5 Yoga Workouts For Beginners

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We just love yoga! It is so calming and relaxing and really helps us to get centered. We are total beginners and really wanted to get some yoga beginners basics so we reached out to Kelsey Lawrence, Arizona Yoga Instructor and an Alpha Chi Omega Alumnae, to show us the ropes. Kelsey shares just how to do each beginner's yoga workout. Whether it's doing yoga at a studio, on the beach, or in the comfort of your home, you can take yoga just about anywhere with these easy workouts. Thanks for sharing, Kelsey!

Cat Cow (Chakravakasana)

1. Begin in tabletop position, hands under shoulders and knees under hips. 
2. Inhale and arch your back. Leading forward with your heart (not your head), shoulders on your back and chin tucked. Press down through your hands and feel your heart opening. Keep your shoulders relaxed, opened, and broadened. 
3. Exhale and round your back like a cat. Tucking your chin in towards your chest and exhaling all of the air out of your lungs. 
4. Repeat 5 times on your breath. 

This pose is extremely beneficial for back pain. It moves your hips and spine and squeezes out the kidneys. When leading with your heart, feel the expansiveness and opening of new possibilities!

Downward Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana)

1. Begin in tabletop position. 
2. It is important in this pose to angle your hands in the right angle in order to protect your shoulders. 
3. On your mat, widen your arms to where your pinky fingers are touching the edge of the mat. Make sure your pointer fingers are pointing forward. 
4. On your next exhale tuck your toes and push back, raising your seat into the air with your feet hip distance apart. Push back through your hips while being mindful not to hyper-extend your straight arms. 
5. Try and turn your shoulders out ward. 
6. Ground your heals into your mat and if not, bending the knees is a beautiful way to practice this pose, especially if you have tight hamstrings. 
7. It allows pressure to be taken off the hamstrings and lower back and you are able to sink deeper into the posture. 
8. Breath here for 5 breath’s. Long inhale and extended exhale. 

This pose relives stiffness in the heels, strengths ankles and legs. The abdominal muscles are drawn towards the spine and the head relaxes and drops down, allowing the heart rate to slow. This is a very exhilarating pose and brings energy to your body. If you are feeling tired or groggy during the day, drop everything and get into down ward dog or some sort of inversion. The energizing benefits from this asana help to sustain energy and is much more valuable to your health compared to sugary energy drinks.

Warrior B (Virabhadrasana B)

1. Begin by standing on your mat; exhale and step your left leg behind you about 4 feet. Have your right toes facing forward and your left back foot angled about 45 degrees. 
2. Bend into your right leg; keep your knee over your ankle and breath. 
3. The outside of your back foot should be pressed into the floor and feel grounded. 
4. Feel the strength of your legs and the beautiful earth supporting you. 
5. Engage your abdomen, tuck the sacrum down, and try keeping the right knee over the ankle, not letting it dip inward or outward. 
6. Breathe here as long as you feel comfortable or for 3 breaths keeping your gaze at your right hand. 
7. Straighten your right leg; bring your left to meet the right and switch sides! 

This is a very powerful pose. You are toning your quads and hamstrings as well as your core. It also prepares you for other challenging yoga poses. Mentally focus on the path you want to be on. Find strength in grounding in the earth and that energy will guide you. A beautiful mantra for this pose might be: There is no path to peace, peace is the path.

Reclining Bound Angle Pose (Supta Baddha Konasana)

1. Begin on your back. Tuck your chin a little into your chest and breath. 
2. Tuck your pelvis under and bring the insides of your feet together and slowly move your legs closer to your body until you feel a stretch in your hips. 
3. Rest your arms beside you palms up to receive energy. 
4. Your legs will look like they are in the shape of a butterfly. If the sensation is too much, you can place a blanket under each of your knees for support. 
5. Lie here and breathe into your hips for 5 deep breaths. 

Hip openers are so important because we hold so much of our tension in our hips. There are issues in our tissues! When you consciously focus on expanding into that tight area you are not only stretching the fascia you are consciously letting go of anxiety, and who doesn’t want that!! Focus on your breath in this pose and if it hurts you can always back out of it. However, I challenge you to breath through the pain and notice how quickly it subsides and how good it feels.

Childs Pose (Balasana)

1. Time to rest. Begin in tabletop position. 
2. Bring feet together and widen your knees open so that you are able to bring your buttocks towards your feet. Exhale and slowly rest your torso over your thighs so your forehead touches the mat. 
3. Extend your arms forward and breath. Another variation for this pose is to keep your arms bent or relax them next to you on your sides. 
4. Close your eyes and lengthen your breath for a deeper form of relaxation. 
5. Breathe here for 5 breaths and enjoy the stretch into the back of the torso 

This pose helps relieve stress and anxiety, as well as helps with dizziness and fatigue. Flexes the body’s internal organs and keeps them supple, and lengthens and stretches the spine. It normalizes circulation throughout the body and calms the body and mind.


Enjoy these poses and I hope they bring you peace, love and beauty to your life.


Namaste

5 Things To Cut Every Month To Save Money

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Spending money is easy, but saving money can be just as easy if you actually take a look at your statement every month.  As you take a look at your statement, you'll realize that you're spending a lot of money on silly little things that you can easily cut out of your life to put that money into your savings.  One thing we've learned as we've graduated from school is how important it is to have money in your savings, so we thought we'd put together a list for you all so you can start putting money in your bank!

1. Getting Your Nails Done

You can save easily close to $100 every month if you didn't get your nails professionally done.  We learned to do our nails ourselves and really it's allowed us to save a whole lot of money every month.  If you can't do your own nails, have a nail party and have your girlfriend do it for you!

