Trust Your Foundation

Why I put together this program, what you can expect, and how to approach it.

Trust Your Foundation is a program about standing work, balance and arm balances, built step by step. Watch this short introduction before you start day 1.

Begin to find your center and to quiet the mind by working with the breath and the most fundamental of all standing postures, Tadasana (Mountain Pose).

Even out your breath and set the foundation to stay grounded and stable through the program. Equilibrium of breath translates into equilibrium of mind.

We spend so much time on our feet during the day, yet most of us take them for granted and pay them little attention until something goes wrong.

Our sense of connection to the earth holds a lot of power. Let's bring awareness into the feet, move the energy from them up through the legs and build a strong standing foundation. Level 1.

Get right into the practice and keep connecting to your center through strong standing work.

Then use the wall to take some of the wobble out of common balancing postures like Warrior III and Half Moon Pose, so you can focus on extending into space rather than holding on so you don't fall over. Level 1-2, with a block.

We begin to challenge our proprioception, the sense of where the body is in space, by adding a twist to standing postures such as Utkatasana, Parsvakonasana and Parivrtta Trikonasana.

Then we come back to the wall and practise extending into a slightly more challenging twisting standing balance. Twists also keep the muscles around the spine supple and mobile. Level 1-2, no props needed.

This week we begin to shift the weight into our hands and take flight.

In this class, we bring awareness into the fingers, hands, wrists, arms, shoulders and core, and learn to pull everything in towards the center. With therapeutic movements to warm up the wrists and breath work to connect to the core, you can use this class on its own or as a warm-up before another arm balancing sequence. Level 1-2.

Keep working with the wrists, arms and core, now connecting to the inner legs, so that you can take flight in Bakasana, one of the most fundamental arm balances.

You already have all the tools you need, so trust yourself enough to shift the weight forward, think light and happy thoughts and take flight. If you already have a Bakasana practice, this class lets you refine it.

Giving the wrists a little break, we return to connecting to the earth through the feet and legs.

We warm up with sun salutations, then move through a strong standing sequence, touch on some standing balances we have yet to cover, and expand on the ones we have. Includes Tree Pose, Warrior III and Half Moon away from the wall. Expand into spaciousness.

For the last class of this week we come back to our twisting poses and our hands. We begin on our backs, then move a little to create heat and warm up the spine, which leads us into a progression of twists.

We end by playing with Parsva Bakasana, Side Crow, an arm balance with a twist. Please take some time on your own afterwards to quiet down in Savasana.

Welcome to week 3, where we revisit and expand on our balancing postures, move towards balancing upside down on our head, and explore how the breath can help us create an inner balance.

Includes variations on Extended Side Angle, Tree Pose, Revolved Triangle and Moon Rise. Level 1-2, no props needed.

This is a short preparatory class and Headstand tutorial. Headstand is often a long process. If it feels like a struggle to get up there, stay a while longer with the preparatory steps until a sense of lightness begins to show up.

Please practise patience and follow the instructions carefully. Options are given for working around problems with the neck.

A short pranayama sequence, accessible to anyone, to balance the nervous system, both the activating and the calming side.

Use it several times a week at any time of day, on its own or after an asana practice. It is also a good way for the mind to enter a seated meditation.

Congratulations. You have made it to the end of week 3, and hopefully you have begun to feel more grounded and to trust yourself and the space around you on your mat, and maybe in your day to day life.

Here we bring everything that has become familiar over these weeks into a longer practice, and add some new elements so you can notice how you perhaps respond a little differently to the unknown now.