Showing posts with label arm balance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label arm balance. Show all posts

Friday, 11 September 2015

Don't Let The Pigeon Wreck Your Knees

In my day job I am an occupational therapist and work with kids with autism.  At a school this week they read 'Don't Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus'.  That is a really cool book in case you have not read it.


Lots of yogis and everyday 'stretching people' adore what is often called pigeon pose (segue to this post!).

Personally, I have not done it the way most people do it for years.  So I could not put a picture of me in it.  Instead, I drew the pigeon in it.



Despite my substandard artistic abilities, I think I have managed to capture the basic gist of the way it is performed, including a sort of grimace of pleasurable pain that most people seem to get from it.  You can google it and find other people doing it if you are still unsure

As a teacher I basically stopped teaching this pose like this when I moved towards a more 'organic' practice that involved ridding myself of things like yoga mats, props, pillows, cushions etc, etc, etc.

Mainly because so many people needed 'bolstering' to even get into the posture without feeling strain in their knees.

When I started practicing more 'active movements' rather than passive postures I found an alternative that uses the same joint positions but without the weight of the entire body pressing down on the knees.

This more active variation is also 'self-limiting' in the sense that you can really only make it to the next step if you are able to do the step before and there is less change of forcing yourself into the posture, whereas the squawking pigeon (as I have renamed the pose above) is easier to force yourself into.


Below is the active variation.



Did your pigeon face just go like this?


I didn't say it was easy, did I?

But don't worry.  I have made a video to help you step by step into this variation.

You do not proceed to the next step until you feel comfortable in the preceding step.  You will find even the first step is a great one to do if you hold it for a little while.

Video (eka pada galavasana)
This posture features in our current sequence.  The outdoor yogis have made it through a Canberra winter and, as you can see, I am out enjoying the sunshine as I practice.


Step-By-Step
If you practice this (and remember it is intended for my students who come to class so we can talk about things and sense things as it is always best to learn from a physical teacher and not the internet) then there should be no strain.  Move slowly and mindfully.  Only go to the next step if you feel comfortable.

Hips forward, thigh rolls out
Stand comfortably.  Take one toe tip forward.  I stay on the toe tip so most weight is on the other leg. Hips move forward.  It looks like I am leaning back.  This will help in a moment when you might try to raise the leg.  Keep the standing leg outer hip moving to the centre of your body so you do not sink into it.


Raise knee, thigh rolls out, foot pulls back to shin
With the toe tip barely touching and the hips moving forward you should find it easier to raise the leg.  Raise it if you can and then roll the thigh out.  If you cannot raise it then keep toe tip down and roll the thigh out and just stay there until you find the balance possible. 
Pull your toes and foot back towards your shin.  This is really important if you are going to come into the balance later.   This is the active standing version of pigeon!  Pretty tricky isn't it!  From there you could 'rest' by putting your ankle on your lower thigh.  You have to play around a bit with a comfortable position. 
 
Hips forward, reach up high
All postures should help us lengthen the spine without squashing.  In the next steps you move the hips forward (rather than stick your butt back).  Sticking your butt back tends to shorten or squash in the lower back. 

From there I reach up high to really wriggle up and lengthen the spine.  Feel long and tall.  
 

Come forward
To come forward I get the feeling that I am still trying to move hips forward and lengthen my spine.  I also keep the feeling that I am moving the standing leg hip in towards the centre so it is not swinging out to the side.  In fact, I sort of feel as though I am drawing both hips together.  If you allow your hip to swing out to the side you will lose the 'pigeon' hip opening feeling. I suggest you do not lose this in a 'quest' or attachment to the full variation of the posture.  Instead wait patiently until you are ready to go further.  

At a certain point my bottom does go back and I fold forward but the feeling is that I am trying to move the hips forward and keep lower back long and front of groin open.  


Elbows bend, press down to ground and then together
This action around the shoulder joint and elbows is really important if you are going to balance.  I bend the elbows so they point to the ground, then try to press the elbows together while trying to keep them about shoulder width apart. You should feel that your neck got a bit freer and your back body widened without squashing the chest.
 
Arms press to shins and shins press to arms, hips press forward
You cannot see to well all of the stuff that is going on at this point.  I am making the effort of pressing my arms into my shin while at the same time trying to press my shin in my arm.  The foot is hooking around the arm.  At the same time I feel as though my hips are pressing forward so the whole body is pressing into the arms while the arms press back. 