2. Eating Out

You probably spend way more than you think on eating out- this is something that adds up fast!  Every social gathering typically is around eating out and when you socialize a lot, especially in the sorority world you end up paying a lot on food.  Be mindful of it next time and perhaps pack up food before you had to campus!

3. Those Starbucks Drinks!

Okay, similar to #2, but we all love our coffee!  If you think about it, you can easily make coffee at home, but you go to a coffee shop and spend at least $3 on a cup of coffee.  If you do the math, if you get coffee 5 times a week every month that's $60 (or more) that you can be saving a month!  

4. Subscription Based Products/Businesses

Those subscription based businesses are doing well for a reason, girls! We all spend $10 here and there on subscription based businesses like Birch Box and forget that money is actually being taken out of our account every month automatically for these packages we get every month!  

5. iTunes

So iTunes is great because you can download any music you want and download and watch any TV show or movie, but don't forget that your bank account is linked up and it can easily add up!  If you're buying and downloading TV shows or movies that you're just going to watch once, why not just pay a small fee and pay for Hulu+ or Netflix instead?

Again, it's so easy to spend money, so think about what you're really spending money on and if it is ABSOLUTELY necessary.  You can easily be saving $200-300 a month just by the things we listed above.  What are some other things that you can be saving money on?

Fall Nail Colors to Have

1 - "In the Lobby" by Essie

2 - "Roar" by Deborah Lippmann

3 - "French Paradise - Vernis in Love" by Lancome

4 - "Army and Ready" by Essie

5 - "Very Important Poodle" by MAC

6 - "Matte About You" Finisher by Essie

7 - "Myrtle" by Julep

8 - "Austere" by JINsoon

Fall is here and what are we most excited for about it?! Fall nail polish colors, of course!  Nail polish colors are very seasonal and they also change every year- burgundy has been trendy these last couple of years, but you'll be seeing a lot more camel & coppers this year.  The camel shade is great because it's a little more neutral and goes with everything, but if you're really trying to stand out then copper is your color.

We're also currently obsessing over matte nails, but matte top coats are a hit or miss.  We've tested it and it's amazing- try Essie's "Matte About You" finisher!  It will dry your nails in a giffy and give you that perfect matte finish on any color you desire.

What are some of your favorite fall colors you see this year?!

Gifts For Your Little

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We know that Big/Little Reveal is around the corner for a lot of you ladies so we decided to do a little shopping for you to help you choose the absolute cutest gifts for your Little. For those who don't know what Big/Little Reveal is (or Mom/Dot (Daughter)) it is when an active member gets paired with an initiated member based on best fit. It is common throughout the years of being in your sorority to do functions with your Little and really bond with them. For Big/Little Reveal gifts, it is 100% about personalization, which is why we really loved this Acrylic Block Letter Monogram Necklace from BaubleBar. You can each have matching ones!

The Best Face Primer...Ever!

Hey ladies {and maybe a few gents!}! We have searched high and low for the best face primer and we really were having limited luck. Then, of course our amazing friends at Sephora put us on to the best face primer, like EVER. If you want to have your face matte, oil-free, and smooth as a baby's bottom then you have got to get your hands on Mister Mat Mattifying Foundation Primer from Givenchy. Co Founder, Karen lives for this product and has experienced nothing but compliments on her face makeup since she has been using it. She loves it because it has a gel-like balm feel to it. It also glides over the skin like a soft, powdery halo with a velvety finish that keeps the complexion perfected and shine-free. Try it out and let us know what you think!

The Best Homecoming Dresses To Rent

How is it already almost Homecoming?! This was one of our most favorite times when in college. It's one of the few times that we can reconnect with alumnae and have week long activities on campus dedicated to nothing but school pride. But, best of all are all of the date parties! We know how hard it is to find a dress that the next sister won't have, so of course this is why we love Rent the Runway. Above are our favorite dresses and below are the links where you can find most of the dresses on their site.

Halston Heritage Pink - https://www.renttherunway.com/shop/designers/halston_heritage/berkshires_dress

Badgley Mischka Sparkle
-https://www.renttherunway.com/shop/designers/badgley_mischka/fifth_avenue_showstopper_dress

Blue Dress Monique Lhuillier
-https://www.renttherunway.com/shop/designers/ml_monique_lhuillier/katerina_dress

Fuschia Dress Monique Luhillier
-https://www.renttherunway.com/shop/designers/ml_monique_lhuillier/delicate_arrangement_dress

Slate & Willow Copper Dress

Which dress is your favorite?

Fall & Winter 2015 Coat Must-Haves

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Ok, so we have an active GroupMe going on right now with our friends debating on where to buy the best fall coat. For those of you in the colder cities, you know just how important having the right coat is. It's about keeping warm while looking uber stylish. At the top of our list are the famous Burberry trench coats (p.s. Did you see Olivia Pope last week looking amazing in her Burberry trench coat?! We died!). They're more on the pricey side but everyone we know that owns one says that they last forever and are the perfect fit. Banana Republic is another awesome store to snag some cute coats like this one here. Department stores like Macy's, Nordstrom, JCPenney, and Sears usually having a plethora of high end and low end coats to choose from. Grane carries some really nice, affordable coats at Sears like this one. If you're looking to be more trendy than full-fledge warm, you cannot go wrong buying a coat from Betsey Johnson's line! Think pinks and faux furs and everything in between!

Do you have a coat that you absolutely love for fall & winter? Share with us the brand(s) you love in the comments below!