Hey guys! I have come a long way from the first day I started doing yoga and I still have a lot to learn yet (so bear with me!). However, I have also learned so much already and I would like to share a very easy or, at least "try-able", Sun Salutation that I created that anyone can do; inside and outside! I also added a couple of my favorite poses! All of my friends ask about how I do yoga, so I wanted to show you all what I normally go through during a practice. I will take you guys through step by step and teach you the proper way to do each pose. I hope you guys enjoy!
If you are new to yoga and you're asking me, "Natalie, why are we saluting the sun?", well I'll tell yuh! A Sun Salutation is a flow sequence of postures or asanas, in Sanskrit, that are done to improve your flexibility, strength, and overall mentality. For many cultures, light has been a very vital symbol that represents self-illumination and energy. Many years ago when yoga was created in India, the sun was one of the most influential parts behind it. Hindus would honor the "eye of the world" by doing these postures. It connects you with the earth and your conscious self. There are many different variations of the Surya Namaskara (Sun Salutation), so here is mine:
01. Child's Pose (Bālāsana)
Normally, we start out yoga with Child's Pose. It gets you grounded and ready to start your Pranayama breathing that you do with every posture. Our instructor will tell us to spread your knees out wide and stretch for the top of our mats to keep this pose as active as possible. Sink down to your depth and you will really feel this in you hips because it is a great hip opening posture.
***Remember: You always inhale as you go up and exhale as you go down in postures***
02. Mountain Pose (Tadasana)
Mountain Pose is one of those poses that you always come back to throughout practice. You want to inhale and reach tall and lift your chest up as you gaze forward.
03. Forward Fold (Uttanasana)
Next is Forward Fold. This one, you exhale as you pass through heart center and reach for your mat. A little bend in your knees helps to stretch out your leg muscles.
04. Halfway Lift (Ardha Uttanasana)
After Forward Fold, inhale to Halfway Lift. Place your hands on your shins and pull your shoulders back in line, while making sure you keep a flat back. If someone were to put a cup on your back, it shouldn't fall off!
05. Plank (Phalakasana)
Okay, the hard stuff. Not many people love this part. This is just your average plank. You need to make sure you do it right, though! You are in a push up position really but, you need to make sure that your shoulders are stacked over your wrists, your gaze is straight down at your mat, you engage your core by sucking in your abs, and make sure your booty is not coming over your head.
06. Plank to Mid-Plank (Chaturunga Dandasana)
I wanna say that I have done about a hundred Chaturungas in my time and to be honest, they aren't my favorite. You put a lot of pressure on your elbows, but doing this protects your muscles and your arms. So make sure to exhale and pin your elbows into your side body and lower down halfway (hence, Mid-Plank). Also, keep your knees lifted at all times and your toes are tucked under.
07. Upward Dog (Urdhvamukhasvanasana)
Ahhh, the "back-cracking" posture. Inhale from Mid-Plank and rise to Upward Facing Dog. Still, keep your arms stacked over your wrist, keep your knees lifted, and your gaze up. Hopefully, you'll get a nice craaaaack as you do this in your back and it feels really good.
08. Downward Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana)
Now, you exhale and plant all fours down onto the mat. This is a great releaser pose to take a couple breaths. Fold over and make sure to look between your legs. Try to reach your head to your stomach to activate your core. You can "walk your dog" and bend each leg to get some blood flowing and stretch them each out. I like to do this when it's my first Downward Dog of the practice.
Inhale your right or left leg high and get ready to go down into Front Lunge! It's important to raise your leg up high and flex your toes so you can really bend into the lunge.
10. Lunge (Banarasana)
Exhale and sweep your right or left leg through to your hands. Keep your knee stacked over your ankle and make sure the leg that is not bent is straight and lifted, as well.
Using your balance after you just lunged, inhale and lift up. Keep your back leg straight and your foot lifted. Align your front leg so that it is stacked and is not internally rotating, or in other words, make sure your front knee is straight with your foot. Bring your arms up high just like you did in Mountain Pose and lift your chest.
I think everybody knows Warrior pose. A lot of people think of this pose when they think of yoga and I don't know why!