Lower
I lower forwards towards the ground.  My heel has to raise to allow me to lower.  I keep the connection of shin and arms.  If you lose it you need to reestablish it if you get down with the same actions.
 Lean forward
This is now just a matter of balancing and shifting your weight while maintaining previous actions.  I lean forward.  My back heel starts to raise until the foot lifts.  Common errors I see people make at this stage are that their foot is too close and heel on the ground, perhaps because they have put their hands on the ground too close to their foot.  Either wriggle your foot back or come down so you have to raise the heel off the ground already.

Heel to bottom
Once the foot floats off you can do an active lift, drawing heel to bottom.
Knee up
This bit is tricky.  You need to have kept the effort of pushing hips forward and pushing shin forward into arm to be able to liberate that back leg.  If you do not do those actions you will feel like you are sinking into the arms rather than lifting out of them.

Straighten leg
Straighten that leg.  Keep the thigh rolling in (so it feels like your knee is pointing more towards the centre of your body).

You should feel firm but calm.  Your tummy will be firm but in a way you can breathe into it.  You should be able to talk to people passing by, smile, and feel like you are doing something but comfortable and not straining!


If you have practiced mindfully you should be a happy flying pigeon!




Enjoy your practice.  Be active if you can.  It feels less like stretching and tensing and more like lengthening and 'doing something'.  You will move better and happier.

Looking forward to sharing this type of thing in my outdoor classes in Canberra and my upcoming retreat in Sri Lanka.  

Hope to see you soon.

Much metta,
Samantha
www.yogacafecanberra.blogspot.com
www.yogacafelk.blogspot.com







Friday, 27 March 2015

Tummy and Armpits: How To Practice Some Key Actions of Handstands Without Your Hands





Even though handstands and arm balances feature in most of my sequences, not all of us can do a handstand.  Sometimes, for whatever reason, we might not be able to put our hands on the ground either.

But all of us can learn some of the key actions of a handstand without putting our hands on the ground.  

In this post I share a video and some instructions about some of the key actions that you can cultivate so you are still working towards similar 'anatomic' actions.  

You could take this option when it gets to an arm balance section of the class and still be doing amazing energy moving work.  

Have a look at the video to see the movement in action, then take a look at how I have tried to deconstruct the steps. 



Soft Tummy
One of the keys here is to be able to have a soft tummy.  If you cannot relax your tummy then you very likely may not create the correct firmness in the tummy when the time comes to do so.

Digging fingers into soft tummy to show it is soft

This is trickier than you might think.  Most people find it really difficult to relax tummy muscles.  It can be for many reasons.  One of the key ones I have come across is the perception that we should be sucking our tummy in and walking around with sucked in tummies as much as we can.  

Be aware that if you cannot relax your tummy muscles, you are putting fairly constant pressure on the contents of your abdomen, including your bowels and reproductive organs.  This can impact on the functioning of the digestive and reproductive systems.  

Anyway, just a thought.  

So, step one is to relax your tummy completely.  In the photo and video I try to show this by digging my fingers deep into my tummy so you can see it is not hard. 


Lengthen lower back
In general I start many postures by moving my sitting bones down, top of pelvis back in order to lengthen my lower back.  

I took my arms overhead in the photo/video so you could see what I am doing.  It is also a nice thing to do to enhance the length of the back of spine.  

I am not doing this action by tensing my tummy.  There is a little lower abdominal internal activation but generally the tummy is very soft still.  In the video I dig my fingers back in my tummy to show this.  

Push hips/sitting bones forward without moving legs forward



This is tricky.  You try to push your hips/sitting bones forward without moving the legs forward. 

If the legs go forward you don't get the firmness in your tummy.

If the legs remain as much as possible where they are then the tummy goes firm.  

In the video you can see that I push my fingers into my tummy after this and they cannot go in.  It is firm.  I try to show this below as well.  

My tummy is firm in a way that I can still breathe freely and feel as though the movement of the breath could go there.  

If you watch my arm balance videos where my abdomen is exposed you can sort of see that my breath is still going into my abdomen area (looks like I have gills!).

This is not sucking in tummy.  If you slow the video down where I push hips forward you can see that  I am not sucking up.  

Push armpits down and forward
Push the armpits down and forward.  

In the video I show how this firms the front and back of the armpits.  


