Amazing! I love how taking time away from spicy practices, can actually assist in progressing the practice. Rest is so key.

Yay! That makes me smile :)

So happy you enjoyed it Zeynep!

Milla! There are benefits to both. Faster flows tend to be invigorating and get the heart rate up. They increase circulation and can be great as a way to get out of your head and into your body for a short blast of movement. With faster movement sometimes alignment can get missed and momentum replaces muscular recruitment and control. Longer slow practices can be grounding and cultivate greater connection to the body-mind. They allow for time and space to feel each micro-action and sensation, and therefore are nourishing as there is space to process the movement and what it is bringing up in the individual. Moving slowly allows the body to recruit more muscle fiber and your muscles spend more time under tension, thereby increasing strength, endurance and growth. I hope this helps Milla! Love Meghan

It's so good that even though you have been working with discomfort in your practice, you still keep up with you practice and take care by modifying! That's amazing! I really hope you are feeling better and better!

Congratulations! What a powerful pose! Happy for you!

Awe, wow, that is the best thing ever Amy! Curiosity is the best. Nourishes our sense of play and wonder. I love it. Yay. Sending so much Love! Meghan

Hi Rebecca! Thank you for your question :) it's a great one! Cinching the waist is not totally the same as bandhas, however when used combined with them, amplifies their effect, in my experience. The cinching of the waist is a hugging in at the waistline, as though you are pulling the string on a pair of jogging pants. This can become connected to the bandhas and enhance their effects by 1. doing this action together with the bandhas 2. balancing the action to make it subtle, rather than a strong muscular squeeze. 3. cinch pulling gently in and up on all sides to create an elongation and expansiveness through the spine and up into the thoracic. I hope this helps!! Love Meghan

Milla! Please forgive my late reply to your question! Picking your foot up, first of all, is tough! It requires a certain balance of strength and mobility. Here are some tips, I hope this helps! 1. Mobility of the back body is a key aspect of it. Think, hamstring openers like 1/2 hanuman that mirrors a similar position. 2. Also, the rounding of the back body, is another key aspect so working to increase mobility via reaching the edges of your "cat/cow" movements of the spine, especially the action of expanding through the back of your heart as you round your spine. 3. Push/Pull- as you round your spine push as firmly as you can into the ground while simultaneously imagining you are vacuuming your leg (the leg you are lifting) deep into your belly. Push into your foundation and pull or vacuum your leg. This is the strength aspect, but it can be nice to call it push/pull rather than simply strength, as the push pull is what makes this action "easier". So, first prep your back body, do some forward folds and single leg hamstring openers. Then practice thoracic mobility, extension and flexion (arc and round). Find the edges of the rounding, and hold for a few breaths. Then practice the "push/pull" actions. Finally try to put it all together with breath!! When you round your spine and push/pull, exhale. this will help so much with recruiting more power and creating contraction through the core. I hope this helps! Love Meghan

Milla! Just reading your comment, and I'm so happy for you! How is your progress going now?