On a jewelry forum we have monthly challenges, June’s challenge was to use up some of our “bead soup”. Bead Soup is the beads left over from other projects you just toss in a drawer and hope you can use in […]

After my first day of adding yoga into my workout routine I was inspired by some images of other plus size women becoming happier and healthier through the practice.  One yoga pose reminded me of a piece of art work my poetry professor had done and had hanging in her office, it was of a woman (proportionately sized) meditating under the light of a full moon.  My professor at one point in class told us of how she was bullied for her weight even to this day as 40+ year old.  To be honest I rarely see what a person looks like physically because I focus more on their words and the energy about them, but her words struck me and I saw her, I saw the shape of her body and realized it was curvier than I realized.  I sketched a figure with the same curves in the lotus position.

The Lotus position is most commonly used for meditation practices. The position is also useful for proper breathing, especially after working out. When I attended martial arts for eight years every session ended with meditation in the lotus position. The legs are crossed (if possible feet resting on the opposite thighs, if not just one leg crossed on top of the other crossed) the back is straight and there are three positions for the hands a) stretched upward as in the sketch b) out to the sides with the pinky, ring, and middle fingers spread with the pointer and thumb tips touching or the final position c) wrists resting on the knees. We would breathe in deeply and hold for three beats then release slowly as we did so we would imagine all of the energy still left over from class coming up our spine from the root chakra (located at the tailbone) and up through the crown chakra (located just above the head).

There are more images in the Big Beautiful Yoga series posted on my instragram. I’ve had requests to make these in to purchasable items such as t-shirts, bags, postcards, etc. and they will be soon. I had to purchase a new SD card for my camera yesterday and I am in the process of taking better photographs and cleaning up the lines.