My tummy is still firm.  

The movements I do in the video are really exaggerated and jerky.  I was trying to emphasise what I was doing.  If I did my own practice these actions would be much more subtle.

Alternate firming of armpits and tummy
Because I have been practicing these activations for a while, I can do them as shown.  I showed this way more for the video so you could see what I am doing.  

If you are learning this, most people will find getting armpits and tummy firm easier if they try putting the arms on the thighs as shown in the picture below.

If I was in a class, I would be encouraging people to use this method as pushing the hands against the thighs helps prevent them from coming forward when you push the hips forward.  Also, it is easier to get some armpit activation for many people if the hands have something to press down against.  

In class I usually do the demonstration as shown in this photo and get people to feel what is going on.  

Stay or take these activations to the ground
These two activations are key components (but not the only ones) of many postures (?most) where you are weight bearing through the arms.  

If you don't want to or cannot put weight through your arms for some reason then you could be doing this and really feel like you are doing something.  You could do it from kneeling if you want as well.

If you can, you could try to take these activations to the ground for plank, kneeling plank, bakasana, or even a handstand.  


But remember, your life will not be any better just because you can do a handstand!

It will probably be better if you can learn to relax your tummy completely then learn to activate it when you need however!

Don't do anything that hurts.  Be alert to over practicing and how you feel the next few days whenever you introduce new practices.  Have fun.  Laugh.  Smile.

Happy and safe practicing.

Sunday, 1 March 2015

High Plank Foundation For Firm Tummy And Better Arm Balances



A handstand is an arm balance.  The foundation of the arm balances I do is the high plank.

If I was super strong I could transition from my high plank to bakasana then to a handstand.  But I am a bit weak.

Not all high planks are equal.  Some will not teach you the requisite postural firmness you need for better arm balances.

In this post I show a video where I give some of the fundamentals of the high plank that I do that changed my practice phenomenally and helped me to develop into this handstand.

Watch the video first to see the movement in action.  Then follow the step by step instructions.  I have written about bakasana before so you can also refer to that post (bakasana on a block).

Do not do anything that hurts.  It is better to practice with a teacher.


Get Set
Come onto your hands and knees.  You need to make sure you are using your hands properly so you don't feel sinking into your wrists.  This means pressing with your fingertips, feeling as though you are trying to grip at the floor or make fists.  Imagine there are little holes in the ground like a tenpin bowling ball that you are trying to press your fingertips into to lift up the ground.

Knees are behind hips.  Shoulders are over wrists.  

Lift ribs into upper back. Can you see how rounded and lifted my upper back is?  This feeling of being broad across the upper back is important.  I feel as though I am pushing the arms downwards into the floor.  My shoulder blades come right around the sides of my chest.

My sitting bones go down towards the back of my knees and top of pelvis moves towards the sky to lengthen my lower back.  My lower back is not arched.

The sense is the entire back of my body is lengthened.  This shape is important.  You will need to maintain it.

The actions in my arms are important and maintained.

I push my armpits in the direction they are facing.  Here that sort of means down and back.

I push my hands down and forward--away from my knees.

I feel as though I am pulling my knees towards my hands.

I feel as though I am pushing my hips forwards towards my hands but they do not go anywhere.

You cannot really see these actions.  That is what makes the practice of this posture difficult.  My kneeling plank is already cultivating a postural firmness for me so that my tummy is getting firm through the posture but in a way where I can still feel that when I breathe the tummy can move.

In fact, if you look at my waist area you can see it is like I have little gills there--you can see movement when I am breathing.  I am breathing a lot here! It is hard.  If I could I might try to breathe less.

Lift Up
Maintaining all previous actions, I put the tips of my toes on the ground and lift my knees.



I am careful not to sag my chest or lower back.

Performed well, you should feel very firm in the tummy area without needing to actually try to firm it.  It should come naturally because of the posture.

See how I am trying to be right on the tops of my toes.  Not the balls of the feet.  That is important.

Tip toe forward
From there I try and maintain the same actions but I just tip toe forward--on the very tops of my toes.


A common challenge as you tip toe forward is to keep the tummy firm.  It helps if you keep your knees bent and stay on the tops of your toes.  

I keep all the same actions from before, lifting chest up into upper back, sitting bones down and top of pelvis back to lengthen lower back, feeling as though I am moving my hips forward.

