I was talking with my friend about how everybody is supposedly woke.

I got to thinking about what being woke really means. It’s about becoming more conscious and aware that there’s more going on than meets the eye. It requires digging deeper into yourself and the nature of reality, so we’re not just accepting what mainstream media and culture tells us.

Thanks to YouTubers and bloggers – there’s plenty of alternative perspectives that offer some powerful and valuable information that can expand, if not blow, your mind. Thing is, this information is still external to you. You don’t own it, embody it or truly know it for yourself. That requires integrating and digesting information into your being.

Being woke is not just about reciting a bunch of information. It requires each of us to do some inner work to expand our consciousness and evolve mentally, physically, energetically and spiritually.

How can you be truly woke if you don’t have some type of internal practice?

By that I mean a consistent practice that takes you inward, so that you can know and evolve thyself. Maybe that practice is yoga, meditation, breathing, qi gong, tai chi, walking in the park…

As above so below. The universe is holographic. We are reflections of the universe – the more you understand and activate your inner workings, the more you will know the true nature of reality which is far more loving and connected than we realize.  We can all stand to wake up to that reality more.

Appreciation is a little-known secret to happiness. Appreciation has a similar energy as love. It puts you into a positive, uplifted state which colors how you see the world. When you appreciate your life, it makes you look for the good things happening to you right now. Expressing appreciate is a simple, yet powerful tool to set a positive tone for your day. If you’ve ever kept a gratitude journal you know what I’m talking about.

There’s some interesting research about the effects of gratitude. In the How of Happiness by Sonja Lyubomirsky, she states that according to a series of studies conducted between 2002-2006, people who are consistently grateful have been found to be relatively happier, more energetic, and more hopeful and to report experiencing more frequent positive emotions. They also tend to be more helpful, more spiritual, more forgiving, and less materialistic than others who are less predisposed to gratefulness. (P90)

With all the things happening in the world today, we need simple things that make us happier and more energized. If expressing appreciation can make us just a littler happier and more energetic – why not try it. It doesn’t cost anything but time and the effort to look for something positive.

1. Ardha Navasana

Ardha Navasana (Half Boat) pose is a great preparation posture for Bhakasana (Crow Pose) because it engages the core and requires you to round your spine.

• Lay on your back and press your low back into the mat
• Extend your legs up towards the ceiling a 45 to 60-degree angle
• Round your shoulder blades off the mat as you reach your arms forward
• Lower your legs until they hover off the mat. If you feel your low back lifting, raise your legs back to the 45-60-degree angle
• Hold for 5 breaths

2. Reclined Crow Pose

One of the keys to a successful Crow pose is rounding the spine into a C-shaped position. In this posture, you simulate Crow pose from a reclined position, so you can practice extending the arms and rounding the spine. To get the most out of this pose, reach your hands as far forward as you can to build core strength and round the spine.

• While laying on your back, draw your knees to your chest. Open your knees apart so they are shoulders distance apart.
• Extend your arms towards your feet. Ensure your arms are on the inside of your knee/shin.
• Round your shoulders off the mat, reaching your hands towards your feet. Flex your wrists.
• Hug your knee/shins in towards your arms and maintain this connection
• Reach your arms as far forward as you can trying to reach your hands past your toes
• Hold for 5-7 counts

3. Plank

Crow pose, as with all arm balances, requires upper body strength. Plank pose will build strength in your shoulders, wrists and core all of which support you in crow pose.

• Come onto your hands and your knees.
• Ensure your shoulders are directly over your wrists.
• Step your feet back and lower your hips so there is an even slope from your shoulders to your heels.
• Engage your core by drawing your navel in towards your spine.
• Press your palms into the mat as you roll your shoulders blades away from each other.

4. Chaturanga Dandasana

Chaturanga Dandasana builds upper body strength. If you want to fly that’s exactly what you need.

• From plank pose, bend your elbows to 90 degrees and pause for 2 counts before lowering to your belly.

5. Squat

You can’t forget about your hips when preparing for Crow Pose. Flexible, open hips are a must. Squats are a great way to open your hips flexors. Not to mention, this pose is essentially how you come into Crow Pose.

• Step your feet slightly wider than your hips.
• If you have tight hips, turn your toes out slightly at a diagonal (and consider stepping your feet even further apart)
• Sink your hips
• Length your spine
• Bring your elbows to the inside of your knee/chins and bring your palms together in prayer position
• Hold for 10 counts

6. Planted Crow Pose

You can’t forget about your hips when preparing for Crow Pose. Flexible, open hips are a must. Squats are a great way to open your hips flexors. Not to mention, this pose is essentially how you come into Crow Pose.

