Props & Peacefulness: Choices That Support!
Prop It Like It’s Hot: Making Yoga Work for your Body (and House!)
Written by LJ M.
Have you ever peeped the yoga block wall like it’s decoration? Wondered if a strap was for “less advanced” yogis? You’re not alone, butttt you may not be right 😉 Props are the quiet heroes of a well-supported yoga practice, no matter where you’re at in your yoga journey. Whether you’re joining us in the Funky Buddha studios, practicing in your home space, or out on the grass while your pup chews your mat’s corner–blocks, straps, tennis balls and more can help your practice individual to your needs.
Contrary to older ideas, props are not just for beginners or posture modifications! These powerful tools can deepen sensation, optimize lengthening, and create access to more spacious, stable versions of a posture. Plus! They offer a playful curiosity to the mat (our fav!) so that each practice can invite new variations or revisit familiar ones with freshness.
Why The Funk Do Props Matter (+ Why They’re So Funkin’ Smart)
Block Me, Babe!
A yoga block’s best asset (from a short friend, like myself) is that it brings the ground closer buttt it’s so much more. Blocks support joint integrity, by increasing stability, create leverage for strength building, by creating space, and provide feedback for alterations. Personally, my core lights up like no other with a block under my pelvis in bridge–please don’t get me started on one between the knees, too.
Exploration Ideas:
💎 In Triangle Pose, place a block beneath your lower hand (choose your own adventure with height, I quite like the tallest when my back craves more support, or the medium when my I’m firing core extra)–maintaining focus on long spine and open chest is really the goal here.
💎In Chair Pose, place a block (the slimmest way) between your lower quads and breathe deep into those glutes!
💎In Warrior (I, II, or III!) try simply holding a block! This is such an interesting addition not only work the Funk out of your arms, but also to notice how a tinyyy extra weight changes balance.
Strap it Up!
Straps, on the flip side, provide so much more length and connection in/to places that may have more tightness or restriction, which creates so much accessibility without forcing flexibility! Because, no, you do not have to be flexible to receive the benefits of yoga 😉
Exploration Ideas:
💎In Seated Forward Fold, loop a strap across the balls of your feet! Phew, this alone completely changes the length between spine and feet.
💎Want to offer your back more support? Use a strap the same way, only in legs-up-the-wall, your hamstrings may never look back.
💎In Butterfly Pose, loop a strap around your low back then place it around the pinky toe edge of your feet (over the kees), pull until taught. Then, slowly begin lying back into Fish Pose, a block may still feel supportive here but the strap alone may be enough for your backside.
💎In any can’t-quite-reach bind, bridge the gap with a strap to access that expansion!
To the Waaallllll!
I mean, if you love Legs-up-the-wall (Vipirita Karani), have you tried it against an actual wall? Talk about relief! Utilizing a wall (or tree, or really any flat vertical surface) offers a stable backdrop to anchor against as you work with balance or play with incremental deepening.
💎 In Downward Dog, place hands against the wall, instead of on the floor for all the benefits without weight-bearing (my personal favorite mid-day stretch, perfect for the office!)
💎 In Dolphin Pose, back your heels up to an open wall. Then as you gain confidence begin walking up the wall, while maintaining a strong base, until legs are parallel to the ground. This is an incredible build-up to headstand!
💎In Tree Pose, start with your standing heel directly against a wall. Then, slowly slide one leg up, this is a wonderful support to find balance.
Supporting FUNKtional Movement
Props aren’t simply tools to creating accessibility in yoga, they support functional movement by inviting more optimal mechanics and proprioception (body awareness). If you’ve ever gotten into a pose and ended up feeling a little wonky, perhaps it was just an invitation to realign and reengage with different support!
When we utilize props to support our body’s unique structure, we can practice with more integrity, more ease, and less ego. We’re not “propping up” any weakness, we’re amplifying awareness! Over time, these mindful choices can activate more engagement to prevent injury, encourage safe feelings in the body, and encourage more sustainable movement. We can’t wait to invite curiosity with you this month; see ya on the mat!
Making Choices to Work with Peacefulness: Samatha Meditation
Written by LL
At the Funky Buddha, our meditation practice has its foundation in Vipassana, which means insight or special seeing. To gain insights in meditation is an absolute delight, and can be found in the simplest ways, like contemplating the beauty of a flower. Great poets, authors, and philosophers have all used some form of this meditation, whether they chose it consciously or came upon it naturally through their slow reflections. Meditation is the pause, the slow space to allow something to teach you, to transform you. At times, insights come fast like lightning – more often, they are slow like a breeze telling your skin it’s ancient story.
That slowness is where Samatha comes in very handy. It’s a way to create a gentle concentration, so insights can land. One of the hardest parts about meditation in the beginning is creating space for anything other than the constant stream of thoughts we’ve gotten used to. Changing habits of mind takes time, and gentleness.
What is Samatha?
The word from the original Sanskrit means tranquility or serenity and is often translated as calm-abiding. It is the practice of gentle concentration on one focal point over and over, until eventually that concentration lends itself into insight. And there’s never pressure or rush to “get to” insight; we can abide in this calm concentration* endlessly!
Samatha brings us back to presence again (and again and again). It helps us get out of what Buddhism has called “the thicket of views and opinions”, and back into true presence. True Prescence sees judgement, annoyance, fear, and the like, and recognizes these as an experience, not the capital-T Truth–just an experience to be observed. Through observation, instead of becoming the subject of these “views and opinions”, new insights can occur.
Samatha and Vipassana go hand in hand and are co-creators; neither is better than the other, both are equally valuable.
Defining the Undefinable
*So about that calm concentration: This is a cultivated skill! And just like any skill, takes some practice. The amazing part though, is anyone can do it anytime. You don’t technically need to practice being present; once you notice you aren’t present, suddenly you are present again. Ta-da!
The practice comes in the form of gentle concentration, so your brain doesn’t just do it’s normal wandering. With awareness of your thought forms, you can create new thought-habits, new neuro pathways, so eventually all the “views and opinions” are a little quieter, a little softer. This practice is what creates the space for insights to land.
How Do We Cultivate Calm Concentration?
Go slow, remove any pressure to do it for a certain timeframe, and remove any particular desired outcome. It’s just you and your breath. Just you and this bird song, just you and this sip of tea.
Pause right now and notice where your body expands as you deepen this inhale. Notice that same area shift at you exhale. Do that one more time, expanding and softening with your breath. Now let any concentration go and just notice how that felt. That’s Samatha, calm-abiding! One moment at a time.
Funky Tip: The more you try to make yourself notice your breath, the less calm it is. The more you judge yourself for your mind wandering away, the less calm it is. Samatha is a slowing down to just watch your breath (or hear a bird) and bring your mind back to that noticing again and again, for a period of time. The more you practice, the longer your time period may continue.
The most important part is not to force it. Go slow, don’t worry about time, just one moment of presence at a time. It’s enough <3
If you’d like to dive deeper, we invite you to join us for our monthly meditation circle!
Check out our Youtube for an overview of these concepts or a meditation practice to try them on <3
As always, we hope that you join us M-F at 7:30am for Funky Buddha Yoga’s free, live, virtual meditation to learn more practices, nuances, and dive deeper into a plethora of tools that can bring your practice off your mat and into your daily life <3
