Bachelorette Party - Mula Bandha and Mimosas

A pre-wedding wedding celebration kicked off Labor Day weekend with some yoga on the beach. I taught a class specifically for bachelorettes that I call "Mula Bandha and Mimosas."

beautiful bride to be

setu bhanda sarvangasana - bridge pose

When you are preparing to walk down the wedding aisle, heart opening poses are key. In bridge pose, you push down through the feet and the hands and lift through the hips using the shoulders for support. The more you wiggle your shoulders underneath you, the more you are able to stretch through the neck and lift up through the chest which opens the heart chakra.

demo on engaging mula bandha

Mula Bandha is one of three energy locks in the body known in yoga as the root lock. It incorporates the kaegle muscle and the lifting of the pelvic floor. It is key in finding buoyancy within all poses as well as arm balances such as crow pose and inversions such as handstand. I focused on engaging it in this particular practice because it can also be a great way to prepare for the wedding night...

engage mula bandha to reach up for anjaneyasana - crescent pose

ashtanga namaskara - crocodile pose

Building heat on an already hot day with classical sun salutations. In crocodile pose we keep the hips lifted as we lower our knees, chin and chest to the mat.

bhekasana - frog pose

Frog pose is a deep hip opener fabulous for helping to let go of anything in your life that you might not want to bring into your marriage. This pose was the maid of honors favorite moment of the yoga practice because the surfers decided to walk by as soon as we settled in.

savasana - corpse pose 

Visualize the wedding day. You are about to walk down the aisle. Take a deep breath and lead with your heart before you take the first step. Picture all of your friends and family and enjoy the perfection of every moment. Feel the love surrounding you, the bride and the groom. We are gathered together because of love, the most powerful energy of all. When you wake up from savasana or corpse pose, it symbolizes the death of the old and is like a new beginning.

The Bachelorettes

Get ready to jump in with both feet!

Yoga - FabFitFun Guest Blog

Today marks the start of the first annual South Bay Yoga Conference which kicks off this weekend. I am a conference volunteer and offered to write a guest piece for Giuliana Rancic's lifestyle blog FabFitFun.

In this last month of summer we want to make the most of the warm weather and long days. Yoga is one of the best ways to accomplish this! Yoga poses keep you in shape physically while yoga meditation encourages you mentally to stay in the moment and enjoy it to the fullest.

A yoga pose can be combined with yoga meditation to maximize the workout experience. For example, downward facing dog strengthens the hamstrings, gluteal and back muscles and the central nervous system. Holding yourself in this or any yoga pose allows your mind to focus only on the pose and how it feels to execute it within the body. You end up feeling and looking great while simultaneously learning how to maximize your enjoyment of every last minute of summer fun in the sun and barbecues with friends.

For more yoga information and complete yoga workouts make your way toward the sand, the waves and the city of Redondo Beach in the Los Angeles area on August 10-12. Stop by the South Bay Yoga Conference to get your yoga on or just peruse the latest in health food and fitness gear. 

There is something for everyone at the South Bay Yoga conference. Attend the unique variety of yoga classes such as "Yoga at the Movies" or "Yoga for Surfers." Check out the shopping and latest in healthy living by spending some time in the free marketplace. Learn about yoga accessories with Manduka, trying on semi-precious stone jewelry by Energy Muse or tasting freshly pressed juice from BeJuice Clean just to name a few. See you there!

Yoga - Trikonasana Triangle Pose

trikonasana - triangle pose

In this variation of triangle pose I am pushing my shin into my hand so I don't hyper-extend the knee. I made sure that the heel of my front foot was in line with my ankle on my back foot to execute heel to ankle alignment. Doing this pose against a wall can really help because you can push your back hip into the wall to make sure that the hips are aligned properly. Then I let my head hang in its own weight.

