a Cancer Season filled with uncertainty, endings and beginnings, but also one that holds much possibility in the changing spaces.

I’ve designed an audio breathwork to help absorb this season into your life and body—to help us all tap into the natural progressions and energies that are wanting to be worked with and through.

I’ve spent the past couple of years slowly going through trainings in LA to certify in this healing practice, as taught by David Elliott.

This month I’m giving this a a free offer so you can try it out. In the following seasonal breathworks, this will be a paid offer.

Link HERE to start breathing!

Xo, Allie Kesler

Take (Compassionate) Action

The Act of Self-Grounding Night Rituals

By AnneMarie Vivienne

“Go into your own ground and learn to know yourself there.” Meister Eckhart

All too often we are either rushing or dragging ourselves to bed without acknowledging the healing and creative power of night, of darkness. Nighttime is usually simply a time to shut off the checklists, the constant mind chatter, and lofty ambitions that tomorrow will be better than today’s hot mess. Right? Morning will come, and we’ll be kinder, wiser, braver, and happier—magically, with just six-ish hours of sleep.

Nighttime is certainly magic if we can find our own way to acknowledge the passing of what was in order to welcome what could be. Darkness is where creation happens—a womb for gestation. Plant yourself deep in the night to tap into your core self—to remind yourself that you are truly made of the earth and stardust. Of course, tomorrow will be a new day, but first you must acknowledge the coming of night and the rest it brings. Deliberately plant your heart in the dark of the night, and watch to see what grows.

The Rituals:

Washing

Not only is a womb a dark place, but also it is full of water. Just like the sea, our waters are affected by the night-sky queen: the moon. Wash away the day’s dirt every night. Wash your face with cold water, or soak in a bath if you have some time to spare. Listen to the sound of the water as it runs from the tap and you splash it on your face. Water will crack open the seed you have planted, and feed the roots that must take hold in the dark before the leaves reach for the sun.

Candle Lighting

1. Greet the Night | Light a Candle

    As you inhale, say, “Welcome, night.”

    As you exhale, say, “I enter rest.”

2. Embrace Loss | Mantras for the Dark

                As you inhale, say, “I accept loss.”

                As you exhale, say, “All things must end.”

3. Let Go | Blow Out the Flame

As the smoke ascends and a few glowing embers dance in the dark, remember that things are being minded–that you, thankfully, don’t have any control. Let things go, so you can let them come. Allow yourself to sit in the dark, in silence for a few breaths.

“I need to be silent for a while, worlds are forming in my heart.”Meister Eckhart

Photography: Britt Chudleigh | Model: Blaire Wachter | Art Direction: Allie Kesler | HMU: Gabby Gabbitas | Prop/On Model:Lauren V Brady

Aries New Moon of Clarity

[one_third]What’s ringing through clearly right now, easy to act on and move forward with?

OUT WITH THE OLD
Stillness, quiet, energetic darkness. Can you feel the charge? The little electric currents that are trying to tell you something, that are trying to crack you open with fresh energy after winter’s hibernation?

Last season during Pisces’ reign, you finished your yearly tour of the zodiac. Hopefully you slept a little more, found inspiration through the arts, and experienced inspired renewal and compassion. You are now prepared to enter a fresh cycle of life with the Aries New Moon—the ultimate time of new beginnings and rebirth.

It’s time: Exhale the old. Inhale fresh new life.
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[two_third padding=”4% 0 0 0″]IN WITH THE NEW
Stillness comes with the dark richness of the New Moon. Sit alone in a place that calls to what’s newly sparking inside of you—just you, just your energy. Find your center, use your mind’s eye to cleanse it, and to find the heart of simplicity in mind, body, and spirit. Use deep breath to clear out stuck things and to get your blood moving. With the whole of your energetic life force, feel trust for any clarity that begins to surface. Let this fill you with assertion, passion, and a new zest for yourself and your life. Take ten to twenty minutes to plug into this space of total oneness with yourself and any fresh creation inside of you.

