I have decided to dedicate February’s yoga classes to opening up our power of communication. Representing the fifth chakra, communication is the ability to be vocal and express our ideas, feelings, needs and experiences to the people in our lives.

My goal is to move the blocked energy in our throat area, which may be keeping us from speaking up when it is necessary for us to communicate. Sometimes we feel inside that this may a difficult thing to do. However, it is so important that we have the confidence to ask for what we need, to say “No” when we can’t do something, and to share with those close to us what we are thinking and feeling inside. People don’t always know what what we are thinking or what we need. Good communication is the key to experiencing harmony, peace and understanding in our relationships.

Over the past five years, this has been one of the chakras that I myself have put a lot of focus and effort into. I grew up in an environment, and with a father, where I was not able to voice the things I needed to say. This made me fearful of speaking up in life: to teachers, in front of groups and in my relationships. After moving through certain yoga exercises and doing specific meditations focusing on the fifth chakra, I have made amazing progress and created permanent changes in my ability to express my needs and feelings to the important people in my life.

The fifth chakra also represents the tone and way we go about expressing ourselves to others. If we have had a family member that communicated through yelling, or with harshness, we might have picked up this behavior and started expressing ourselves in the same manner. Just being aware of how we communicate is so important and will help us to make any changes that may allow us to create stronger bonds and loving connections with those we are closest to.

Our goal this month is to build our confidence. To be direct, yet harmonious in our communication with other people, and find our own inner strength so that we will know when it is important for us to speak up, and when it may be wiser for us to remain in our own stillness.

January: Creating This Year’s Intentions

Our life experience is our own magnificent creation. I like to think of life as a story. A story that is written by our own imagination. We have the blank pages, the pencils and paints to create whatever it is we feel in our hearts.

On Jan 1, 2012 we begin a new chapter in the story of our lives. My yoga class for the month of January will focus on creating your intention for the new year to come, focusing on two main areas that will assist us in our creation. We will move through heart opening yoga sets that unleash our passion and love for the things that matter the most to us in this life. We will also move through yoga sets that focus on our commitment and discipline in life. This represets our third chakra, our navel area. When we have a strong third chakra we have faith in ourselves and confidence we can succeed.

Opening the heart will help us to know what we want. Regardless of whether we know in our mind what we need, when we open the heart we become honest with ourselves. Sometimes we settle in life because society, family, and other people tell us we need to live in a certain way. If we listen to our hearts we have the greatest possible chance of creating happiness and of having fulfilling experiences.

The navel area will give us inner strength. This area is responsible for giving us the power to move through challenges and obstacles which can arise in everyone’s life no matter who they may be. When this area is strong we have the ability to stay in balance and maintain our stability.

Our meditations will be aimed at learning how to silence the mind. I will teach you how to use your mind to set an intention and then release it to the universe. During meditation our soul and the soul of the universe become one. In this oneness we can plant the seed for our creation to begin its first stage of life. This is the beginning of all life experience.

Our goal this month is to merge with our heart’s purpose and set our highest intentions and highest goals for the new year.