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What happiness looks like. ❤️ (at South Valley, Encino, California)

The only thing we know for sure is that things are going to keep on changing. Maybe we get can gauge our spiritual progress on how we choose to react. How are you showing up in these transitions? Are you running away? Getting angry? Numbing your emotions? Or taking a deep breath and surrendering to this moment exactly as it is and allowing it to be enough. No running. No hiding. Just this. It’s enough. ❤️ . @aloyoga Photo Credit: @jlcederblomphoto (at Los Angeles, California)

I get nostalgic once in awhile thinking back about the few years of my practice, but my mind often edits out the pain, the loss and the isolation I was felt at that time. Tonight all of those feeling came flooding back and I felt like I needed to share. I needed to tell the truth to those of you who might be in that struggle right now. I was on @caleyalyssa page and watched a video she put up of her TT in NYC to become a meditation teacher and her guru @jonnipollard said that when we first come to meditation that we are like trees that someone is shaking, and all the dead things that are no longer serving us fall off. It just struck me. I started to think back to when I started practicing yoga in 2003 and how my entire world changed. The thing was, I didn’t want it to change. I wanted to stay the same. I remember thinking seriously about quitting yoga. You see, I had always been told that I was “too nice” and for once in my life I felt like I had grown the tough shell that I imagined would protect me from all future harm. So when I felt the walls that I had so carefully built start to crumble, it scared the hell out of me. I had learned to numb my emotions with drinking, drugs and other forms of distraction, but even those things began to fail me. Once you’ve woken up, you can’t just decide to go back to sleep. Relationships and friendships that I cared dearly for fell away. Did it break my heart? Yes. Was it easy? No. I simply couldn’t do the things I used to do and get the same satisfaction. Sure, I would have the occasional times were I would properly imitate my former self and act in ways that would briefly fool me and others into believing that the old “fun” Angela was BACK!!! Only to wake up the next day feeling like a complete fraud in my own life. It’s weird thinking back to the cocoon. It’s dark and scary. You may be turning into a butterfly, but first you and the world as you know it, must dissolve. If you are in the dark night of the soul that is transformation and you feel like a tree in the dead of winter, know that you are not alone. Things are going to get better! 🙏 Photo: @jlcederblomphoto (at El Segundo, California)

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*BUILD STRENGTH FOR PIKE PRESS HANDSTAND* . #angelasyogatutorials . . I get asked quite frequently about ways to achieve the pike press to handstand. Since the legs are together it is a lot heavier than a straddle press. This means to get your legs up you need, more of a lean forward, better compression, stronger abs, more flexibility in the hamstrings/shoulders and stronger hip flexors. Headstand A mimics the shape and entry of you start with straight legs and to work on your strength you can add a foam block between your ankles. This should ONLY be attempted if you have a strong Headstand practice! Please use good judgement and do not attempt if you have an issue with your neck or spine. . . 🤗On hands and knees interlace your fingers. Place your elbows shoulders distance apart. Press down through your forearms and pinky fingers as you draw your shoulder blades away from your ears and spread them across your upper back. . . 🤗Tuck your chin towards your chest and set the crown of your head down. Lift your shoulders away from the floor as you press down through your forearms. Walk your feet in as much as possible and try to stack your hips over your shoulders. . . 🤗With your legs straight grab the foam block between your inner feet and ankles. Shift your hips back and deepen your hip creases. Take a deep inhale and as you exhale knit your front ribs in and draw your navel to your spine. Take another deep inhale and as you exhale engage your inner thighs and squeezing the block lift the legs slowly up above your hips until they stack. Lengthen your buttocks towards your heels and firm it into your body. To come down shift your hips back as if someone was pulling you back from your hip creases and begin to lower your feet back down. Keep lifting and spreading your shoulders and pressing down through your forearms the whole way! Do not allow your shoulders to scrunch! . 🤗Think about keeping your thighs close to your body as you lift and lower. This will help with compression ALOT!!! . Wearing: @aloyoga #beagoddess #aloyoga Mat: @mysugarmat #mysugarmat #sugarmat (at Yogaworks - Montana)

#aloyoga #sugarmat #angelasyogatutorials #mysugarmat #beagoddess

Starting of my Monday with some good vibes and sending them your way! ❤️ Thanks @mvbutoyi for unintentionally twinning with me last Friday! 👯‍♀️ (at Santa Monica, California)

“Liberation is an inside job” - @yung_pueblo . . You deserve to be free. 💛 . . Playing on my @mysugarmat #sugarmat #mysugarmat 🍋🍌🍋🍌🍋🍌🍋 Wearing: @aloyoga #beagoddess #aloyoga (at Santa Monica, California)

