by Kara-Leah Grant Welcome to the second Creative Sun Salutation flow here on The Yoga Lunchbox. As with the last six-part series, the first two episodes in this series are free for anybody to access, and the final four are for Insiders only. (You can become a member of Inside the Box here.) This week we add on to the beginning of our abundance sun salutation, moving through halfway lift, high plank, low plank, upward dog, downward dog, three-legged dog and knee to nose. Most of you … [Read more...]
Putting the Flow Together: A Complete Mandala Surya Namaskar {video}
by Kara-Leah Grant Welcome to the last article and video in this series of Yoga Explorations. Yes, you've made it all the way to the end and now it's time to bring everything together in one smooth flow. Circular sun salutations work on a few different levels. Usually on our mats we work in a purely linear manner - we move left and right, back and forward. Plus we usually only face forwards, or sideways to one direction. However when we do circular sun salutations we use all four sides … [Read more...]
Sun Salutations Video Series: Transition Time! How to Link the Postures Together
by Kara-Leah Grant In recent months, we've looked at all the different asanas or postures that make up a standard sun salutation. We've explored each of these postures in-depth, and explained them on video. Now it's time to took at the transitions between the postures. Because this is what makes sun salutations such a fantastic yoga sequence - especially for home practice. Each pose flows effortlessly into the next posture, creating a complete circle where you end up where you started, … [Read more...]
Home Yoga Practice Questions: What Should I Do in My Practice?
by Kara-Leah Grant, author of Forty Days of Yoga Home yoga practice - it's awesome and everyone's getting into it, right? But you know what's missing? A teacher. That's what. I mean, at the end of the studio class, you can always go up to the yoga teacher and ask whatever burning question is on your mind. But when you practice yoga at home? Who you going to ask? Me, that's who. Yep, every week or two, I'll be selecting a reader question to answer on video, and sending out a … [Read more...]
Sun Salutations Video Series: How to do Upward Dog (Urdhva Mukha Svanasana)
by Kara-Leah Grant Like Chatranga Dandasana, Urdhva Mukha Svanasana is a posture we usually only spend a breath or two in during yoga class. It's a posture of transition and movement. And it's a posture that's very easily to do badly, creating stress on our lower back and shoulders. For this reason, it's a posture I'm now wary of teaching in a general, drop-in yoga class. Yes, it's a staple of sun salutations and yoga, yet many of the people I see coming to class aren't yet ready to swoop … [Read more...]
Sun Salutations Video Series: How to do Standing Forward Fold (Uttanasana)
by Kara-Leah Grant For years and years and years this posture has been my nemesis. I hated it. I sucked at it. It challenged me in every way. When I first started yoga, back in 1995 at a ten-week Iyengar course, I was so incredibly tight that when we went into a standing forward bend, I couldn't even reach forward and touch my knees. I had no forward movement in my pelvis at all - my hamstrings were just way too tight. And that's the first part of the body that must be freed up for a … [Read more...]
Sun Salutations Video Series: How to do Mountain Pose (Tadasana)
by Kara-Leah Grant Welcome to the first in a series of articles & videos exploring the foundations of an asana practice through sun salutations. But first... In my ideal universe - besides living next door to Johny Depp and and down the road from Einstein (imagine that dinner party!) - every yoga student would be encouraged to start a home yoga practice the very first time they ever went to a yoga class. Yes, the first time. In fact, every yoga teacher would teach with the … [Read more...]
One way that Forty Days of Yoga has revolutionised my life
By Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat Today I did something that has the potential to revolutionise my life. I set an alarm and deliberately got up before my three year old son. I wanted to be up by 6:30am and I wanted the early morning peace and quiet to do my yoga practice. This is a huge break-through for me. Once upon a time, I effortlessly arose before 7am and spent a couple of hours on the computer writing, often getting my day's work down before 9am. I loved this - it … [Read more...]