By: Virginia Iversen, M.Ed
Could practicing Warrior III enhance your ability to become an innovator? Yoga is a great way to ignite one’s creative spark and increase the flow of vital life energy. With an increase in vital life energy, known in Sanskrit as “prana,” comes an increase in clarity and an unimpeded flow of creativity. As we loosen up our bodies, release tension and fan the flames of our own inner life force, creative thoughts and ideas will arise naturally. When our prana is sluggish from too much muscular tension, stress and toxicity, our creativity is also dulled. Choosing Yoga poses and sequences that increase the circulation of prana will ignite the creative spark within you.
Many of the more invigorating Yoga asanas will help to free up your energy substantially, so that you will be able to “think outside the box” more easily and generate new creative ideas. Some of the most invigorating Yoga asanas are challenging standing asanas, arm balancing poses, backbends, and inversions. When a number of these asanas are practiced together in a flowing movement, the flow of pranic energy will be substantially increased. A Yin Yoga practice also helps to release deeply held tension, primarily in the connective tissues, through a much slower paced flow of Yoga asanas with longer holds.
If you would like to ignite and fan the flames of creativity with a vigorous Yoga practice, choosing challenging poses that are connected in a vinyasa-style is a great way to really invigorate and strengthen your entire body. Incorporating Warrior III into your practice will hone your sense of balance, strengthen your leg and back muscles, elongate the sides of your torso, and relieve tension throughout the shoulders and upper back. Warrior III is often practiced directly after Warrior II Pose.
* Warrior III or Virabhadrasana III Pose
To move into Warrior III Pose from Warrior II, lean forward on your front foot with your gaze or drishti on a set point a few feet ahead of you on the floor. With your next inhale, slowly center the weight of your body on your front foot and raise your back foot up to hip height with your foot slightly point. Extend your arms fully in front of you, also at hip height, with your hands in prayer position. Your raised leg and arms should be in a straight line.
Hold this pose for three to five complete breaths. When you have completed your practice of Warrior III, place your back foot gently back on the mat with an exhale and move fluidly back into Warrior II Pose. You may wish to move through a vinyasa after Warrior II or come directly back into Tadasana at the front of your Yoga mat. Pause for a moment in Tadasana and feel the energizing flow of prana throughout your body and mind.
© Copyright – Virginia Iversen / Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division
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