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Time: 25 minutes Focus on vipassana this week. Start each session with enough breathing meditation to calm your mind and then switch to body scanning. As your sits get longer, keep strong 💪

A mindfulness practice is a lifelong pursuit. The stronger your mindfulness is, the better your sitting meditation will be. Likewise the stronger your sitting meditation, the easier it is to be mindful.

Yoga helps unlock your inner creativity, push out the negativity, increase flexibility and strengthen your body. This 14-day program will teach you the basics of the Sun Salutation, a series of postures that warms, strengthens and aligns the entire body. This program is designed to be taken over 14 days for all levels of fitness, however, participants may take up to 30 days to complete it. Listen to your body and move through each pose or sequence at your own pace

Sun Salutations (Surya Namaskar) are a foundational yoga practice intended to warm the body and celebrate the radiant energy of the sun. Many cultures honor the sun as “the physical and spiritual heart of our world,” and the practice of honoring the sun has both physical and spiritual significance. In yoga, the way in which we salute the sun is by moving through a series of dynamic asanas (movements). While you may practice Sun Salutations across various disciplines, they are best known as the foundation of vinyasa yoga. Vinyasa means to place in a special way, so it is essential to be mindful of your alignment as you flow from pose to pose. Ideally, Sun Salutations are practiced facing east, with an eye toward the rising sun. The origin timeline of Sun Salutations are debated within the yoga community, dating as far back as thousands of years, while some believe the tradition began in the early 20th century. There are many adaptations of the sun salutation where minor variations can be identified. What remains true in all versions, however, is that the basis of any sun salutation stems from eight key poses: Mountain Pose (Tadasana), Upward Salute (Urdhva Hastasana), Standing Forward Bend (Uttasana), Low Lunge (Anjaneyasana), Plank Pose, Four Limbed Staff Pose (Chaturanga Dandasana), Upward Facing Dog (Urdhva Mukha Svanasana), and Downward Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana). The Sun Salutation brings us full circle through a movement palindrome, working the right side and the left, and finishes where we began--in our tadasana variation with the hands at heart-center, anjali mudra.

Find your tadasana. Hinging at the elbows, sweep the arms outward and inward, bringing the hands into heart center, our anjali mudra (salutation seal).

In Urdhva Hastasana (Upward Salute), you will begin to work on extension from the ground to the sky, elongating the body. While this pose may seem easy, many people suffer from tight shoulders, causing an unpleasant sensation of immobility and discomfort. Flexibility and good positioning can be achieved through practice and repetition, but the pose may also be modified to accommodate beginning practitioners experiencing these issues.

Step 1: Find your tadasana. Ground through the four corners of the feet. Focus on your midline and find stability. Begin to engage the quadriceps, as practiced during tadasana. Step 2: Focus on finding neutral spine alignment. Drawing the attention to the pelvis, imagine a weighted string pulling you down from the tailbone, creating a tether to the earth. This imaginary tether will prevent the spine from curving in excess as you find length. Tuck the ribs in. Step 3: If the hands are not already facing forward by your sides, externally rotate the shoulders so that the palms rotate forward. Remember to initiate movement from the roots of the limbs. Think about rotating the shoulder at the joint, rather than the wrist. Revisit your cues for tadasana - broaden through the collarbones, draw the shoulder blades towards the spine. Inhaling, begin to lift the arms until they are inline with the shoulders. Thumbs should be pointing up to the sky. Make sure you can just see your thumbs within your peripheral vision. As you continue to rise up alongside the ears, begin to turn the pinkies facing forward. Bring the palms together with the shoulders plugged in. Exhale rooting down. Step 4: Inhale to create space between the ribs and lengthen through the crown. Do not let the ribs splay out. Chin remains parallel to the ground. Hold the pose for 8-10 breaths and release the arms by your sides on an exhale.

