Check out a baby or young child's foot. Notice that much of the time their toes softly curl down, the top of their foot is nice and full, and the ankle is slightly flexed. They often walk with a little bounce, a spring in their step. This is the foot we try to obtain in our practice, allowing us to put a spring in our own step! 

Aligning our foot in this way affects the alignment of our legs, hips, back, our whole body, helping to relieve pain and elevating our mood. We'll focus on our feet this week in class and feel the effect our feet have on our whole body. Join us!
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Photo by Isaac Del Toro on Unsplash

This Saturday, December 21, 2019, is the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. It's the shortest day of the year. After this day the days will gradually become longer.

Solstice comes from the Latin word sol, meaning sun, and sistere, meaning to stand still. The sun appears to stand still, or pause, on this day as it reverses its path across the sky.

So in class this week we'll pause, we'll stand still, in the breath and in our poses. We'll enjoy these moments of stillness on the shortest day and longest night of the year.

To align our hips we move the groins back and widen the sitz bones, then we draw the glutes up and in toward the sacrum creating a curve in the low back. We draw the top of the sacrum in by engaging the back of the legs and mounding the glute muscles upward.

Tipping our pelvis forward using the back side of our legs and hips -- that's our theme this week. Join us!

Thanks to Josh Wechsler in Austin, Texas, for this photo.

This week in class we'll spread our wings, our hands, arms, and shoulders. From the heart in the center of our ribcage we'll spread our wings wide, forward, and up. Our shoulder blades will expand out to the sides and lift up toward the top of the head creating more space for the heart and the breath and creating a buoyancy to our posture.

Join us this week!
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Photo by Tikkho Maciel on Unsplash

"You're ahead of me, striding into the arch of oaks that opens onto the fields
and stone walls of the road--
as a V of geese honk a path overhead, and you stop--
in an instant, without thought, raising your arms toward sky, your hands
flapping from the wrists,
and I can read in the echo your body makes of these wild geese going
where they must,
such joy, such wordless unity and delight, you are once again the child
who knows by instinct, by birthright,
just to be is a blessing..."
from "Moment" by Margaret Gibson

In our Tuesday class this week, this week of Thanksgiving, we'll celebrate the joy of being by raising our V-arms toward the sky. We'll flap our wings like the wild geese, embodying the delight of being.

Join us 9:30-11am Tuesday, November 26, at Matthews Community Center. Drop-ins $12. No classes November 27-28. 

​This week we'll focus on our roots, our feet, legs and hips. First we'll bring them into healthy alignment. Then we'll work to strengthen all sides of our roots, alleviating pain from improper alignment and enabling us to move easier and more freely.

Join us! More information on our homepage.

In this first week of a new session we'll focus on a primary alignment in Bowspring, Radiant Heart, a spacious and full ribcage. From the heart in the center of the ribcage we'll expand and lift the sides, back, and front of the ribs.

Join us as we stay light and lifted in our poses and movements. 

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

In many of our poses we keep our eyes on the horizon, not gazing up or down, with our head balanced on our neck. This allows us to keep our eyes soft and relaxed and encourages an expansive view of both Earth and Sky.

Join us this week, the last week of the session, as we practice Horizon Eyes.

Photo by Joanna Nix on Unsplash

This week in class we'll pulse in our poses. We'll talk about how cats and spiders have become associated with Halloween, and we'll practice several cat poses and climb the wall like Spiderwoman.

We'll honor this time of harvest with Harvest Hands as we celebrate the beginning of this darker half of the year.

Join us! Drop-ins are $12.
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Photo by Bee Felten-Leidel on Unsplash

​"All my dawns cross the horizon
and rise, from underfoot.
What I stand for
is what I stand on."
from "Below" in "The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry"

This week in class we'll focus on aligning and engaging our feet, legs, and hips, what we refer to as our "roots" in our Bowspring practice. Staying rooted in healthy alignment enables us to move easier and lighter. With every exhale we'll root down from the core of our pelvis through our legs and feet into the earth.
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Join us as we connect to "what we stand on."