NaNoWriMo SunSal

I mentioned in my previous post that daily yoga practice will be an integral part of my NaNoWriMo experience.

I have practiced yoga for many years and taught yoga for three, but, when I stopped teaching last January, I needed to take a break from the practice. Now it's time for me to get back into it and I feel that the energy of NaNoWriMo is exactly what I need to get going again. Therefore, I have developed a Sun Salutation sequence to practice throughout the month of November which is intricately linked to my NaNo quest.

Sun Salutations are common to most (if not all) Hatha yoga practices. They are a series of asanas (poses) executed in a flowing sequence, traditionally performed to greet the new day. (I personally have seldom practiced yoga first thing in the morning but, since my NaNo regime also involves hauling myself out of bed considerably earlier than I have been rising in recent months, I have decided to give greeting the new day with a Sun Salutation a try.)

The sequence I have designed includes 20 asanas as follows:

NaNoWriMo Sun Salutation:

1. Mountain Pose (Tadasana) with Salutation Seal (Anjali Mudra)
2. Mountain Pose (Tadasana)
3. Extended Mountain Pose (Urdhva Hastasana)
4. Thunderbolt, hands to thighs (Utkatasana)
5. Halfway Lift (Urdhva Mukha Uttanasana)
6. Forward Fold (Uttanasana)
7. Standing Lunge
8. Downward Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana)
9. Plank Pose (Dandasana)
10. Crocodile (Chaturanga Dandasana)
11. Upward Facing Dog (Urdvha Mukha Svanasana)
12. Downward Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana)
13. Standing Lunge
14. Twisted Lunge
15. Standing Lunge
16. Forward Fold (Uttanasana)
17. Halfway Lift (Urdhva Mukha Uttanasana)
18. Thunderbolt (Utkatasana)
19. Extended Mountain Pose (Urdhva Hastasana)
20. Mountain Pose (Tadasana)

For readers who are familiar with Sun Salutation sequences: Yes. This one is a bit long. The reason for this is one of the sequence's connections to my NaNo quest.

My goal is to write 2000 words per day. This would get me to my 50K project goal five days before the end of November. (What can I say? I'm an over-achiever. That, and 2000 is a nice round number and 1667 not so easy to work with.) If I perform my Sun Salutation sequence 10 times each day (5 times each side) I will be executing 200 asanas per day. Each execution of an asana therefore represents ten words that I will write that day. It's my own little "word made flesh" warm-up and pep rally for each day.

The sun salutation poses have such wonderful connections to the creative writing process and in particular the NaNo writing process which I will be following in November. I'll blog about each pose separately, with photos and my thoughts on how they relate to NaNoWriMo, but before I do that, the obligatory disclaimer:

The sequence of poses I have listed in this post and will be describing in subsequent posts was developed for my own personal use. There are no intellectual property rights governing yoga asanas. As such, each of the poses described may be used freely by other individuals, however, not every pose is suitable for every body.

If you find these posts useful for your own personal journey, you are free to take from them what you choose, but my words and images should in no way be construed as my directing you to perform any of these exercises. I am not.

It is possible to injure oneself practicing yoga, and any physical exercise regime which you choose to undertake is done so at your own risk. If you are unfamiliar with which exercises are and are not healthy for your own body, please consult with a health care professional before commencing any physical activity regime.