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To deepen the healing power of relaxation, Gail Parker suggests affirmations to accompany each pose in this sequence. While in a posture, silently say the full affirmation to yourself 3 times. For example, “Breathing in, I feel alive. Breathing out, I feel grateful.” Then on your next inhalation, silently say, “Alive.” On your exhalation, say, “Grateful.” Repeat at least 5 times. Then return your focus to your breath, resting in silence. If you are doing poses that are done on both sides of the body, repeat the affirmations on each side.
“One size does not fit all,” Parker says of the mantras. “Feel free to choose other affirmations that you prefer.”
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The Highlight was young, not even a year old, when the coronavirus pandemic descended in the spring. If we had been padding along unsteadily, looking for footing like any ambitious toddler, our balance was entirely shaken by the seismic developments of 2020: the lockdowns and masks, the bizarrely mysterious and gravely dangerous virus, a summer of protests and the retaliatory federal response we felt in the rattling of our windows, a democracy and an election so fragile that some sounded alarms of an impending coup.