Maya Fiennes’ Thursday Plan

Maya Fiennes is a well respected Kundalini yoga practitioner and instructor, based in Los Angeles. Trained as a classical pianist, Maya first found Kundalini Yoga when she was looking for something to help calm her pre-performance nerves. She tried other forms of Yoga, but it was Kundalini Yoga that gave her the key to relaxing and controlling her emotions.

What exactly is Kundalini Yoga? Yogi Bhajan, who brought Kundalini Yoga to the West in 1968, describes Kundalini as an ‘uncoiling of yourself to find your vitality and your potential’.  For Maya, it’s a brilliant and effective way to deal with today’s life stresses. ‘It was the one Yoga technique that gave me the simple, quick tools I needed to either de-stress, energise or calm myself. It’s about real life and dealing with its ups and downs’. Maya’s retreats and classes are in high demand in LA, but thankfully her classes are now available online, as are her range of DVD’s and her best selling book, ‘Yoga for Real Life’. 

Thursday

Theme: All we need is LOVE

Before you can love anyone or anything fully, you have to learn how to love yourself.  If you can increase how secure and loving you feel about yourself on the inside, you will attract more happiness and love from the outside.

Heart Opener

This helps to open up your heart, clears grief and increase forgiveness.  It also stimulates the thymus gland, strengthening your immune system.

Sit in easy pose, cross legged on the floor, and extend both arms up and out, creating a “V” shape.  Keep elbows straight and criss-cross your arms in front of your face. Synchronise your movement with the Breath of Fire, rapid inhale and exhale through the nose, for one and a half minutes.

Love Tonic Smoothie

This delicious red drink will fill your belly with the fire of passion.  Hawthorn berries are excellent for cardiovascular health, while hibiscus is high in Vitamin C.

• 360 ml (1 ½ cup ) filtered water
• 5cm piece of fresh root ginger peeled and quartered
• 2 tablespoons hibiscus flowers
• 1 ½ teaspoons hawthorn berries
• ½ tablespoon rose water
• 1 ½ teaspoon raw honey or agave syrup

Put the ginger in to a pan with the water.  Bring to boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and add the hibiscus flowers and hawthorn berries.  Leave to stand for a minimum of 5 minutes.  Stir in the rose water and add honey or agave syrup to sweeten.  Serve warm or chilled.

For more information have a look at Maya’s Love DVD or Book Yoga for Real Life and Love Tuner, a whistle used as a meditative device.