Mindfulness in Motion

"From down dog, now step your right foot toward your right wrist, come up into warrior one."
The reaction is to quickly adjust the feet, stand up and then take arms up over head.
It is a reaction, 'ahhhh... I know warrior one.'
The goal of Yoga though is to experience the movement in between down dog and warrior one, to notice the roll forward on the back foot to the ball, to engage the low abdomen as one lifts the leg, bending the knee to bring it through. To experience the foot placed, to notice the hips and whether the left is drawn back or not. Then from this place of balance, to move the arms in line with the ears, to reach long through the side body as one lifts the rib cage away from the top of the hips and upward. Feeling steady in the stance. At the height of the pose, the belly is still engaged and stabilizing the legs. From this very solid and stable foundation, the front body can open, reversing the curve of the thoracic spine, the collar bones wide and the energy of breath collecting in the region of the heart.

Try it sometime, take a full minute, a breath or two to come up into warrior one and see what an amazing landscape of information there is for you in the change.