You want to exhale, and whichever side you are on, pivot your front foot parallel to the front of your mat and drop your back foot. With a generous bend in your front leg, it is vital in this posture to not lean forward as you bend. I got into the habit of reaching forward and that's not the right way! Instead, stack (so many stacks!) your torso over your hips and reach your arms out wide as you gaze over your middle finger.
All you have to do is repeat on each side and you've just passed your first yoga practice with me. This is my Sun Salutation! I hope you enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed making it!
13. Salutation Seal (Anjali Mudra)
Always end with a Namaste and put your hands together to seal your practice and acknowledge the presence and strength you have gained. Namaste pretty much means, "I bow to you", and that's why you do it! Whether you improved on a posture or just tried a new one, accepting your practice and bowing to your teacher shows the most honor and respect!
My Favorite Poses
This is one of my favorite poses because you feel so free doing it. A cool breeze and the sun on my face never felt so good! Inhale and spread your legs out wide and point your toes to the corner of your mat. Be free!
This mouthful-of-a-pose is really great to stretch out your legs! You go right into this after Star by inhaling and putting your arms out wide and "pigeon-toe" your feet inwards (which I forgot to do LOL).
Then, you want to exhale and slowly lower down to your mat vertebrae by vertebrae, while also puffing up your chest as you do this. You can reach for whatever is accessible to you; whether that be your knees, shins, ankles, or your mat! If you want more of a stretch, move your legs closer together.
You will be here for a while during a yoga practice so, you can stretch out your arms one by one or put your arms behind your back and connect your hands to open up your chest, too! To get out of this pose, do exactly what you did as you went into it; put your arms out wide and slowly rise back up.
16. Headstand (Sirsasana)
This is probably one of my greatest achievments in yoga. I never EVER thought that I could ever do an inversion (going upside down) in all of my yogi history. This takes a very long time to do but, you will get there eventually like I did!
Start off by planting both hands on your mat and spread your elbows out wide like you're doing a wide push up. Place your head a little bit above them. It is important with this posture to always look forward to protect your neck and to concentrate, as well. Next, you play with bringing your knees into your body by using your ab strength. It helps to flex your abs and engage your core as you do this pose.
Once you have successfully balanced both your legs into your body, begin to lift your legs up into the air. Try to make them straight but, then again, you're doing a freaking headstand anyway. Have someone snap a pic, too! If you fall, always tuck and roll!
I love doing this pose so much. It literally feels like you're flying! You need a lot of arm strength and core strength but, hey—that's yoga.
Start by planting your hands like you were doing with the headstand. You want to spread your knees and hips wide like a frog!
Using your very strong muscles, plant your knees onto your elbows like a shelf. Lean forward, while looking forward, and lift off your toes one by one until you start to balance. It helps to use a block underneath your head if you are afraid of falling. I've done it way too many times so don't be afraid to reach your depth!
18. Crescent Moon (Chandrasana)
Crescent pose is really nice to do at the beginning of your practice. It helps to stretch out your side body and your shoulders. To do this, start in Mountain Pose and interlock your fingers except your pointers (Prayer Grip). Extend up really high and bend right or left as far as you can! I can't go very far but, I have seen people transform into an actual crescent. Remember to look up the way your bending, too.
19. Standing Bow Pulling Pose (Dandayamana Dhanurasana)
I wanted to give a little shout out to my photographer for this post; my best friend, Ellaby, who also is a beauty blogger and lover of yoga! Go checkout her blog here.
To do Bow, lift up your left or right arm, sort of like a half Mountain Pose in a way. Catch your left or right ankle on the outside of your foot. Slowly lean forward, while kicking into your Bow and reaching forward as you do so. Look forward and Ta-da!
20. Namaste
Yoga has taught me so many great things over the past couple of years and I cannot explain how happy I am to be able to share my passion with all of you! I hope you guys can at least try my Sun Salutation and become self-proclaimed Yogis like me! This is my variation and obviously I have a lot more to learn. Yoga has so many benefits and I think everyone should be doing it. It makes you mentally and physically stronger and better. If you guys would like to check out some yoga related things, here are some links:
You can get a free week trial, students and teachers get a member discount, and it's just a great community of yogis to practice with!
