Gardening and Yoga

The inspiration for this post is my neighbor Patti. Patti loves to garden(her front yard is so pretty and colorful.....clearly that is her passion). I thought why not add in some yoga poses while gardening.....YES, yoga can be done anywhere.

Walk out....to plant those seeds or dig the dirt to plant those saplings. Think about it.. seeds for germination, growth into a sapling and then into a beautiful flower. Now connect....set an intention with yoga then with your practice and your mind. Let that intention grow and finally see yourself bloom. You see the connection, the similarity. With that let's begin...... breath in breath out. I want you to put those seeds or that sapling down on the ground. Place your palms on your stomach gently, now when u take that breath in, feel your stomach push your palms out and when you exhale, your palms come back down. When you push your stomach out with breath in....your engaging your diaphragm to pull down and expand those lungs and fill them with air. Breath so important... but we do it all wrong. Now get planting.

You walk out with your gloves and shears......go pruning, pruning your unwanted thoughts, your unwholesome thoughts. Bending and cutting, reaching out far and cutting...STOP. We talked about ergonomics in the previous post....bend at your knees when your reaching out far. Even better kneel and keep cutting those bushes but make sure to keep a soft folded rag or cushion under your knees. You have spent your time pruning but have also spent that time protecting your back with knees bent. How about you take a break. Lie down on your stomach on the mat or grass, hands beside your hips palms facing up. Breath in...fill those lungs. On the exhale, lift your legs, chest and hands off the grass, gaze towards the grass...slowly release. You did so good, let's loop that twice. That's Salabhasana pose.

Now lie on your back and let's stretch. Bend your knees with feet on the mat or grass. Shift your hips to the left and drop your knees to the right....knee over knee and ankle over ankle. Stretch your arms out wide and look up to the sky. Breath in....breath out. Pick up your top knee followed by right and get feet on the grass. Shift your hips to the right and drop your knees to the left..knee over knee, ankle over ankle. Breath in ...breath out. Come back to centerline. Stretch those legs out and relax. Roll over to one side and push yourself up to seated position.

Back to work...sit on a bucket and go on with the pruning to change your posture or sit cross legged on the grass to open up those hips if you are pulling the weeds out.

When your done...seat urself with spine straight(remember the integrity of the spine connects with integrity of oneself) on the garden bench or chair with feet rested on the ground. Inhale raise those arms up, exhale bring those arms down. Inhale, left hand to the side of left hip and right hand up reaching over your head to the left. Exhale right hand down. Inhale right had to side of right hip and left hand up reaching over your head to the left. Inhale left hand down. Inhale raise both arms up, exhale bring both hands to the side of right hip rotating from the upper back. Inhale raise both arms up, exhale bring both hands to the side of left hip rotating from upper back. Inhale both arm up and then get them back down. Your done...