Increase muscular endurance with the Side Angle Stretch

Side Angle Stretch Pose helps you get strong.

Side Angle Stretch has these benefits:

• Stimulates digestion.
• Stretches the shoulders, chest, and groin.
• Strengthens arches, knees, thighs, calves, and ankles.
• Increases muscular endurance.

Side Angle Stretch Pose Step-by-Step:

Step one: From Warrior Two with right leg forward, place right hand by the right foot.
Step two: Tuck your tailbone under and roll your shoulders back.
Step three: Extend the left arm up over your head.
Step four: Take your gaze up to your left hand.
Step five: Spread your fingers and lift your heart.

You may also take the bind, too, as shown in the image below:

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This is an excerpt from our guide to self-care, Christian Yoga: Restoration for Body and Soul.

A letter from DeAnna: My Personal Transformation During our Recent Teacher Training

Hello Dear Yahweh Yoga Family,

As I write this, it is the first day after our January, 2010 Christian Yoga RYT Teacher Training graduation. During the ending days of the training, many students used the words “personal transformation” to describe their teacher training experience.

As I was reflecting on what students had to say, I realized that I too experienced personal transformation and deeper appreciation of daily life as a result of my role in our last class.

Hard work and the Word of God

Twenty-three students participated in our teacher training experience this month: they were Christian women from all over the world, from all backgrounds, and of all ages and fitness levels.

This was the first session of our revised RYT program where we cut back from 22 eight-hour days to twelve- to fourteen-hour days…for 15 days straight!

By the end of those long days, we came to realize that we had all grown close in heart and fellowship as we filled our minds and bodies with education about God, health and yoga. We pushed our bodies to the limits in terms of strength and endurance, and relaxed together over healthy eating and drinking.

Having this entire experience tethered in the Word of God was truly amazing for me personally.

Why this course was different from other sessions

I was asking myself, what was so different about this course and why did it impact me so intensely?

I won’t sugar-coat it, we worked long – and sometimes grueling – hours. Yet all the women, from ages 20s to 70s grew in their confidence and ability to teach Christian Yoga.

As my first yoga teacher told me once: “If it’s not hard, why are you doing it?” I realized that pushing myself to my limit was invigorating and I believe everyone else felt the same way. We were proud of ourselves (and it wasn’t like we went beyond good sense and/or safety), but we did push ourselves and it felt great to do so.

Overcoming the challenges of long days with the blessing of being able to serve both God and these wonderful women with my co-instructor (and precious daughter) Courtney, was life-changing for me. It helped me to see that God loves me so much that He has placed this purpose in my heart to help build strong, skilled, Christian yoga teachers to serve others worldwide. I know Courtney feels the same way.

How the students transformed

All 23 students could feel the presence of God each and every day and they radiated His love as they encouraged their classmates to reach their goals. We all saw first-hand how people of different ages and fitness levels can teach some form of Christian Yoga. I truly believe that all of the students came away with a new awareness that they can personally serve others through the gift of health and fitness.

Time to chill

Honestly, it may take me a week to process and recover! But an important part of my personal transformation is a renewed realization deep in my heart of the importance of living a balanced life that offers time for personal quiet time with God each day, my own personal fitness time, caring for my home, visiting with my friends and of course…relaxing at the spa.

Our thanks go out to you

I know that there were many of you praying for the students and Courtney and I during training; thank you sweet friends. His presence was felt at all times and we thank you for your encouragement.

To all of our Yahweh Yoga teacher training students that were there…we love you forever and eternity.

To all the YY staff teachers…you rock! Thank you for the memorable classes.

To all the YY studio students…thanks for your patience during these two weeks, we love you!

To Julia and Star Lynn…The plant-based menu was truly delicious and inspired us all to appreciate a more natural and healthy lifestyle. Thank you for the sacred yet fun flavor of each meal.

To our families…We love you! All of us —students and teachers— involved in the training couldn’t have excelled without your love, help, encouragement, and support during this time and always.

To God be the Glory!

Love,
DeAnna

Search Me, Lead Me

Let us examine our ways and test them and let us return to the Lord.
Lamentations 3:40

I have considered my ways and have turned my steps to your statutes.
Psalm 119:59

Test me, O Lord, and try me, examine my heart and my mind.
Psalm 26:2

October is one of my favorite times of year. Not because of the harvest festivals, brilliant orange pumpkins and the promise of Thanksgiving turkey coming soon. No, I love October because I can finally open my windows. The punishing heat of the Arizona summer has lifted and fresh, desert breezes blow through the rooms of my home. October is like springtime for desert dwellers. We emerge from our dark caves where we have hidden from the sun all summer long and greet our neighbors whom we haven’t seen in six months. We get excited about cleaning closets and sweeping out the nooks and crannies of our homes in anticipation of the holiday season around the corner.

Housekeeping for our souls

Similarly, we need to do a little housekeeping and sweep the cobwebs out of the corners of our soul, throw open the windows and let the Light shine in, bringing in fresh air and fresh perspectives. The yoga principles of self-awareness and self-examination echo the biblical commands to examine our ways, to test ourselves, to search our hearts and to confess our sin and be forgiven. In Christian yoga we not only examine ourselves but we also lay ourselves open before the Lord for his examination of our hearts. Our prayer is that of David in Psalm 139:23-24:

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Through our meditation on the Bible, we have already opened our hearts and minds for examination by it. When we fill our mind with God’s word it works to probe and search our thoughts.

