Week 4

Speaking of routines. The easiest way to add a habit is to attach it to something that is already a habit.
I have challenged my students to find 15 minutes daily to practise some simple stretching and strengthening poses, including practising the pose of the week. I believe that you will find that the rewards will reinforce the habit. Attach it to something that is already a habit. Do your poses immediately before getting dressed or after brushing your teeth. Or during your evening news program. Just do something every day and then tell me how it affects you.

This week do
1. some simple shoulder stretches: arm circles with a tie, clock on the wall, reverse prayer, and that eagle one (with one hand holding the tie, the bent elbow pointing up and the other arm reaching behind to grab the tie.)
2.Continue to do cat and dog tail pose (on all fours, exhaling as you drop the head and tail and lift the back, drawing the navel to the spine; inhale as you look forward, lift the head and drop the shoulders down the back.)
3. Do two standing poses: Trikonasana/triangle pose, and Utthita parsvokonasana/ extended side angle pose
4. Do half locust: lying on your stomach on the floor, lift one arm and the opposite leg as you lift the chest and lengthen through the crown of the head. repeat three times on each side.
5. Do the pose of the week.

The pose of the week for this week is a combination of three poses: plank, push-up pose, and cobra.
This sequence is the middle part of the Suryanamaskar/ Sun Salutation. It requires shoulder strength and flexibility in the spine. Build up your shoulder strength gradually, beginning on all fours and rocking forward and back (I learned this one from my baby). Next lower yourself down onto your forearms. Drawing your elbows in, lower your upper body down to the floor.
As you inhale, lift the chest and look forward, broadening the collarbones and drawing the shoulders down and back. Move the hands back under the shoulders. Exhale and press into the hands to push back into an all-fours position. If this is too difficult, keep the forearms on the floor and practise lifting the body a few inches off the floor, hips high, and then dropping back down. With practise the shoulders will be strengthened.
If your shoulders are strong, you may move into plank pose from downward facing dog with the body forming a long plank from the turned under toes to the crown of the head. Keep the elbows drawing in as you bend the arms and lower down. Push up into cobra and then lift the hips back into downward-facing dog.

Pose of the Week 3

I missed blogging this week and now we have moved on. But the pose of week 3 was Virabhadrasana -- Warrior 1 pose.
This pose lengthens the front body and hip flexors, providing a bit of back bending extension. It strengthens the hip and pelvic stabilizers. It is one of the poses in the sun salutations.

Try performing this pose with the foot of the front/bent leg up on a chair. This allows for experiencing the full range of the pose while taking the strain off the low back. Be sure to keep the coccyx tucked in and the low belly lifting in order to avoid crunching in the lumbar spine.

See the pose at:
www.yogajournal.com/poses/1708

another day another day another day another day

Ahhh parenting.
In our family we work a lot on routines. Routines keep us doing the things that we know we should without the fight. Theoretically speaking. In the morning, I am not supposed to have to nag everyone to get dressed, make their beds, brush their teeth, and so on. We have discussed and taught the morning routine many times because it seems the most involved and the most important. We have practised it hundreds of times. Many parts of the routines are established and automatic. Mostly those are the things that we began years ago.

Before the institution of the morning routine, every day was a new fight. Number One child hated clothes and socks and had an especially tender head. Getting dresssed was a battle every day. We began practising a formal routine with charts, stickers and rewards at the start of kindergarten. Number One was five and The Little Mother was four. We were homeschooling. Much of the curriculum was personal grooming, chores and routines. Every year we have added things to the routine and it is more the preparation for the day than the day itself. Getting dressed now is easy.

Now the big girls have this routine before they leave for school at 8:10-ish:
Get dressed, make bed, say prayers, eat, brush teeth and hair, tidy their own room and the zone that they have for that week, family devotional. Musical instrument practise seems a little much but some days someone makes a brief attempt.
Big Brother who just turned three follows the leader and has adopted the idea of a morning routine quite naturally. His routine is get dressed and put pajamas away (I introduced the idea last week that three year olds have the special ability to put their own clothes away), brush teeth and make bed with help, and do one chore. (He gets to choose between options such as empty half the dishwasher, tidy the shoes, help sort socks or fold dishtowels.) He doesn't like stickers but sometimes gets gum or stories when he finishes.

One of the valuable offshoots of establishing morning routines for the children is that is has made me more aware of them for myself. I need routines to keep me on track. It is tempting as a stay-at-home mother to start working as soon as I get up: feeding people, tidying up the dishes, helping people with their routine. Shouting "get dressed," while I am still in my pajamas and with bed-head. Now I try to lead by example, tidying up my room and getting dressed even as they are. I suppose that ideally I would dress and shower and exercise before they get up. Perhaps when the Baby starts sleeping.