#sugarmat #aloyoga #mysugarmat #beagoddess

*Head-Free Tripod Headstand* . #angelasyogatutorials . . I’ve posted other head-free variations of handstand for those of you who prefer to not put weight on your heads. The previous ones required more blocks, and this one only requires 2! . . 🙌Place 2 folded blankets or 2 books and place the blocks on top of it. Make sure there is space of 3 inches or so between your setup and the wall. . . 🙌Place your hands directly behind the blocks and place your shoulder on the blocks. Make sure that you place the blocks so that it is on the fleshy part of your shoulders and not the shoulder bones themselves. Also, make sure your there is space between your head and the floor. . . 🙌Squeeze your outer arms in. You want to create a 90 degree angle with your arms and your shoulders. (A common mistake is taking the arms too wide which destabilizes the pose.) . . 🙌Walk your feet towards your hands until you feel your hips stack over your shoulders or as close as you can get. Take an inhale and as you exhale draw your ribs together and down as if you were wearing a corset. Then taking your feet wide rise up onto the balls of your feet. Sweep your feet out towards the sides of the room as if you were trying to touch the sides of the room with your toes. Then take your legs around and up. . . Wearing: @aloyoga #aloyoga #beagoddess #tripodheadstand #headstand (at Flower Child)

#beagoddess #tripodheadstand #headstand #aloyoga #angelasyogatutorials

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*Head-Free Tripod Headstand* . #angelasyogatutorials . . I’ve posted other head-free variations of handstand for those of you who prefer to not put weight on your heads. The previous ones required more blocks, and this one only requires 2! . . 🙌Place 2 folded blankets or 2 books and place the blocks on top of it. Make sure there is space of 3 inches or so between your setup and the wall. . . 🙌Place your hands directly behind the blocks and place your shoulder on the blocks. Make sure that you place the blocks so that it is on the fleshy part of your shoulders and not the shoulder bones themselves. Also, make sure your there is space between your head and the floor. . . 🙌Squeeze your outer arms in. You want to create a 90 degree angle with your arms and your shoulders. (A common mistake is taking the arms too wide which destabilizes the pose.) . . 🙌Walk your feet towards your hands until you feel your hips stack over your shoulders or as close as you can get. Take an inhale and as you exhale draw your ribs together and down as if you were wearing a corset. Then taking your feet wide rise up onto the balls of your feet. Sweep your feet out towards the sides of the room as if you were trying to touch the sides of the room with your toes. Then take your legs around and up. . . Wearing: @aloyoga #aloyoga #beagoddess #tripodheadstand #headstand #headstanddrills (at Flower Child)

#tripodheadstand #aloyoga #beagoddess #headstanddrills #angelasyogatutorials #headstand

What can you be grateful for now? Do you ever look back at your life and think about how good you had it at different times and then remember how obsessed you were with something silly like how fat you felt in your outfit or something else completely meaningless? All the while you were missing the most magnificent blessings that were literally right in front of your face? It’s sad to think back about some of the trivial things that kept me from appreciating the beauty of my experiences. My mantra these days is “Appreciate Everything, because one day you will look back and see what a gift it all was.” Okay, so EVERY day doesn’t always FEEL like a gift and all, but it IS! Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday probably not too long from now you will remember today and see how special it was to be exactly where you are right this second. So enjoy it! Enjoy every minute of it! 🤗 . . Playing on my new @mysugarmat (It has lemons and bananas all over it 🍋🍌🍋🍌🍋🍌🍋🍌🍋🍌so CUTE!!! . . Photo Credit: @sbixlerphotography 🙏 (at Santa Monica, California)

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*SIMPLE HANDSTAND DRILL YOU NEED TO START DOING* . . #angelasyogatutorials . Notice I said simple and not easy! 😅I don’t know if you are like me, but I will often not do the “simple” drills as often as I should. When I do, it is like a goldmine if information 💰💎is revealed to me. I find this especially the longer I practice the more the basics teach me everything about the final pose. So weird. In the beginning I had no time for the basics of course. 🙄😂Anyways, I highly recommend that you add this to the beginning of your practice and before Inversions for at least a minute. (That is, if you can last that long! 😅🙌) . . 🙌Stand with your big toe knuckles touching and heels ever so slightly apart. Roll your inner thighs back and apart until you feel your butt relax to attain the correct leg position. Then take your butt and lengthen it towards your heels until you feel your frontal hip points lift up towards your bottom ribs. (Also known as a posterior tilt of the pelvis. An anterior tilt is often seen in a banana handstand where the butt sticks out and the belly spills forward. This puts a lot of pressure on the lumbar spine.) Zip your inner thighs up from the ankle bones to the tops of the thighs. . . 🙌Take a deep inhale and as you exhale cinch your ribs down towards your hip points and together as if you were pulling on the strings of a corset. At the same time keep the sternum lifted. . . 🙌With your arms down alongside your body spin your palms to face each other. Then reach them forward spreading your upper back and up alongside your ears. Wrap your triceps in towards the tip of your nose and maintain the spread of your shoulder blades apart. Squeeze your arms to straight. Do not let your elbows bend. . 🙌Press up through your palms. Rise up onto the balls of your feet. Press through your big toe knuckle and your second toe knuckle to find balance. Gradually take your eyes up and try to look between your hands as you would in a handstand. Hold for as long as you can keep Balance. Whatever shows up here is likely to show up in your handstand, so notice where you might be leaking energy or not engaging. Good luck! . . Wearing: @betshewear leggi (at Santa Monica, California)

