Mandala Moon Yoga, LLC
Find Mandala Moon on social media!
  • Home
  • Yoga Teacher Training
  • YTT Application
  • YTT FAQ
  • YTT Testimonials
  • Classes & Events
  • Locations & Pricing
  • Private/Corporate Classes
  • Class Cancellations
  • Our Teachers
    • Dena
    • Deb
    • Kristin
    • Eleanor
    • Patti
    • Andrea
    • Tom
    • Katie
    • Kelly
    • Julia
    • Jhana
    • Mallory
    • Veronica
  • Contact
  • Kudos
  • Affiliations/Links
  • Photo Gallery
  • Newsletter Signup
  • Blog
  • MARI Readings
  • Yoga Book Club
  • iRest Series Evaluation
  • Customized Yoga Plan Survey
  • Yoga Breaks (Video)
  • Land Acknowledgement
  • COVID

Downward-Facing Dog

7/10/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
Adho Mukha Svanasana, or Downward-Facing Dog Pose, is one of the most well known yoga postures. It’s one of the poses of Surya Namaskar or Sun Salutations, and it’s often used as a transition when moving from the floor into a standing posture. Although some practices, mainly vinyasa, use it as a resting pose, most practitioners will find it at least a bit challenging.  It is a pose that strengthens and stretches the body. For some bodies, the stretch is more of a challenge, and for others, the strength needed to stabilize the body while holding the body inverted against gravity is more of an effort.

Sanskrit:
Adho = Downward; Mukha = Facing; Svana = Dog; Asana = pose
(Ah-doh MOO-kah shvah-NAH-sah-nah)

Benefits/Purpose:
Downward-Facing Dog, or “Down Dog,” strengthens the upper body, elongates and gently realigns the vertebrae, stretches the back of the legs, improves circulation, and relieves tension from the neck and back.

Precautions:
As always, check with your healthcare provider before beginning any physical practice. If you have weak back muscles, hamstrings, sciatica, or knee problems, keep knees bent and spine straight. For those with carpal tunnel syndrome, press into the base of the fingers. For those with recent or chronic injuries or inflammation in ankle, knee, leg, hip, back, shoulder, arm, or wrist or those with uncontrolled high blood pressure or diseases of the eyes or ears, the pose may be contraindicated.

How to Practice:
  1. Begin in table position (on your hands and knees), with knees under the hips and wrists under the shoulders. Spread your fingers and curl your toes under.
  2. Press into your hands and engage your arms, shoulders, and pectoral muscles to stabilize your body. Keep your knees bent as you raise your hips as high as you can.
  3. Pull your shoulder blades down and draw them away from the spine. Engage and stabilize your shoulders as you lengthen your waist.
  4. Ground through your index fingers and thumbs.
  5. Press your heels toward the ground and straighten your legs as much as possible, comfortably, maintaining elongated spine.
  6. Keep the neck in in line with the spine.
  7. To release, bend your knees and lower back into table position.

Modifications/Variations:
  • Practice with your hands on a wall or the back of a chair.
  • Bend the knees to ease the pressure on the hamstrings and low back.
  • Use a wedge or the wall to support the heels.
0 Comments

Mountain Pose/Tadasana

2/19/2023

2 Comments

 
Picture
Tadasana, or Mountain Pose, is the foundational standing pose, and the principles of alignment you learn through its practice apply to many of the other standing postures. At a quick glance, you might think that someone in this posture is “just standing there,” but there’s more going on than meets the eye. In the properly aligned and executed posture, many muscles are activated, and the practitioner is balancing the engaged muscles with areas of ease.

Sanskrit:
Tadasana (tah-DAHS-ah-na)
Tada = mountain
Asana = commonly translated as pose; but more literally means seat (as in “take the seat/energy of a mountain”)

You may also hear this pose referred to as Samastithi (suh-muh-sthi-ti)

Sama = Equal, same
Stithi = Standing

Benefits of Tadasana:
This pose improves posture and muscle tone by bringing the body into correct alignment. It helps you develop concentration, coordination, stability, strength, poise, and balance. When you are standing in Tadasana, you are taking on the energy of a mountain—majestic, tall, and stable.

How to practice:


  1. Stand with your feet parallel and hip-width apart.
  2. Press down through the soles of your feet, at the “four corners.” Distribute your weight evenly side to side, between the inner and outer edges, and between the ball and heel of each foot.
  3. Lightly engage your quadriceps. Press the top of the thigh back to reduce hyperextension at the knee.
  4. Extend your tailbone down to elongate your lumbar spine and lengthen your waist. You’ll feel your belly firm as you do this.
  5. Roll your shoulders up, back, and down. Reach down through your fingertips, and press up through the crown, lengthening the neck.
  6. Reach out through your fingertips as you raise your arms into a V position overhead. Keep your arms extended just outside the ears.
  7. Lengthen the body from hip to armpit, pulling up out of the waist.
  8. To release, reach out through your fingertips, and lower your arms to your sides. Relax your torso and legs.