Once you’ve sufficiently felt the quality of your inner authenticity, speak out loud with no hesitation, without thinking, rather through the clarity of impulse. Immediately rattle off three to five things that you want, that you love, or that you feel passionate about. Use this powerful exercise to gain conscious clarity about what your authenticity is currently holding. Own and write these things down as a way to remember this pure base of what your passion holds in the new astrological year. Save these, you will need to tap into them many times over the next twelve months. Come back to this practice any time you feel a need to connect to yourself and find clarity in self-trust.
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[one_sixth][/one_sixth][two_third]THE TRANSITS: LIGHTNING STRIKES
This New Moon brings a lightning bolt of passionate personal charge in connection to group movements and their ability to bring shocking change through grassroots initiative. The new sparks that this spring starts in our lives are sure to be erratic, shocking, and ultimately productive seeds. All of our personal agendas are going to be like little (or sometimes big) bolts of lightning that can strike at any time.

Some softness can be felt through tuning into your self-worth as well as a little self-compassion any time you feel fire rising to your head. Embed your self-trust with initiative in building success and focus in your life. There’s a bit of a serious tone inside the seeds formed at this new moon.

Photography: Allie Couch | Pictured: Erin Telford
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Connect With Your Tribe Over Hibiscus Tea

[one_third][/one_third][two_third_last padding=”6% 0 0 0″]GEMINI HIBISCUS TEA
By Lindsay LaPaugh | The Wellness Gypsy
Images & Styling | Allie Couch

As the days get longer and the weather gets hotter, there’s nothing more satisfying than getting together with friends and celebrating each other. Celebrate your bond, your friendship, the stories you love to tell over and over again, and the stories you’d never repeat to anyone. We hopefully learn more about ourselves as we age and become in tune with our soul–we hope to find a tribe that understands and accepts us.

Once we find a tribe that gets us the energy is addicting and you feel at home. The connection is magical, you feel energized even after you leave. Tea has always been a drink to connect people all over the world. It’s often served in people’s homes and if you don’t accept it, certain cultures will be offended as if you had said something terrible about their first born. When we make tea for our loved ones, it’s like a written love note. Every ingredient we put in is handled with care, and carefully selected to compliment the other flavors. Have your best friends over, make a pitcher of this hibiscus tea, cool down and enjoy the company and conversation around you.[/two_third_last]

[one_third padding=”5% 0 0 0″]Gemini Hibiscus Tea

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup dried hibiscus leaves
4 cups filtered water
3-4 tbsp raw, local honey
2 cinnamon sticks Lime wedges(optional)

DIRECTIONS:

Add water to a saucepan on low heat. Once water starts to warm add honey and hibiscus leaves. Simmer over low heat for 10-15 minutes. Add mixture to a large pitcher, cinnamon sticks and refrigerate overnight (or 8-10 hours). Remove from fridge and strain hibiscus leaves. Serve over ice with lime wedge.
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Mid-Spring Meditation: The Breath & Our Senses

[one_third][/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0% 0 0 0″]Mindfulness Expert, John Kesler of Integral Polarity Practice Institute (IPPI), offers us a simple polarity meditation to get in touch with our senses this Taurus Season. Feel physically centered and accepting throughout May’s lively spring days.

 

When we are fully present to our physical selves we are most awake to our senses. The most basic physical dynamic, which we share with all living things, is the expansion and contraction of our many physical systems. The example of this expansion/contraction polarity that most of us can access most readily is the in breath and the out breath.

By slowing down and deepening our breathing and being fully present, we can settle into relaxed stillness, a deep calm, and experience more fully the luscious qualities of our touch, smell, taste, hearing and sight, and the beauty of the world. This meditative experience helps us appreciate the value of slowing down life a bit generally and enjoying the richness of our physical and sensory presence in the world.

In addition if we can be fully accepting of this moment – and the next and the next – we can attain a level of physical stillness and centeredness that we can sense more deeply our own life essence, which is the life force that is in and through all things. As we tap into this cosmic force, it flows through each of us in support of our own strong and utterly unique voices.[/two_third_last]

[one_third padding=”1% 0 0 0″]AN IPP MEDITATIVE PRACTICE

Accessing the Still Point of these polarities and the virtues that flow from them:

• Get comfortable in a chair or seated floor position, somewhere without distraction.

