Steven’s Yoga

Morning

Do these poses each morning soon after waking.

• Stand well – wuji
  Stand with your feet square on a hard floor in socks or bare. Hold your knees soft and rotate your thighs out slightly to engage your butt. Push your pubic bone forward slightly to tilt your pelvis back and engage your butt. Firm your abs. Hold your torso tall. Let your upper arms hang straight down from your shoulders. Turn your palms slightly forward. Look straight ahead and feel your neck straight. Feel yourself in the pose by the steps from your feet to your neck then eyes and pause and settle into feeling good in the pose. It seems simple but has many parts. As I guide you and you do it daily, it will feel good.
• Reach (up downward dog)
  Stand and rest your hands or forearms on a counter, table, or the back of a couch or stable chair. Find something with a height that works for you. Have your feet square on the floor, barefoot or in socks, and your knees slightly soft. Tilt your torso forward from your hip joints so that you extend your arms and get your back toward horizontal. Adjust yourself and rest into the pose putting some weight on your arms. Press your hands firmly away from your butt, hold the press, then smoothly release the press. Rest into the pose then sway to find tight spots. Rise carefully by bending your knees and lowering your butt, sitting into it; then tilt your torso up from your hip joints before straightening your legs. Repeat the pose once more.
• Sit well
  Sit on a hard chair like a dining chair. Have your feet square on the floor and your shins vertical. Place your knees at a width where you need no effort in your legs. Rock your pelvis front and back a little and feel your root on the chair and hold. Have your shoulders over your hips and rest your palms on your thighs. Look straight ahead.

Next Time

Review morning routine and add to each pose.

• Stand + shift
• Reach + shift
• Sit + mula bandha

Back, butt, and legs

• Rise
• Bridge
• Lunges

Food

Yoga helps us feel ourselves and feel good. Feeling good and a feel for ourselves guide us in how we eat. As I guide you to move and better feel yourself this leads to asking how a food feels beyond the moment of eating. As doing the daily sit well will reshape your not-conscious feel for how you move and thus reshape your posture, so too training and tuning a feel for yourself and feeling good will reshape how you eat.

• Water
  Get enough water — It helps everything work well. Help you the animal feel good.
• Regular meals
  Give yourself a reliable supply of nutrients and avoid hunger. Eating well does a lot to help avoid eating badly.
• Eat clean
  Manufactured food contains many ingredients that harm. Choose clean food without extra sugars and salt and other additives.
• Macro nutrients
  Get enough good quality protein. Good carbs protect good protein. Good fats help health.
• Micro nutrients
  With a less varied diet we get fewer extra supplies of minerals and vitamins. And with age we digest these nutrients less well. So we need to eat better and pay more attention to maintain our health.

Future

• Posterior chain
  Upward plank
  Upward table
  Sphinx