Stay or bakasana
You can just try and stay there, on the very tops of your toes, lifting your chest, firming your tummy.  It is really hard!!


Or you can initiate bakasana by dropping your butt a little, lifting your knees up higher as though into your chest, lightly resting them on our upper arms.


You can stay there or, if you feel light, you can lean forward until the toes feel light and then you can pull the heels into the bottom.


You can still see my little gills breathing.  That is important.  I am firm but calm.

Optional extras!
I am too chicken to do handstand on a bench like that.  I have not yet got the strength.

But if you have built these foundations then a handstand should get easier.

I do the same thing but get onto my tip toes and start to take one leg up.


I give a little tap...


...and up I come...



Sthira sukham asanam.  Firm but calm.

Summary
I have written a few posts about bakasana and even kneeling plank and plank before.

That is because they are really important!

Get a good high plank.  Then keep the actions and get a good bakasana.

These will help build the foundations.

There are other poses that you can do from bakasana so that you do not need to kick up into handstand but instead float from bakasana straight up.  I am still working on that one!  In the meantime, I enjoy the inversion with free spine.

This is the type of step by step approach to movement and posture I use in classes, workshops, and retreats.  You are welcome to join me any time!

Happy and safe practicing.

Much metta,
Samantha

www.artofliferetreats.com
www.yogacafecanberra.blogspot.com
www.yogacafelk.blogspot.com


Friday, 6 February 2015

Bakasana on a Block



In this post I share a video of coming into bakasana on a small block I found by the lake.  Below are some important instructions.



Above, I came up onto my tip toes and bent my knees slightly.  This helped make the backs of my knees firm.

I suppose you might not do this if you did not have confidence that you could move up onto your toes!  We practice this type of action a lot in my classes to develop stability around the ankles and knees.

I had my sitting bones down, top of pelvis back to lengthen lower back.

I was pushing my hips forward as though to move them over my toes and initiated spinal forward flexion to help make my tummy firm.

I was beginning to push my armpits down and forward to bring my shoulder blades around my upper back.


Next, as I lower my hands I try not to send my bottom back.  I keep my knees bent to encourage more spinal forward flexion and maintain my firm tummy.


Then, you can see my spine has essentially not changed shape.  I am still firm in my tummy doing spinal forward flexion.

I am pushing my hands down into the floor, shoulder blades wrapping around my upper back.  You can see that I was doing this from the beginning so really that has not changed either.  I do feel as though I am sending my elbows backwards but my fingers/hands down and forwards.  This helps me be firm and strong around the shoulder joint.

Actually not much has really changed.  I am trying to maintain the actions I initiated in the beginning and bring them towards the ground.

The main thing I have done here is to actively lift my knees up onto my arms.  I am not resting them there.  I am trying to keep them light and lifting.  I do press my upper arms back towards my knees.

Look at my toes.  I am trying to lift up onto the tops of my toes here rather than be on the balls of my feet.  The less weight I have on my toes the better--for the full posture that it!

If you do this well you will know how hard this is.

If you can practice this without sinking into your shoulders and without sinking into your feet or being heavy on your knees then you will be doing excellent work for the full posture.   Maintain the push through the arms and the firmness in your tummy.


What changes here is that my shoulders come far in front of my wrists.

One of the reasons I did this posture on a block was to show how far my shoulders are coming forward.  If you compare the previous picture to this one you can see my head is now in front of the block and my shoulders are just over the edge.

At this point I start to feel lift.

The video below shows lift off!  Instead of leaping into the posture, I balance.  I actively lift my heels to my bottom.


I have written previously about using the wrists but you can see here I have wrapped my finger tips around the block.  I am pressing into them.

This is how we deconstruct posture to help you be strong, safe, and active in postures.  Hope to see you in classes and workshops in Canberra and Colombo, or at our Bali retreat!

Much metta,
Samantha

www.artofliferetreats.com
www.yogacafecanberra.blogspot.com
www.yogacafelk.blogspot.com

Active Movements Help A Tricky Arm Balance (Parivrtta Parsvakonasana to Eka Pada Koudinyasa I)


I use active movements to come into this posture
In this post I show active movements to come into eka pada koundinyasa I via parivrtta parsvakonasana.  We are practicing this in my classes at the moment.  I have included a few videos and step-by-step instructions.  