Yoga - Manduka Product Test

Manduka is an El Segundo based yoga equipment & accessory company that focuses on eco-friendly production. This particular mat is all-natural, biodegradable and does not contain any toxic glues, dyes or plasticizers.

eko lite natural yoga mat in santorini 

Manduka eKO yoga mats are made from natural tree rubber. For best performance, they suggest you wipe the surface with a damp cloth and store it out of direct sunlight. I would definitely recommend wiping the mat down as well as airing it out before you use it, especially the first time. I unwrapped my mat and unrolled it in yoga class today and everyone near me could smell it! One person had a bit of an allergic reaction. As it aired out, the scent seemed to lessen and the yogis got over it.

yoga instructor Natasha Morales wearing o.p.i. mellow yellow polish

You can practice on either side of this mat. Both have a super amount of grip to help you stick your down dog.. The top has the Manduka signature seagrass texture. The bottom side gripped so much that when I put my forehead down on it, I could hear the sound when I lifted my head back up! I was impressed with the cushion that the thin mat provided. It felt as good on my body as my previous mat which is their regular eKO mat . The eKO mat weighs 7 pounds and the eKO LITE weighs 3.5 pounds, so it was much easier to carry up the hills during my walk to class. The eKO LITE mat is about 11 inches shorter than the regular eKO mat, but I was still fine with the length and didn't really notice a difference although I am 5'9". I have put my eKO mat to rest and the eKO Lite is my latest choice for summer, I love it!

Yoga - YogaGlo with Kathryn Budig

Los Angeles is a city that you love to hate. You may have left work an hour early just so you can haul through traffic to a yoga class 25 miles away.

This is not just any yoga class. It is Kathryn Budig's last class at YogaGlo for a while, she is a traveling yogi. I would fight flames to make it to this class.

YogaGlo is a studio that offers free classes to the public because it is filmed on location for online viewers who pay a small amount per month to be able to practice yoga virtually around the world.

www.yogaglo.com

As much as I hate that one hour of travel time to drive a mere 25 miles is really going to be cutting it close, I love that Yoga Glo does their filming in Santa Monica. Of course they do, it's the city of angels where the drive is usually worth it, because you are experiencing something first hand that others will only see on a screen.

Yoga instructors Samantha Beech and Kathryn Budig
Pants from left: lululemon organic cotton wunder unders, teeki activewear, lululemon organic cotton groove pants

I made it to my first YogaGlo/Kathryn Budig class just in time to set up my mat and join in. Power trouble at the studio made it so that we had to start the class over from the beginning. Perfect! Thank you to Samantha Beech for willing the universe to allow me to make it to class on time. Sammy is an up-and-coming instructor who will follow in the footsteps of Kathryn, but with her own twist of course! I am so lucky to know her and watch her grow as a teacher. It was great to be able to turn around in class when the power went out and give her a smile and a wink because she knew that the unlikely situation had coincidently worked out in my favor.

The cameras were rolling and we started again. Knowing that you are on camera does something funny to your practice mentally. For some reason, you are more self conscious knowing that your performance will be recorded for all of time. It also makes you feel like you should at least attempt the asanas that Kathryn demonstrated, like flying pigeon, which I have never done! Part of me just wanted to sit and watch her do the poses since before that I had only seen her do them in photos!

Kathryn was so encouraging during class, cheering me on and exclaiming, "You almost have it!" Me being a bit awestruck, her presence was so cool it almost made me want to fall out of the pose immediately, yet at the same time I wanted to hold it to impress her and make her class that much better. She even moved my necklace out of the way of my face when I was in headstand. She throws so many casual jokes out there during class which make you smile and her teaching style is different than any other that I have experienced. She is like a better version of rainbow bright. With pink highlights perfectly distributed throughout her hair, it encourages me that I could still have a career where just being yourself like that is acceptable.

Kathryn Budig and yoga instructor Kelly Grimes

Kelly recently traveled to New Zealand with Kathryn to scout locations for a future retreat.  I hope that I will be able to join in on that adventure!