• Breathe in a relaxed manner and settle into a state of relaxation, calm and tranquility, a deep quality of physical stillness.

• Be present in the moment and notice one at a time the rich quality of your senses of touch, smell, taste, hearing and sight. Spend some time with each one of them, what is arising moment to moment. Then be open to and feel the richness, pleasure and beauty of your entire sensory world.[/one_third][two_third_last][/two_third_last]

[full_width]• In this moment of physical stillness bring forth a deep sense of acceptance of this moment – and the next and the next – and touch into that life force within you. Open your awareness to how there is no limit to the presence of this life force in the world and the cosmos. Feel it within you and through it, feel your connection to a oneness with all being and all things.

• As you step into your daily life allow that life force to give power and authenticity to your voice in the world.

Photography: Dustin Couch | Model: Brooke Musat
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Hello spring, Hello Aries: Yoga for Awakening

[two_third][/two_third][one_third_last]CosmoMuse yogini, Brooke Musat, helps us on our journey to awaken to this new astrological year with yoga poses to ignite our bold inner warriors.

There is something about the onset of spring that makes anything seem possible. Whether it’s tackling a major chore you’ve been putting off, or taking the time to treat yourself to something you thought you didn’t deserve, spring—inspires a certain amount of assertiveness to get things done.

In Aries reign we are granted permission to be bold in realizing our deepest desires while finding the strength to put fears, insecurities, and timidities, to rest. From Aries we awaken a sleeping warrior, ready to fight for our soul’s self-interests and transform dreams into realities. [/one_third_last]

[full_width]Robert Frost said, “freedom lies in being bold,” and Aries’s reign is our gateway to finding freedom through a boldness that lives in each of us.

Try the poses inspired by Aries to call upon your sleeping warrior, bring clarity to your path, and ignite an internal fire of boldness. In One Legged Downward-Facing Dog you’ll be forced to find balance in a posture that may feel familiar but demands a heightened sense of awareness to achieve. In the Low Lunge variations boldness will come in the dual opening of hips and side body. Lastly, in the Warrior III variation, you may need to find boldness through trial and error. Traditional Warrior III, quite bold on its own, can be difficult to execute, and the Aries’s Warrior III variation brings about a new element of difficulty. Read on below for details on each posture’s benefits and instruction on how to effectively assume each pose. [/full_width]

[two_third padding=”9% 0 0 0″]One Legged Downward-Facing Dog :: (Eka Pāda Adho Mukha Śvānāsana)

In One Legged Downward-Facing Dog, try to keep the hip of the leg suspended in the air closed and toes of that leg pointing down toward the earth. Avoid the tendency to bring weight into one shoulder or the other, instead keep the shoulders square and focus on bringing equal weight into both hands.

Pose Benefits:

o Strengthens the shoulders and legs

o Tones the core

o Increases flexibility in the shoulders, hamstrings, and calves

o Opens the chest [/two_third][one_third_last padding=”0% 0 0 0″][/one_third_last]

[two_third padding=”8% 0 0 0″]Low Lunge :: (Anjaneyasana) with hands clasp above the head variation
In Low Lunge, make sure the knee of the bent leg is aligned directly above the toes. Work toward squaring the hips by drawing the front leg’s hip back into the socket and inviting the back leg’s hip forward. Be mindful about protecting the lower back by drawing the naval toward the spine.

Pose Benefits:

o Releases hip tension

o Stretches hamstrings

o Strengthens the quadriceps and knees

o Opens chest and upper back
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[two_third padding=”8% 0 0 0″]Low Lunge :: (Anjaneyasana) variation side body opening
In Low Lunge, make sure the knee of the bent leg is aligned directly above the toes. Work toward squaring the hips by drawing the front leg’s hip back into the socket and inviting the back leg’s hip forward. To open through the side body, plant the fingertips of the hand (same side of the front leg) firmly into the earth then reach up and over with the other arm and hand. Be mindful that the shoulder of the hand reaching over the head does not start to lift toward the ear.