Possible Modifications or Variations:
  • Keep your arms down or hands in prayer position (anjali mudra) at heart center.
  • Hands on the waist, pulling your elbows back to open the chest.
  • Bring big toes together, with a slight space between the heels.​

Precautions
With heart conditions or high blood pressure, keep arms below the head, using one of the modifications above.

As always, if a posture causes pain, come out of it immediately. Ask a qualified yoga teacher for assistance.
2 Comments

Benefits of Yoga

1/15/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
I love having beginners in class. I try to always get a moment to chat with them afterwards to ask how it was for them. Almost always, they look at me with wide eyes and a content expression. "I had no idea I could feel this relaxed." Or "I didn't realize how much tension I was holding until I released it." Those sometimes hard-to-express feelings are what keep most of us coming back for more. And realizing how content I could feel is what prompted me to become a teacher. I wanted to feel this way ALL THE TIME!

Scientific research is confirming those emotional, mental, and physical benefits of yoga. In fact, more and more health care providers are now recommending yoga to patients as a first line of defense. Listed here, in no particular order, are the top ten benefits, in my opinion.

STRESS RELIEF: The various practices of yoga (stretching, breathing, meditation, relaxation) reduce the physical effects of stress on the body by encouraging the relaxation response and lowering the levels of the stress hormone, cortisol. Related benefits include lowering blood pressure and heart rate, improving digestion and boosting the immune system, as well as easing symptoms of conditions such as anxiety, depression, fatigue, asthma and insomnia.

PAIN RELIEF: Yoga can ease our physical aches and pains. Studies have demonstrated that practicing Yoga postures, meditation, or a combination of the two, reduced pain for people with conditions such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, auto-immune diseases and hypertension as well as arthritis, back and neck pain and other chronic conditions.

BETTER BREATHING: Pranayama, the breathing practices of yoga, teach us to take slower, deeper breaths. This helps to improve lung function and elicits the body’s relaxation response.

FLEXIBILITY: The physical practice of yoga improves flexibility and mobility, increasing range of movement and reducing aches and pains.

INCREASED STRENGTH: Yoga postures use every muscle in the body, helping to increase strength from head to toe. 

WEIGHT MANAGEMENT: All forms of yoga can aid weight control efforts by reducing our stress, and therefore, our cortisol levels. Yoga also encourages healthy eating habits and provides a heightened sense of awareness, well being, and self-esteem.

IMPROVED CIRCULATION: When we restrict blood flow while holding yoga poses, the release of the poses helps to move oxygenated blood to the body’s cells.

CARDIOVASCULAR CONDITIONING: Even a gentle yoga practice can provide cardiovascular benefits. Yoga lowers resting heart rate, increases endurance, and improves our oxygen uptake.

BETTER BODY ALIGNMENT: Yoga helps to improve body awareness and alignment, resulting in better posture and relief of back, neck, joint and muscle pain and stiffness.

FOCUS ON THE PRESENT: Yoga teaches us to focus on the present moment and become more self-aware. This can lead to improved coordination, reaction time and memory.

This is not a comprehensive list. Do you have something to add? A benefit that your practice has provided that is not on this list? Please add it in the comments!


0 Comments

    Dena D. Beratta

    Honored to teach, but always a student.

    Archives

    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    November 2022
    February 2022
    April 2021
    December 2016
    February 2014
    November 2013
    June 2013

    Categories

    All
    Alignment
    Aparigraha
    Asana (Poses)
    Ayurveda
    Beginner's Mind
    Benefits Of Yoga
    Be Present
    Bhagavad Gita
    Brahmacharya
    Celibacy
    Chakras
    Cookies
    Devotion
    Diwali
    Earth Day
    FAQ
    Gratitude
    Half Moon
    Hanuman
    Kali
    Kapha Season
    Kleshas
    Koshas
    Letting Go
    Lion's Breath/Pose
    Loving Kindness
    Meditation
    Memorial Day
    Metta
    Mindfulness
    Moderation
    Mothers
    Muladhara
    Niyamas
    Pancha Vayu
    Patanjali
    Polite Practice
    Pranayama
    Sankalpa
    Sanskrit
    Self-study
    Spring
    Spring Equinox
    Stress Relief
    Summer
    Svadhyaya
    Thich Nhat Hanh
    Tips
    Vata Season
    Weight Managmenet
    Winter Solstice
    Yamas
    Yoga Etiquette
    Yoga For Beginners
    Yoga Sutras

    RSS Feed

Call us: (315) 673-7535 or text: (315) 440-9125

Email: [email protected]