I do not recommend you practice this without the guidance of an experienced teacher.  Also, unless they are experienced in using active spinal movements they may not be able to give appropriate and safe guidance on safe spinal movement so just check.  This is mainly for students who practice with me and need some extra guidance.  I will give advice on safety in the posture.  As always, you need to be careful with knees, wrists, shoulders, and spine.  Moving slowly, moving actively, tensing less, and stretching less will always help.

Active Movements
As a teacher I try to demonstrate active movement and show where movement may be coming from so that you generate strength and ease of movement. 

Sometimes this is tricky because what you see may not be where the movement arises. 

Also, sometimes a more passive posture may end up looking much the same as the active posture. 

The pictures below highlight this.
Active spinal movements get me here

In the picture above I used active spinal movements to come into the pose. 

In the picture below I came in by ‘falling’ with gravity and mainly by flexing my hips. 

Passive hip flexion got me here
While they look much the same, the feeling in my torso especially is completely different.  If you look carefully at the angle or amount of blue space between my front thigh and torso you can see there is more space in the active pose as I did not close off the hip angle.

In the first pose I feel lifted, light and lengthened.  In the second I feel more sinking—especially into the hips--and general heaviness. 

You can see the difference in entry maneuvers in the video below.



I don’t want to suggest one is right or wrong.  I can do them both. 

I choose to do the first version in my practice and teaching to help you develop strength and mobility in the torso. 

Aside from helping my spine feel good, moving actively and having activated muscles around my tummy in particular, helps me come into the arm balance variation that follows this posture in our current sequence. 

Here I have to say, I got a six-pack without ever doing a crunch or by adding a ‘core yoga’ section into my classes or self-practice. 

I simply do active movements throughout my entire class and am pretty much doing a ‘sit-up’, aka active spinal forward flexion, in every forward bend I do. 

Back to the postures at hand!  There are two.  A standing posture, then an arm balance.

Perhaps watch the video first to get a sense of the flow and process.  Then take a look at the step-by-step freeze frames and instructions.

Demonstration of using active movements to the postures


Spinally speaking, the standing posture is basically a twisting, side bending, forward bending backbend. 

That is, once I am in the lunge and lengthen lower back (sitting bones down, top of pelvis back), I do a twist, a side bend, a forward bend, then a little back bend in my upper back.  A little hip flexion creeps in but after the spinal forward flexion.

Step 1: Get into a lunge


 In this lunge I have my back heel up.  That is because I am going to make this posture dynamic and move into the arm balance.  Traditionally heel is down.

Many people find having heel up difficult to balance.  You need to be using your feet and legs actively to assist with the balance.  I grip with my toes lightly. 

Also, if you allow your hips to be sinking it is often a sign you are not using your legs actively enough and will make it harder to balance.  I keep my hips a little higher and legs active here.  Nothing wrong with going lower but just in an active and not sinking way.

Step 2: Lengthen lower back
Here I have taken sitting bones down, top of pelvis back in order to lengthen my lower back. 

To me, this is different and more subtle than ‘tucking under’.  Remember, rather than fret about action, go for feeling.  The feeling here is to have space in your lower back and not squashing.

In this picture I have also lengthened my entire spine. I have taken my lower ribs back and up lightly.  You cannot see my neck but I have head down, neck back slightly to lengthen back of neck.

I have begun to push my armpits forward and lightly down, elbows lightly up.

Step 3: Active spinal twist
I try to move from base of spine upwards.  That means, turning from navel, area then lower ribs, then chest, then shoulders.

Look at the front foot.  See how much it is still working.

Spine still long, not arching.

Step 4: Active spinal side bending
Here I initiate side bending by bringing back hip forward and up towards the rib.  At the same time I am reaching opposite arm up and forward from my waist/pelvis and trying to move that side hip back slightly so the whole side body lengthens.

The side of my body that closest in this picture is firming.  This side bending firmness will help me in the arm balance.

You can see I start to have more weight on my front foot—the back heel is raising as well in preparation for the arm balance to soon come.

At this stage I am in a back lengthening, twisting, side bending posture.

Step 5: Spinal forward flexion
Now I have begun a spinal forward flexion process.

See the space you can see between the top of my thigh and torso and how the angle is still relatively open.

I am now in a spine lengthening, twisting, side bending, forward bend.

Step 6: A bit of hip flexion
There is no need to go deeper.  Unless you are coming to the arm balance, that is!