Pose Benefits:

o Releases hip tension

o Stretches hamstrings

o Strengthens the quadriceps and knees

o Opens chest, upper back, and side body
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[two_third][/two_third][one_third_last]Warrior III variation :: (Virabhadrasana III)
In Warrior III variation, push the hand firmly into the thigh of the lifted leg to bring length to the spine. Be cautious not to twist the shoulders, but instead keep them squared toward the font of the mat. Just like in One Legged Downward-Facing Dog keep the hip of the leg suspended in the air closed and toes of that leg pointing down toward the earth.

Pose Benefits:

o Strengthens the ankles and legs

o Strengthens the shoulders and muscles of the back

o Tones the abdomen

o Improves balance and posture[/one_third_last]

A Trifecta of Yoga Poses for Spring’s Transitions

[two_third][/two_third][one_third_last]In this season of transition into unpredictable spring weather, let CosmoMuse yogi, Brooke Musat, help you find balance with three Pisces inspired poses.

If you are anything like me the first sign spring is on its way is a runny nose, never-ending sneezes, and dry itchy eyes. I get excited for the warmer weather and longer days, but I also begin to feel a bit nostalgic toward the intimacy winter provides. The cusp of spring and Pisces Season is all about embracing the promise of the future, while ceremoniously remembering the past.

This limbo type of season can lead to feelings of confusion. You may even feel pulled in different directions or a bit unsettled in your body. [/one_third_last]

[full_width] While you may be occupied with moving shorts and tanks to the front of the closet, you know you still have to make room for winter jackets and long pants. Betting on what the weather of tomorrow will be, is a risky bet. Whether it is sun, sleet, or snow, be prepared for whatever precipitates. Spring or winter could be knocking at your door, and Pisces reminds us the importance of being equipped to welcome both.

Hold space for winter and spring with this Pisces inspired sequence. While this sequence is only 3 postures in length, each pose is designed to offer both a kinesthetic familiarity and unfamiliarity representing the securities of winter and the possibilities of spring. On days where you may be feeling more disoriented than normal, move through each posture at a slower pace. Draw your attention to the rootedness of your foot and hands in Downward-Facing Dog, the stabilizing power of your quads in Crescent Lunge, and the strengthen of your entire core in twisted Staff Pose. On days where you may feel more secure under foot, experiment with picking up the pace between postures and commit to repeating the sequence 7-10 times. Allow the poses to be simple shapes in space and permit your breath to curate your experience. [/full_width]

[one_third padding=”21% 0 0 0″]Downward-Facing Dog Pose with nose to knee and heel lifted variation

Pose Benefits:

o Strengthens the entire body

o Stretches shoulders, chest hamstrings, and calves

o Tones the core [/one_third][two_third_last][/two_third_last]

[one_third padding=”21% 0 0 0″]Crescent Lunge with hands to third eye variation

Pose Benefits:

o Stretches the hips and triceps

o Opens chest and upper back

o Strengthens quads and glutes [/one_third][two_third_last][/two_third_last]

[one_third padding=”21% 0 0 0″]Standing Twisted Staff Pose with hands to third eye variation

Pose Benefits:

o Tones the entire core

o Helps cultivate a better sense of balance

o Strengthens the tiny muscles in the feet and muscles of the standing leg
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Mid-Winter Yoga: Finding Familiarity with Failure

[one_third][/one_third][two_third_last padding=”2% 0 0 0″]Yogi, Brooke Musat, joins us with insight from our Seasons of Greatness, Winter Workshop on how to use failure as a way to reinvent your goals after we’ve all had blunders with our New Year’s Resolutions. Get curiosity, relax your standards, and negotiate with yourself! Photography by Ann Whittaker

It’s no longer the season of New Year’s Resolutions, instead, it’s that tricky time of year when resolutions of the New Year start to lose their “newness” and motivation starts to dry up. If your start of February is anything like mine, you may have found yourself failing to stick to what you promised yourself you’d stick to in January, and swore you’d stick to throughout the year. That’s okay, a lot of us are in the same boat, and actually, I am encouraging you to continue to fail.

Yup, that is right, I think you should fail more often. Build a familiarity with failure, and generally get more comfortable with committing to do so.

