It's easy to forget about roots. In plants, such as trees, we see the part of the tree that is above ground and may forget about the underground roots that provide support and sustenance for the tree to live. In our lives we often forget about our roots, the old repeated teachings that have brought us to where we are today. And in our bodies we tend to focus more on our upper body. But our feet, legs, and hips, what we refer to as our roots, are just as important, for they provide strength and support for the whole body.

So we remember our roots. In our feet we curl our toes down and hollow the front of the ankle. When we step, the front part of the foot touches the ground first. We keep the heart full and the hips and head back.

Here's a simple sequence to strengthen your roots:

Step forward
Step back
Step to the side and then back to center
Zig-Zag Lunge
Cross-Ankle Squat
Infinity Pose

You'll find a description of these poses at globalbowspring.com. Or come to class this week and we'll show you! Drop-ins are $12.

Our Bowspring practice is light and buoyant. We sometimes feel like we're floating as we practice. This buoyancy comes from a balance of the push and pull forces in our curvy dynamic posture. The tone in the whole body lifts it against gravity. This buoyant physical posture cultivates a psychological feeling of lightheartedness and effortlessness.

The primary actions of creating a long curvy central channel and a full ribcage lift us up in both body and mind.
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Come raise yourself up in class this week!

We as humans have a need to be self-reliant, to feel capable of surviving. In our Bowspring practice the engagement of the back body muscles cultivates self-reliance. We can refer to these muscles of the back body as the "muscles of self-reliance" because they help pull the whole body up into a balanced position.

When you engage this posterior chain you empower yourself. You hold yourself up. You do it yourself. No one else can do it for you.

We'll practice engaging our muscles of self-reliance next week in class, the first week of a new session.

It's springtime and life is pushing out in beautiful colors from the darkness of winter. It's an expansive time of year. Spring is the opposite of autumn when things turn back in toward the dark center of the earth. Each year pulses with the rising of spring and the falling of autumn.

Our breath is always rising and falling, moving in and out. In our practice our ribcage stays full and expansive (we call this Radiant Heart) as we root down through our legs on the exhale and rise from the core of the pelvis up to the top of our head on the inhale. We keep the fullness of Radiant Heart as we pulse and move with our breath.
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This week we'll stay steady with Radiant Heart as we pulse to music in class.