Week Six : The Power of Manifesting

Monday : Set Intention

Our theme for this week centers around The Power of Manifesting. This word is thrown around a lot and can easily sound like airy-fairy mumbo jumbo, but I think it really just means living into the lives we want right now. If you had all those things, how would your life change? You wouldn’t “have to worry about ___________”? You would “feel better about ________”? What’s stopping you from releasing that worry and embracing the more positive feeling right now? Fear. So this week, we’ll explore releasing fear and living into the life you want now.

Tuesday : Slow Flow

To open up the low back, hamstrings and hips, as well as prepare for more advanced balances. In this “half happy baby” pose, we are setting up for the more advanced balance Utthita Padangusthasana on Saturday. As always, it’s not that what the “fancy” leg is doing: pay more attention to the straight leg: the leg that’s on the floor. It is your “standing” leg and the source of your power and strength. Keeping it active will help create more space in the back and make the (eventual) balance significantly easier.

Wednesday : Meditation

In today’s meditation prompt, we explore the FEELING that bringing about the change / goal / ambition we seek will afford us. How will the way in which we move through the world be affected? We can breathe into that feeling now. (And, maybe, if we’re living into the feeling, we already have the important part?) Don’t forget, there’s music and a timer here.

Thursday : Mindful Hack

Pilgrims go in search of their dreams. They know where they are headed, and they set out in that direction. Every step and decision is made in service to the pilgrimage. As you set off on your daily chores (maybe refer back to “the mundane” from week two), consider whether you are manifesting the life you want or trudging through the one you have.

Friday : Athletic Flow

In this week’s Athletic Flow, we build to Uttita Padangusthasana (hand-to-big-toe pose), which we prepared for in Tuesday’s slower sequence. If you have a strap handy, you might want to grab it, although keeping the knee bent — as I demonstrate — is also a perfectly good place to start. The main thing is that you find your strong standing leg and spine. The rest will depend on how open your hips and hamstrings are. This is one of those shapes that, in my opinion, LOOKS a lot more intense and impressive than it actually is. If you’ve been practicing tree pose, then this is a good “next step” in building a more athletic practice. Of course, as always, “take what you need and leave the rest.”

Saturday : Meditation

Sometimes dreams don’t come true. Or do they? In this Saturday’s meditation prompt, I invite you to consider that the spirit of your intention / manifestation may not be attached to any specific outcome. My mother used to say, “hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.” I eschew that because, if I’m “preparing” for the worst, some small part of me is still hoping for it. Instead, I am (still) learning that if I invest my hope not in the tangible, material outcome but in the feeling that outcome will create — the sense of accomplishment and security, perhaps — then whatever the worldly outcome is, I will still have the important part.

This doesn’t mean giving up or even compromising. It means recognizing that the Universe / God / Higher Power / Prana is just a little smarter than I am, so I make myself open to whatever it has in store.

Don’t forget dailyflow.yoga/music for some nice background music and a simple timer.

Sunday : Reflection

I was googling the Buddhist saying “hold on tightly, let go lightly” to be sure I quoted (and attributed) it correctly, and I came across this John Denver song that I didn’t know. You can hear the song on Spotify, here.

The heart of the idea, for me, is that you love and protect the things that are important to you, but you do so with “non-attachment” so that you’re able to release that which no longer serves you. After all, when we are living in our fullest, soul-fueled potential, we aren’t really “of” this world. We are in it, yes, but we seek to live in alignment with higher purpose.