I love Adriene's channel so much! I don't find myself doing yoga videos a lot because I am a part of Corepower already, however, I do love to watch her videos when I want to learn new postures and flows!
What I Am Wearing:
Lululemon Racer-back in Static Blossom
This Memorial Day weekend is going to be quite the adventure; I am headed off to San Francisco! I will be taking many pictures and will be doing a follow up journal-type-post sometime next week or two once I download everything. I am so excited to visit California because it's my first time! Anything i should do while I'm there?
Namaste, Nat
Hello lovely people! After using a ton of powders over the past couple weeks, I have found the perfect five that I absolutely love to use. Powder foundations and pressed powders are great for oily skin (like mine) and also for setting your liquid foundation. I sometimes prefer to simply put under-eye concealer on and dust powder all over my face when I don't have enough time to apply a whole face of makeup. I have a lot of favorite powders and it looks kind of weird that I have so many—I guess they just pile and pile in my makeup collection, and that's so okay!
I am going to give you guys the full, in-depth, scoop about the best powders that I have discovered. Some are: more coverage than others, more expensive than others, and some are translucent and some are not. It just depends on your preference and that's why I'm here to share them with all of you!
Coty Airspun Loose Face Powder in Translucent Extra Coverage - This is a new find that I recently added to my collection. I heard Tati, one of my favorite beauty gurus on YouTube, always rave about this powder and I wanted to know what was up! So far I have been using it for about a week now and I really love it. I have the shade Translucent Extra Coverage so it's a bit more thick than the normal translucent. They also have a number of other shades that you can match to your skin-tone if you don't prefer translucent powders. I have really liked using a translucent powder over my makeup so I'm not like caking a bunch of makeup on. Plus, it doesn't cover any other face makeup you already put on.
With this powder specifically, I have noticed that my makeup lasts all day without getting oily at all. It's getting hotter and hotter as the months lead into summer and my skin just gets shinier and shinier. This powder prevents any speck of oil. My skin also feels incredibly smooth after I pat it into my skin. There's a little drawback and that's because it does give off a very musky scent but, I think that it adds to the whole aesthetic of the powder; it looks like something you would use in the 50s in a little ceramic powder jar! Besides that little detail, I love how it comes with a little puff! It's so helpful and doesn't make a mess at all. I really recommend this loose powder if you are looking for a great oil-free one!
Laura Geller Balance-n-Brighten Baked Color Correcting Foundation in Medium- At first, I thought this was some mosaic bronzer since it looked so colorful and gold-ish. To my surprise, it wasn't. But, since I was a little pale when I got this in the Laura Geller Beautifully Nude set, that you can read about here, I have been using it as a way to darken up my face a bit. Over the past week, I have been outside a lot and I think I have tanned enough to start wearing this as actual foundation.
I really liked this powder, as it's my first of Laura Geller's collection, and I think it's really nice to use on those really lazy days when you don't want to bother applying a face of liquid foundation. During the summer, I kind of lay off the full foundation routine and go lighter with just a powder and this is great for that.
Covergirl Ready, Set, Gorgeous Fresh Complexion Powder Foundation in #105-110- Covergirl has been like my go-to makeup brand ever since I first started makeup. I have loved their powders for a long time now so i thought I could include two of my favorites. This one is from their new line, Ready, Set, Gorgeous. I did a more detailed review of it a while back, here. This one is similar to the Laura Geller powder because it's not translucent and it's more full coverage. It's another great foundation powder to use when you don't want to use liquid foundation. It covers up pretty much all blemishes and keeps my skin matte for the most part!
Covergirl Clean Pressed Powder in Creamy Natural- This powder brings back so many memories from when I was in middle school because it was pretty much the only makeup I was allowed to use back then. My mom would hand down her old Covergirl powders (kinda ew) to me and I would get to use the rest of it. This is a very light powder and works to really set your liquid foundation. You can wear it without any other makeup for a really extreme natural look, which I normally have done over the past years.