#angelasyogatutorials

Smiling is the new hiding your face from the camera. 😁When I first started my Instagram page I was terrified of posting a photo with my actual face in it. 🤦‍♀️I am not sure why, but I just felt terribly shy about it. Anyways, at some point I realized how silly it was. After all, I love seeing your smiling faces and as a bonus, if I know what you look like I could actually say hi, should we ever meet in person! 💁‍♀️🙂 Although let’s face it, with some of you I’d have to do this 🙃since I am so used to seeing you upside down! 🤸‍♀️😂Anyways, if you are shy about posting a photo with your actual face in it (😯) like I was, I encourage you to do it! We would all love to see your beautiful smile! ❤️Comment below if you plan to accept this challenge or just want to share your feelings on the topic, I’d love to hear them! 🤗P.S. I know I have been slacking on the tutorials this past week. I am editing a few and plan to post them starting tomorrow! . . Photo Credit: @susievanessayoga Wearing: @betshewear leggings #betshewear (at Los Angeles, California)

#betshewear

“I am learning to trust the journey, even when I don’t understand it”- Mila Bron . . Make peace with the uncertainty, it’s all part of the dance. ❤️ . . Wearing: @betshewear #betshewear Photo Credit: @susievanessayoga (at Santa Monica, California)

#betshewear

Everyday I remind myself not to spend my days worrying about the stuff that doesn’t matter. Does it work? Some of the time. Other times I obsess about why someone hasn’t called me back, if I look fat in these leggings or fill in the blank with any other silly little thing. Our minds like to make problems where none exist. So, if you are having a perfectly awesome day and assuming you are a mere mortal, your mind will look for things to busy itself with. As much as possible I remind myself that I’ve got it GOOD!!! I have friends and family who I love and love me back. I’m healthy. I can move my body. 🤸‍♀️ I have a warm bed. Food to eat. 🥗I have a job that I am passionate about that excites me to get out of bed in the morning. 🧘🏼‍♀️ I have a boyfriend who is a really good kisser and likes to tell me I’m beautiful. 💋🤴🏻Oh and let’s not forget coffee, I am super grateful for coffee!!! ☕️❤️🙏Write 3-10 things you are super grateful for in the comments!!! #gratitude (at Santa Monica, California)

#gratitude

When you are lost. Find your your breath. It will always bring you home. . . Photo Credit: @jlcederblomphoto Wearing: @aloyoga #aloyoga #beagoddess (at YogaWorks - Playa Vista)

#aloyoga #beagoddess

at YogaWorks - Playa Vista

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*BUILD STRENGTH AND MUSCLE MEMORY FOR PRESS HANDSTAND* . . It may seem a bit far fetched to claim that you can use this drill to learn press handstand, BUT the muscle memory and feel is very similar in the legs/compression and hip stacking needed for the press. I honestly meet people all the time who are working on their press that would most likely struggle with this drill. I can’t emphasize enough the value of progressions and gradually teaching your body what you want it to do instead of just expecting it to perform when you want to do something super challenging. . . 🙌Come onto hands and knees. Place your hands shoulder width apart and directly underneath your shoulders. Walk your knees in until they are touching the back of your wrists. . . 🙌Bend your elbows stacking them directly on top of your wrists. Tuck your chin all the way to your chest (try to go for the triple chin look 😆) and place the crown of your head on the floor. If you did the other steps correctly your head should be in the perfect spot. . . 🙌Lift your shoulders away from the floor and spread them across your upper back. Squeeze your elbows in towards one another and root your index fingers and thumbs down. . . 🙌Lift your hips and drag your feet in towards your body as you engage your belly and stack your hips over your shoulders. Then, reach your toes out to the sides of the room, around and up. Bring them together at the top and then s l o w l y bring them back down the way you came up. The trick is to bend your knees and slide them down your forearms to the floor to work the compression in the belly. Repeat! . . Loving my @mysugarmat for this drill as it is soft and easy to slide on! . Wearing: @aloyoga #beagoddess #aloyoga #tripodheadstand (at YogaWorks - Playa Vista)

#beagoddess #tripodheadstand #aloyoga

“Wanting always interrupts being” —- @yung_pueblo . . Reminder; You have enough. You are enough. ❤️🙏 . . With my bestie @susievanessayoga 👯‍♀️ Photo Credit: @karmacaptures Wearing: @werkshop (at Santa Monica, California)

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