Step 1: Find your tadasana. Bring the hands to the hips. Start to make a horseshoe shape with your thumb and pointer fingers and find your natural hip crease. Inhale and as you exhale, begin to hinge at the hips not the waist. When you feel the pointer fingers begin to fully connect with the hip crease, pause. Rotate the hand so that the base of the palm is at the top of the hip crease. Start to press into the thighs firmly. As you do so continue to reach your crown forward, lengthening the spine and the torso, continuing to fold. Release the hands when it is no longer comfortable for them to be there, allowing them to drape down towards the earth. Notice the position of your arms at this time. Slowly rise back up. Step 2: Let’s return to our tadasana once again. If you found that your fingertips or palms were still quite far from the earth in Step 1, consider bending into the knees and focusing on making a chest to thigh connection, rather than a hand to earth connection. First thing in the morning, first pose of your practice, or generally as a beginner, you may have difficulty reaching the earth. Avoid injuring the back or the knees by modifying your actions as you find your forward bend. With the knees slightly bent, take a big inhale and as you exhale, begin to draw the belly in. Leading with the crown and hinging at the hips bring your torso all the way down to meet the thighs. Grab for opposite elbows. Step 3: Breathing in through the nose and out through the nose, allow the breath to create space in the body. Feel the lengthening of the spine as you continue to feel the pose. Imagine your sacrum sinking inward towards the pelvis. Press the heels into the floor, beginning to lift the sitting bones as the legs start to lengthen and the torso stretches. Do not lock up the knees. Release the arms, letting the fingertips graze the earth or plant the palms slightly in front of or next to the feet. Let the head and neck hang heavy. Repeating this practice will build strength in the thighs and knees and increase flexibility. As you increase flexibility, you may grab behind the ankle and bend at the elbows to fold even deeper into the self. Step 4: Traditionally, one moves from a forward bend into a half forward bend before moving to another pose. With the hands on or near the floor, on an inhale you will begin to lift the torso to create space and find a flat back. Find a slight bend of the knees, as needed, and bring the gaze forward without compressing the neck. With an exhale, return to your full forward bend more deeply. Hold for 8-10 breaths.

Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward Facing Dog) is perhaps the most well known yoga pose. This pose is considered a resting pose, but offers many benefits for lengthening and stretching muscles, and in particular, strengthening the shoulders. We typically arrive in Downward Facing Dog by flowing from tabletop, plank pose, and a number of other poses. Let’s begin today from our mat.

Step 1: Find a tabletop pose on your mat. Plant the knees and the palms firmly. Checking your alignment, make sure that your hips are over your knees, your shoulders are over your wrists, and if you gaze through the legs, you cannot see the toes. Keep the feet in line with the rest of the body. Step 2: Root down evenly through the hands, spreading the fingers wide. Let the front of your mat guide you here. The wrists creases should be parallel with the top of your mat. Press firmly into the hands, exhale, and begin lifting the hips. The knees will begin to float naturally. Continue lifting the tailbone high to the sky as you begin to straighten the legs. Start lowering the feet down toward the earth. The heels do not need to touch the mat. The body should be in a V-shape. Step 3: Let’s hone in on alignment. Feet should be about two fists-width distance apart or approximately hip-distance. With the pelvis lifted, imagine the sitting bones being drawn down toward the earth. Draw the shoulder blades in and toward the tailbone, broadening the area between the shoulders along the collarbone. Step 4: Feel the muscles on the outsides of the arm firming up. Rotate the arm externally, from the root of the shoulder, so that the inner elbow faces the thumbs. Turn your attention to the legs, continuing to lift the thighs, drawing the legs back. Press the mat away from you and decompress the spine. Begin to feel space opening through lats and in the side body. Focus on creating space between hips and ribs. Step 5: Engage the quadriceps, rotating the thighs inward as you work toward bringing the heels down to the earth. Find a slight bend of the knees if the heels are a significant distance from the ground. Arms should be alongside the ears. Head is in line with the spine.

Chaturanga dandasana requires a significant amount of arm strength. In this pose, alignment is critically important to avoid injury and move fluidly from pose to pose. In our Sun Salutation, beginner practitioners may opt to start with additional props that will help keep proper alignment and provide an opportunity to build strength. Consider grabbing two blocks or a bolster. With blocks, you may use all the same cues above, with the addition of blocks as optional support. Before finding your plank pose, place two blocks on the highest setting just in front of the hands. As you begin to bend the elbows and lower the body, let the shoulders rest on the top of the blocks. Not only will this provide support, it will also highlight how far your torso should remain from the earth. Yogis may also opt to drop their knees from plank pose before bending into the arms for additional support. A large bolster can be used underneath the length of the body to help support the hips and avoid incorrect alignment of the lower spine. As you lower from plank pose, your pelvis will be supported by the bolster.

Upward Facing Dog, or Urdhva Mukha Svanasana, is traditionally practiced in the Sun Salutation. Beginner practitioners may want to begin with Cobra Pose or a modified version of Upward Facing Dog. “Up Dog” is considered a backbend and practitioners may complain of low back pain after practicing this pose. Backbends call for equal stretching of all parts of the spine--i.e. avoid only flexing through one part of the spine. Stiffness in the mid or upper back can be the root cause of discomfort. Cobra pose is an ideal option for learning to open the upper spine more fully.