Just saying “fail” out loud feels slightly taboo, maybe it’s because it’s a 4 letter word that begins with an “F”, or maybe it’s the weight the word carries. “Fail” is defined as “being unsuccessful in achieving one’s goal.” Yikes! Just reading that might make your shoulders slump, your lip droop, or your stomach begin to turn. The definition of “fail” is 2 parted, with an element of expectation and an element of disappointment. But what I think the dictionary’s definition doesn’t include, is the importance of failure in achieving one’s goal.
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[full_width]Before successfully inventing the light bulb, Thomas Edison failed 10,000 times. When asked about his number of failures, he said “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
Failure lets us know we must amend, redefine, adjust, reroute, modify, alter, revise, and so forth. Each failure is a breadcrumb on your path to success, a nod from the universe you are 1 step closer, and an opportunity for you to reevaluate or pause.

So how do you begin to build a familiarity with failure? Read below for 3 tips that may help. [/full_width]

[full_width]GET CURIOUS
When you fail, because you will, we all fail, get curious about WHY you failed. If, for example, you failed by falling out of a balancing yoga pose, investigate whether you fell forward, backward, or to one side. If you fell forward, you need to lean less forward, if you fell backward, you need to lean more forward, and if you fell to one side, you need to find strength in the opposite side for which you fell. This example may seem obvious, but this type of investigation is important and 100% appropriate when deciding your next move.
Try the sequence below, but keep curiosity top of mind. If you can’t get curious about poses you’ve done a million times, think about how you can make them feel different. Maybe try thinking about how 1 particular body part is positioned in a pose, stare at that body part, push down, pull up, or direct your breathe toward it. Take time to explore the boundaries of each pose. If this doesn’t work, try adding weights to the hands or feet. If you can commit to remaining curious, you’re sure to make a better next step.
“We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we’re curious…and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” – Walt Disney [/full_width]

[one_half padding=”7% 0 0 0″]o Upward Salute Pose
o Standing Forward Bend
o ½ Standing Forward Bend with arms out to the sides (3X)
o Focus on squeezing shoulder blades together (pictured)
o Chair Pose with feet hip distance
o Bring hands to the outside of the knees (push hands into knees and knees into hands)
o Standing Forward Bend with alternating bent knees
o High Plank
o Four-Limbed Staff Pose
o Downward Dog with legs turned out and then in
o 3 Legged Downward Dog
o Low Lunge with knee down
o High Plank
o Four-Limbed Staff Pose
o Sphinx, Cobra, or Upward Facing Dog
o Repeat sequence on opposite side. [/one_half][one_half_last][/one_half_last]

[full_width]RELAX THE PROBLEM
If you’ve experienced failure because you were unable to solve the problem right in front of you, then this tip is for you. Inspired by the science and application of algorithms, this tip reminds us that sometimes success can’t be achieved through intensity, but rather finds its way to us when we are relaxed.

Have you ever focused so hard on solving a problem, decided to give up after a significant period of time, then later, when you’re completely unfocused on solving the problem, the solution comes to you? If you’re nodding your head “yes”, then try this sequence. Each of the poses in this sequence have an advanced version, and slightly less advanced version. Try the advanced version first (it will appear first in the sequence), if you fail at embodying it comfortably and safely, then “relax the problem” and go for the less advanced variation. Give yourself permission to fail, and you might be surprised how “permission” temporally allows relaxation to sneak in.

“When we give ourselves permission to fail, we, at the same time, give ourselves permission to excel.”
– Eloise Ristad[/full_width]

[one_half][/one_half][one_half_last padding=”11% 0 0 0″]o Dolphin or Short Downward Dog (Step feet 6-12 inches closer to hands)
o Low lunge (Transition Pose)
o Crescent Lunge or Crescent Lunge with back knee down
o Revolved Side Angle or Revolved Side Angle with back knee down
o High Plank or Forearm Plank
o Downward Dog (Transition Pose)
o Warrior II with hands reaching toward the diagonal or traditional Warrior II (pictured)
o Side Angle with hand on mat or Side Angle with hand on block
o Triangle with hand on shin/mat or Triangle with hand on block
o ½ Moon or ½ Moon with hand on block
o Flow to Downward Dog
o Repeat sequence on opposite side.[/one_half_last]