• From a squatting position, plant all four corners of your palms on the mat in front of you.
• Lift your hips higher than your head and round your shoulder blades apart.
• Firmly press your knees into your upper arm (Try to position your knees just below your arm pits on the backs of your arms)
• Continue to actively round the spin and press your knees into the back of your upper arm
• Hold for 3-4 counts

Time to Fly

To practice coming into crow, lift onto your toes, shift your weight forward and practice lifting one heel – maintaining the knee-arm connection. Then practice the other side. If you feel comfortable, try lifting both feet. A block or pillow in front of your head can be a nice option to support your head as you tip forward. Good Luck!! – Remember it’s about the journey not the destination. (A lesson I learned from Crow Pose)

Sometimes you must let go to go further.

When you focus more on perfecting a pose rather than enjoying the process, you’ve lost sight of the spirit of yoga. Yoga is a discovery process. If you worry too much about being perfect, you become rigid and may miss the beauty of the journey. So what if you never get your leg behind your head or hit that perfect headstand, you can still have fun along the way. Be easy about it and see where it takes you. You may just discover that can do far more than you thought.

As a yoga teacher, a common question I get is – How can I improve my yoga practice?

One less obvious answer is to Be Curious.

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it’s essential if you want to get better on your yoga mat.

Be Curious

While yoga may seem like it’s all about stretching and contorting your body–yoga postures are a means to an end – which is to discover more about yourself. Ultimately, to advance your yoga practice, you must go deeper into yourself. That’s why it’s so important to be curious on your mat. When you’re curious about something you’re interested, you’re engaged. You explore. You pay attention. That’s the level of engagement you want to have about yourself on the mat.

It starts with your physical body. We spend a lot of time in our heads in our culture. Appreciate the time on you mat to tune in to your body. Your body has some amazing capabilities, many of which lay dormant because we don’t know how to fully tap into them. Yoga can help you activate more of your bodies capabilities by teaching you how to expand beyond your physical body.  As amazing as the body is, you are more than your physical body.

You Are More Expansive Than Your Body

In yoga philosophy, it’s believed that we have multiple bodies including a mental, subtle or energy, and a spiritual body. Each body has unique purposes, functions, and processes which require different skills to cultivate. Through yoga, which incorporates not just physical postures, but also breath work, meditation, and self-reflection, you build skill with these different bodies.

As you increase in both awareness and skill, you activate more aspects of yourself including  your inner resources like resilience, inner strength, clarity, wisdom, and inner peace  which serves your advancement both on and off your mat.

So if you want to be a better yogi and human being, Be Curious!

The other day I was in the park enjoying an amazingly beautiful day. I passed a small group and noticed that every single person was staring at a cell phone. I thought man, they’re missing it. So engrossed with their phones, they barely seemed to notice the beautiful day or each other. They’re not the only ones. Think about it. How much time do you spend in front of a screen? I won’t lie, I spend more than my fair share of time in front of one. I’m not saying tech is bad. I’m all for technological advances, but I’m also for balance. When screens monopolize our attention, there’s little time left to process all the information coming at us or ourselves for that matter.

Brain Hacking

Who benefits from our increasing screen addiction? I really started pondering this after watching a 60 Minutes episode on brain hacking, a term used for programmers, who purposely build addictive features into technology to capture attention and get people hooked on their phones or apps. Neuroscientists aren’t the only ones studying the brain. Many programmers know how to write code to encourage the brain to do something. One way to do this is to embed rewards (such as likes, cute emojis, followers, etc.) into tech to encourage people to form habits. Dr. Larry Rosen has conducted some interesting research on the impact of technology on anxiety levels. He discovered that when you put your phone down or receive a text message, it triggers your brain to signal your adrenal glands to produce a small burst of cortisol (stress hormone). To relieve this small spike of stress, you are compelled to pick up your phone or read that new text. Maybe that why it’s so hard for me to resist checking my phone throughout the day.  I’m not saying these programmers are evil. They just want to be good at what they do and that’s to get our attention at all costs. Sites like Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram are free because advertisers pay for our attention.

Your Attention is Valuable

Attention is valuable. When you have someone’s attention, you have the potential to influence their thoughts and feelings, which drives a person’s actions. Ultimately, what you give your attention to, you feed with your thoughts and energy. Are you feeding what you want to create in your life or what others want you to create or buy? While advertisers and programmers know the value of your attention, most of us are giving it away for free because we don’t realize the value of this inner resource. I’m about personal empowerment. So, I say learn how to cultivate inner resources like attention and focus so they can work for YOU not for someone else. We can become more intentional about what we feed with our attention and make time for practices like meditation that cultivate focus and self-awareness to counterbalance the tech influence. This way we can make sure we are using technology instead of being used by it. If you feel like you need a moment to disconnect, give your mind a break and tune in to you, sign up for the Tune in Challenge.