“For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).

Allow time for soul-searching

After we have filled ourselves with God’s word, we need to allow time for this soul-searching. Self-examination is not something that we can hurry through. It takes time to carefully consider our ways. It helps to be still and listen.

We listen for God to speak to us in the inner promptings of our heart and conscience. Then we check these promptings against God’s word to discern his voice over our own.

“Let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything“(1 John 3:18-20, emphasis added).

Are you caught in a debilitating cycle?

Sometimes we are caught in debilitating cycles of guilt and self-recrimination or self-doubt. Have I really loved God? Am I really sorry for my sin? Am I really forgiven? Objective examination of our actions against truth allows us to determine if these feelings or doubts are false or genuine. If they are false, even though we feel them deeply, we find confidence in the fact that God knows us more intimately than ourselves, that He knows everything, yet He freely forgives us anyway.

This is why self-examination must be conducted in the context of Scripture and of listening to God, and asking him to search our hearts. If we do it merely on our own, we are in danger of getting lost in our own navels and mired in the muck of self-loathing, or being deluded in the delight of self-congratulation.

Self-examination has two primary purposes: recognition, confession and repentance of sin, and developing an ordering awareness of our own soul that helps organize our lives around God, resulting in loving him with everything we’ve got.

Examination of Conscience and Confession

In the examination of conscience we search our hearts for sin and weakness for the purpose of confession and repentance. This is the practice encouraged in 1 Corinthians 11:27-29:

“A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup.”

The thought of shining a light into the dark recesses of our soul can be intimidating and not particularly inviting. It is scary to be vulnerable and open, even within the secrecy of our own hearts. We’d much rather not think about our sins or confront our fears and frailties.

But the exhortation to examination and confession is not for the purpose of punishment or naked exposure. It is an invitation to freedom. When Christ invites us to lay down our burdens in exchange for his yoke, one of those burdens is our sins and failures. When we hold on to sin or ignore it we add weight to the heavy load that is crippling our walk. Our souls groan under the heaviness of this baggage we cling too. When we acknowledge and confess our sins we undo the straps binding us to these deadweights and we experience lightness and freedom and joy.

The initial opening up and shining of the light can be painful like any physical examination of an ailing part of our body. I injured my shoulder recently (not practicing yoga!) and I needed a thorough examination to determine the nature of the injury. It was a very painful process of probing and testing the joint, but very necessary and now the healing can begin with appropriate therapy and care.

When we lay our sins before God and repent of them, the pain is temporary and the healing is promised. We do well to remember that we are not telling him anything he does not already know anyway!

“For a man’s ways are in full view of the Lord, and he examines all his paths”
(Proverbs 5:21).

When we open our hearts to His searching and confess our sin,

“he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:10-12).

When I am Weak, Then I am Strong

One of the reasons I love to practice is yoga is that it makes me so much stronger. With each passing year I have given up more of my unrealistic desire for the perfect body. I will happily settle for being strong.

I was always a strong kid; never the most graceful or coordinated and not the fastest, but always strong. Then time, injuries, motherhood - life, I guess - conspired against me and I was no longer physically strong.

This past spring I was thinking a lot about wanting to be stronger and about different kinds of strength; emotional and spiritual strength that enables you to face hard circumstances and stand, brave, resolved and enduring.

Proverbs 31 describes the wife of noble character setting “about her work vigorously” with arms “strong for her tasks.” I’d think about that in yoga class. Lord, I want strong arms for my tasks! And can I get a little definition too? Nice, sculpted arms like Michelle Obama. Classy muscles.

Then, in the midst of meditating on strength and starting to feel pretty strong, I fell.

Not a private little stumble. No, it was a spectacular public spill in front of my middle school daughter and all her friends. Down like a tree, for all to see, crushing my left arm and shattering my pride. Strong? Not so much. Blind? Quite likely.

Thankfully nothing was broken but my arm hurt like it was. I ended up in a sling. And I was confronted with a graphic reminder that you cannot consider strength without thinking about weakness.

With my injury I was forced into dependence. I had to ask my kids to help with basic things like opening a peanut butter jar. I could not even open the shampoo in the shower. Simple every day tasks like getting dressed or opening a door became serious challenges.

My injured arm also caused me to move deliberately, cautiously and protectively. It occurred to me that imposed weakness is a powerful antidote to the hubris that sometimes hangs around strength.

When we are confident in our own strength we can be tempted into cockiness and even recklessness. I think of the Bible’s strong man, Samson, whose pride in his remarkable strength led to his downfall. Moving through life a little more slowly and carefully is not a bad idea.

This is one of God’s paradoxes - strength comes from weakness. When we rely on our own strength, we are weak. When we admit our weakness and trust in God, he delivers the strength we need.

When the apostle Paul pleaded with God to take away a trial that was tormenting him God answered him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Paul then tells us that for Christ’s sake he will delight in his weaknesses, “for when I am weak, then I am strong.”

My arm recovered and I was glad to get back to regular yoga practice. I’m still pursuing strong arms and a strong body but I also want to remember who takes my weakness and makes me strong - “It is God who arms me with strength” (Psalm18:32).

Funnily enough, verse 33 says “He makes me sure-footed as a deer.” I could probably use that too!