[full_width]BE WILLING TO NEGOTIATE WITH YOURSELF
If you are that individual who sets the same goal ever New Years, and you fail every year, this tip is dedicated to you. It’s clear, the goal you make every year, isn’t going to pan out exactly as you imagined. Your failure to achieve that goal year after year, is a clue that you need negotiate with yourself.
What about the goal would you being willing to reshape, reframe, or redefine? Let’s say your goal was to run 10 miles each week, but by mid-February you’ve consistently only run 7 miles each week. Clearly, you’ve failed at achieving your initial goal, but instead of getting down on yourself, take the hint from the universe, and use the failure as an opportunity to reflect on the goal. Maybe, you’d be okay with running an average of 10 miles each week. In a month, that could be 2 weeks at 7 miles, 1 week at 12 miles, and 1 week at 14 miles. At most, that is only 2 miles each day!
Try the strengthening poses in this sequence, and think about how you’d be able to build on them over time. If the suggested number of breathes, or recommended time holding the posture does not feel appropriate, negotiate with yourself until you feel comfortable with the terms.[/full_width]

[one_third padding=”21% 0 0 0″]o Plank Pose – hold for 30-60 seconds

o Pose Dedicated to the Sage Koundinya II – hold for 10 breathes each side

o 3 Legged Downward Dog – 7 breathes each side

o Low Lunge (transition pose) – do not hold

o Warrior III or Warrior III with blocks – hold for 30-60 seconds (pictured)[/one_third][two_third_last][/two_third_last]

[full_width]“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
– Michael Jordan

With the remaining 11 months of the year still ahead of us, find comfort in the length of runway we still have to achieve goals we initiated at the start of the New Year. Whether you are on track to achieve your goals, or you’ve lost a bit of steam, recognize that failure will likely play some role in your story of success. If at any moment you find yourself failing, falling, or in the aftermath of a major F***up, remember these tips: get curious, relax the problem, and be willing to negotiate with yourself. If you keep these tips at arm’s reach, you’ll be sure to find success in 2017! [/full_width]

Yoga Poses to Build A Flexible & Stable Foundation

[two_third][/two_third][one_third_last]CosmoMuse yogini, Brooke Musat, brings us some important foundation building poses as we enter into the new year. Let’s build on our flexibility and stability as we improve our yoga practice in 2017. Photography by Ann Whittaker

It’s Capricorn season, and it begins with a nod to longer days and shorter nights. It may be hard to remember what a full 15 hours of daylight felt like, or how peaks now covered in snow and ice once basked bare in the direct light of a summer’s sun, but with Capricorn season, we are reminded it’s time to dust off our inspirations and aspirations, and seize the longer days. We aren’t saying you should trade in your thermal for a t-shirt just yet, or make the leap to transition your subie’s ski rack to a bike rack, but rather, are encouraging you to begin to prepare for what you hope to pull off in 2017. [/one_third_last]

[full_width]If parts of 2016 were disappointing, maybe it’s because you had great ideas, but you rushed into them too quickly. The early bird may catch the worm, but only if the bird has trained in the art of worm catching. Every goal is worth striving toward, but it’s easier to realize your goals when you prepare for them properly.
Whether you are preparing to hike Mt Everest or you’re trying to tackle Handstand, you need to first build a proper foundation. For the climber, a proper foundation may look like several dozen hikes over long distances, or an intimate relationship with weather prediction. For the yogi, a need to strengthen the core in boat pose, or becoming comfortable with being upside down in dolphin, could be the necessary requisites for an appropriate Handstand foundation. Both the climber and the yogi have to start small, but remain focused on their goal. Any one of these steps when looked at separately may not seem all that grand, but when you layer them overtime they create a reliable structure for success.
In the spirit of building a proper foundation, try practicing Extended Side Angle and Triangle Pose back to back. In Extended Side Angle Pose you’ll increase flexibility in the inner thighs while strengthening the side body. Then as you transition to Triangle, you’ll be able to deepen the stretch in the inner thighs and focus on finding stability from the engagement of the entire core, not just the side body. Extended Side Angle and Triangle Pose build on one another nicely, but also help lay the framework for more advanced standing balancing postures.
2017 is right around the corner, and the time is perfect for preparing how you’ll make this your best year yet! [/full_width]