Rimmel London Stay Matte Powder in Transparent- It's a classic in the beauty guru/lover world and I have to add this to the list because it's just so good. It's another great translucent, pressed powder, and it really does what it says; it keeps you matte! It comes in seven other shades so you are more than likely able to find one that best matches your skin! This one is very easy to travel with and to use as a touch up because it's so thin and light. I think I have another one of these powders in my travel bag because I use it all the time, everywhere!
I know I have a lot of powders but, they're all so amazing! I highly recommend these to anybody looking for a new powder to add to their collection. I use powder almost every day and it's become a staple in my morning routine now. I can't leave the house without making sure I'm all matte and oil-free! I hope this helped anyone in need of a new powder to try. I also hope you all have a great start to summer because today was my last day of final exams and I am ready to break free! Summer is finally here at last and I can't wait to see what journey it brings to my blog!
What's your absolute, holy grail, powder? Any I need to try next?
Xoxo, Nat
Hello everyone! I wanted to do a post about something a little different than what I normally talk about. We all get caught up in everything around us and we are constantly in a routine. I always forget to remember what really matters and to stop worrying about the little things. Having a small case of anxiety, I set myself up in a trap of negative thoughts about something that I did or something that I should have done. This won't be a post about anxiety though, because I know that it's different for every person that has it. This post is going to share some things about how to make your "stressful" life a little bit better.
I'm no expert. Let's get that known, but as all humans, I do get caught up in the whole "hustle and bustle" of things. I worry about other people and what they're doing way too much. I know that this may or may not resonate with everyone, and that's fine, but it's important for us to stray away from the things that people are doing. If someone is succeeding at their job or achieving their dreams, good for them. We can't focus on the success of others and let that guide our own futures. I want people to be proud of what they have done and not compare it to someone who has done way better than them.
Comparing ourselves to others can become a huge issue. Especially with young girls; I see it at my own high school and in the media. Teenage girls are exposed to expectations that they have to look up to. I feel as though that some girls are pressured to live up to the beauty standards in media or at school and are forced to look a certain way by our society. For example, girls might compare themselves to models such as Gigi Hadid or whatever her name is. Doing this can be detrimental and very unhealthy because it can lead to self harm and an increased amount of body image issues. I think everybody has insecurities and flaws, but when we start to look at people who are "better" or "more beautiful" than us, we get obsessed with this ideal and begin to shut down. One step to stop comparing ourselves to others is to learn how to love yourself. Love your flaws, love your traits, love what yo' mama gave ya!
With that said, I think it's important that we celebrate ourselves and our achievements. When I do yoga, I strive to get to the next pose or improve on a pose or flow that I found challenging. I feel rewarded when I can do something in yoga that I struggled with the day, the week, or even months before. I can do a headstand now! I think that's one of my greatest achievements because I never thought I could have ever balanced on my head before. I love myself more and more for the strength and confidence that I have gained. I have developed a much higher self esteem because of it, while not comparing my ability to others that have achieved more than me.
I learned a lot in yoga about presence and I think the message I am trying to get here is that you need to stop worrying about everything that you cannot control. Things happen for a reason in my opinion, and sometimes you just need to go with the flow (as my Dad always says). Or the Vinyasa flow in yogi speak.
Since my junior year is almost over, I have learned a lot...not just academic stuff—life stuff! I felt like I needed to get all of this out and explain what I have learned over this past year. I want you guys to just remember what I said:
- Don't worry about what others have or are doing. Obsessing over their lives, will only make yours worse.
- Stop comparing yourself to others. Everybody's different and unique!
- Celebrate your achievements and be proud of who you are and what you have accomplished.
- Embrace the small things and be in the present moment. Live your life to the absolute fullest (a cliche, but so true!).
- Learn to love yourself always.
These were just some of my thoughts about life that you guys might find helpful. I keep a little note on my side table of things like this so I remember what really matters at the end of the day. I read it or glance at it before bed and I just love having it around. Amidst all the chaos that life brings, I can come back and remind myself about these things. These might be cliches and what-not, but I think they are very important to remember.
Is there a way you guys remind yourself of what's important and what's not? Do you guys constantly worry about small things like me? What will you guys do to change or better your life?
Xoxo, Nat
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