To get to the ground I need some hip flexion.  I initiate hip flexion here, after I have done my active twisting, side bending, forward bend.  Importantly, I maintain these actions as I lower.

In my own practice I often choose to stay at this point here.  It feels really good.

I can do the arm balance easily but for me it seems unnecessary compared to how nice it feels to stay actively in this posture for some time.   

At this point a t lot of yoga teachers in classes I have attended will come up and try and get me to put my back heel on the ground, to try and put my hand on the ground, to try and take my legs further apart. 

There is nothing wrong with that.  But this feels so much better.  Perhaps it is not pretty but once you start to appreciate active movements and see what is going on in the posture you see this as something lovely and delicious feeling. 

I am not leaning or using the bottom arm on my knee at all.  If you were to use it then do so in an intelligent and active way.  That would mean using the arm to press lightly into the thigh and pressing the thigh back into the arm.  I am definitely not using my arm to ‘wrench’ or twist my spine here.  I am also not sinking into it.

Step 7: More hip flexion and knee bending to get hands to ground
The only way to get to the ground is to get some more hip flexion in there, front knee bends more as well. 

A lot more in fact.  You can see it has started to come in front of my toes.  I need to be firm behind my knee to maintain the integrity of my knee here.  My ankles are moderately flexible in a squat so my heel can stay down.  If you need it is perfectly fine to lift that heel.  In fact, it might help you to keep firm behind the knee. 

You can see hands are coming in front of the foot and off to the side. 

I am maintaining all of the actions from previous steps.  That means my front knee is actually only lightly touching my arm. 

Notice how at no stage did I start pushing my arm into the knee to get me into this twist.  They are touching lightly here.  I do not want that front knee to get heavy.  It will become heavy if you are not using your torso actively and you will feel like you are sinking in this posture instead of lifting.

This picture sort of shows you how my whole back body is lengthened, not flattened.   You can see I am moving my chest into my upper back and moving my shoulder blades around the sides of my chest.

Notice I am transferring weight forward.  You can see this as I am coming more onto the tops of my toes on the back foot.

Step 8: Enhance side bending
Leaning forward with more weight on my hands and pushing the floor away.  I don’t want weight on my feet in an arm balance.  I need to support it by pushing into the floor with arms to get lift.

I am gripping with finger tips as thought grabbing at the ground (not flattening fingers).

I am maintaining all the core actions. 

This allows me to enhace side bending by bringing the back knee into my shoulder.  I can only do this without feeling heavy or sinking if I have kept all of the actions in the torso. 

You can see weight is more and more over the hands and my front heel has started to lift.  I need lightness in this foot to come up. 

I squeeze my wrists together and keep feeling as though my elbows are trying to come together.

Step 9: Lean forward, smile, stay firm but calm, and lift
Compare this picture with the previous one and you see my shoulders have come further forward over the finger tips.  I have to lean forward without dropping into my shoulders to come into this position.

Actually, let me correct myself.  I don’t have to.  You can drop and do this but it will probably feel awful on your wrists and shoulders!

If you can sneak a look at my tummy here you can see is it active!

Step 10: Legs out!
I continue leaning forward.  See how far my shoulders have come in front of wrists.  I suppose if you were stronger you would not need to lean as far forward but I am not that strong.  I am trying not to lower my chest but to stay lifted. 

Maintaining all previous actions, I just straighten my legs.

The top thigh is rolling in and bottom thigh is rolling out. 

I am happy and calm and firm and strong and feeling good.  If you walked past me I could say hello and tell you how good I was feeling and have a little chat without getting breathless. 

In Sum
Remember that this arm balance is just a bit of show ponying really.  It looks impressive but it won’t make you happier or healthier!

Staying in the standing version might help you more than the arm balance. 

I also don’t recommend trying this without your teacher. 

This is the way I teach posture.  I encourage you to think about how it feels at every stage.  Go for length and freedom, not squashing.  Use active movements.  Layer the movements and keep the actions you cultivated in the lead up on the follow through.  

This is how we will help you move towards greater strength and movement in our Bali retreat and in my classes and workshops in Canberra and Sri Lanka.  Look forward to seeing you. 

Happy and safe practicing!

Much metta,
Samantha

www.artofliferetreats.com
www.yogacafecanberra.blogspot.com
www.yogacafelk.blogspot.com