[one_third]Extended Side Angle :: (Utthita Parsvakonasana) Variation

BENEFITS

o Strengthens quads, upper back, side body, and the tiny muscles in the feet

o Stretches the inner thighs and hamstrings

o Opens chest and shoulders

o Lengthens spine

Prop Suggestion: Try holding the tall side of a block between both hands firmly to build strength in the arms. Still squeezing the block between both hands, you could try reaching both arms toward the front of your mat and holding for 5-7 breathes.
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[two_third][/two_third][one_third_last]Triangle :: (Trikonasana) Variation

BENEFITS

o Strengthens the entire core and legs

o Stretches inner thighs, hamstrings, and hips

o Lengthens spine

o Extreme opener for the shoulders, heart and chest when practiced as variation shown

Prop Suggestion: In traditional Triangle Pose if your bottom arm does not reach the ground, try placing a block directly below your hand and in line with your shoulder. The block can be any height you need. Push your bottom hand firmly into the block, and elongate your top hand (and arm) toward the sky.
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Yoga Poses to Seek More Perspective & Optimism

[two_third][/two_third][one_third_last padding=”2% 0 0 0″]
CosmoMuse yogini, Brooke Musat, joins us on this Sagittarius Season day, giving an experiential connection into the time of year’s link to seeking optimism and expansion as the dark nights have us gazing at stars and thinking in grand, visionary ways. Photography, Dustin Couch | Model, Brooke Musat

With the hustle and bustle of the holiday season keeping us occupied, winter finally settling in, and longer days turning into longer nights, it’s easy to feel a little less free. We all have things to do and people to see, but we also owe it to ourselves to preserve a little freedom, push ourselves outside our comfort zones, and remember the future holds that which we seek. Sagittarius’s reign reminds us of the importance of keeping an evolving perspective so we can maintain an optimistic outlook.

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[one_third padding=”13% 0 0 0″]The poses of Sagittarius were selected to give you reason to dance with something new, and permission to immerse in the challenging exploration of self. Both postures shown are subtle variations of the traditional yogic poses: Heron Pose and One-Legged King Pigeon Pose II. Openness of heart, hips, hamstrings, and mind are all prerequisites to safely enter and exit these postures. You’ll be forced to listen to your body, to determine what it needs to assume Heron and One-Legged King Pigeon Pose II in a healthy way. See below for suggested preparatory poses, but remember sometimes practice, presence, and, most importantly, patience are necessities we are quick to forget about.[/one_third][two_third_last][/two_third_last]

[one_sixth][/one_sixth][two_third]At first glance these poses may scare you, or make you think “no way”; but, hopefully seeing them, and hearing that they are blessed by Sagittarius, will help you confront your ideas about what is possible. Keep your future bright by embracing an expansive way of thinking. If you can think beyond the difficulty of these poses, you can think beyond that which limits you.[/two_third][one_sixth_last][/one_sixth_last]

[two_third][/two_third][one_third_last]Heron Pose :: (Krounchasana) Variation

o Stretches hip, hamstring, and achilles of straight leg

o Stretches quad and top of foot of bent leg

o Opens heart when shoulder blades are relaxed on the back

o Stimulates organs

CAUTION: avoid this pose if you have knee or ankle complications

Preparatory Poses:
Downward facing dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana)
Staff Pose (Dandasana)
Hero’s Pose (Virasana) [/one_third_last]

[one_third padding=”13% 0 0 0″]One-Legged King Pigeon Pose II :: (Eka Pada Rajakapotasana II) Variation

o Stretches abdominals and both hips

o Stretches quad of back leg

o Opens chest, shoulders and upper back

o Strengthens back and tiny muscles in the front foot

o Stimulates the thyroid

CAUTION: avoid this pose if you have neck or low back complications

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[two_third][/two_third][one_third_last padding=”36% 0 0 0″]Preparatory Poses:
Pigeon Pose (Eka Pada Rajakapotasana)
Cobra Pose (Bhujangasana)
Upward Facing Dog Pose (Urdhva Mukha Svanasana)
Hero’s Pose (Virasana)
Bridge Pose (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana)[/one_third_last]