|
|
December Pose of the Month: Headstand
II (Sirsasana II)
This month, the featured pose is sirsasana II (shir-sha-sa-na),
or headstand pose in Sanskrit.
The pose is a Level I Inversion (shown here by Kathy Quinlan-Thompson).
We prepare in this final month of 2008 to turn the empty
hourglass on its head and start over with a new year, a
new administration, infusion of new life, and a new way
of looking at our habits and practices. This month's pose
is a physical manifestation of the feelings that we experience
during this time. While we may be excited about the prospect
of newness, we may also feel anxious about leaving behind
old, 'comfortable' ways of thinking about ourselves. So,
it's best if we take this kind of transition both seriously
and slowly.
Headstanding isn't just a willy-nilly sort of inversion.
It takes some deliberation and some ability to hold techniques
learned from previous practice. This idea is called diksha
in Sanskrit. Often defined as 'lesson' or 'initiation',
our tradition focuses more on the student's receiving rather
than the teacher's giving. In this way (think of a seal
to wax), the imprint is made not so much by the pressing
but by the wax drawing the seal to it.
To practice and prepare for Headstand, we learn to align
the hands, shoulders, and neck through poses like Cat and
Cow, Downward-facing Dog, 'L-pose'/Half-handstand, Handstand,
Forearm Stand (see October's pose of the month), and finally
practice Headstand. Once you can keep a steady foundation
and keep the sides of the body long while engaging the upper
back to draw the upper arm bones to the back plane of the
body in these poses, you know you're well prepared to learn
Headstand.
In these pictures, Kathy goes up in three stages. In the
first stage (top picture), she sets a foundation in which
she can connect her hands to the floor with remembrance
of the commitment she makes to herself in every practice
to draw this yoga to make an imprint on her heart. She places
her head on the floor so that the distance from hand-to-hand
and hand-to-head are equal and lifts her knees. From here,
she can make any adjustments to the foundation or the placement
of her head.
In the second picture (above), Kathy lifts up with straight
legs. This is a little more challenging than lifting up
with knees bent or taking one leg up at a time. However
you go up, this is the place where the diksha of
the shoulders is both most imperative and can be easily
forgotten. The foundation stays where you've placed it,
and the upper arms pull strongly to the back of the body
(toward the spine) as the legs pull in toward one another
and all energy concentrates in the center of the head as
the focal point of energy for this pose.
Finally, full extension. To move from half-way there to
the full balance involves rooting from the center of the
head down into the floor and from the center of the head
up through the hips and feet. Once you're vertical and balanced
here, it will take some energy to maintain, but you may
find that this new perspective doesn't require all that
much more energy than the old way of doing things.
November 2008: Pose of the Month, Ustrasana
Each month we're featuring a picture of a real, live teacher
or student for inspiration or yoga-by-osmosis. We'll share
the yoga of the pose and what the practice of it might offer
or require.
This month, the featured pose is ustrasana (oo-stra-sa-na),
or Camel pose in Sanskrit. The pose is a Level I Backbend
(shown here by Denise as a deeper, Level II one-armed version).
Backbends can be invigorating and exciting, but it takes courage
and some skill to reveal your heart in this way. Camels have
a remarkable ability to wander the desert for long treks,
surviving incredible variations in temperature. Why? Because
they have within them the resource (fat in their humps) to
produce more of what they need (water). In the same way, our
own hearts hold everything we already need to survive. We
can trust that they will never run dry or be found lacking.
Physically, this pose takes us from being upright, where we're
comfortable and secure, back in to the unknown. We need to
build trust that we'll be open enough in our chest, and strong
enough in our low back and neck to sustain ourselves.
There are a few keys to building that trust and tapping the
vast potential of our own hearts.
To prepare for Camel, start
with several strong standing poses, like Warriors I and II,
to help you feel warm and confident in your legs. Then move
on to deeper lunges and hip openers to practice keeping space
in the low back through widening the inner thighs, sitting
bones, and waistline. Add thigh stretches to help with mobility
and further space in the low back. (If the thighs are very
tight, they'll pull the thighbones, or femurs, forward, pulling
on the buttocks and low back.)
Finally, practice a few gentle
backbends, such as cobra or bow pose, to open the upper back.
Not only will these poses get you in the mood for deeper backbending,
they'll help you to strengthen the muscles of the neck. Often
in Camel pose and other backbends where the head is unsupported,
that lack of external support translates in to either the
head tipping back too quickly or the head staying forward
as the arms and shoulders try to go back. When practicing
the preparatory backbends, keep the back of the neck long
even as you take the top of your throat (at the level of the
hyoid bone) back and the head of your arm bones back. Then
you can curl into a backbend safely and freely, initiating
the movement from the upper palate and finishing by lifting
the bottom tips of the shoulderblades into the heart.
Before practicing Camel (and
variations), take a moment and reflect on the resources that
you're already carrying around with you. Know that even if
what you have doesn't exactly seem like what you need, you
have only to engage your own heart to convert what you hold
in to something you can use. Now, come to your knees with
your toes tucked at first. Feel the strength of your legs
beneath you and move your throat and arm bones back. Widen
through your pelvis from the inner thighs to the back waistline.
Keeping your thighs back, gently draw your tailbone down and
feel a lift in the low belly. Once this is established, begin
to curl into the backbend from the roof of your mouth and
take one hand then the other to your heels. Continue to deepen
the backbend by drawing the bottom tips of the shoulderblades
into your heart.
To go deeper, try taking one
arm up and over head or walking your hands closer to the backs
of your knees. Remember to sustain the pose with your breath.
Like the fat in the camel's hump, your breath is rich and
potent and can be used to keep you from being at the mercy
of life's great fluctuations and remind you that what you
have is what you need.
october 2008
This month, the featured pose is pincha mayurasana (pin-cha
ma-your-ah-sa-na).
The pose, a Level II Handbalance, translates from Sanskrit
as Peacock Feather, and you can see by the picture that the
form of the pose tends to curve like a feather.
But why would you ever want to do this pose? Nate, our model
for this first month, loves this pose because it's fun and
because it's easier to balance in than Handstand (forearms
provide more foundation than just your hands). Inversions
simultaneously require courage and the willingness to see
things from a different point of view as well as provide an
energetic rush, like a second cup of coffee or yerba.
Like many poses in yoga, this pose both requires some upper
back and shoulder flexibility and strength as well as providing
that opening and strength.
september 2008
the beginning of each new cycle is in the dark.
each day, each year, even the cycle of life and death.
in the dark, potential is unlimited.
but moving into the darkness is also
moving toward the scary, horrific place of the middle and
beginning to come out the other side,
transformed.
it's the place of the equinox.
give the powers of nature their due.
if we're not afraid a little bit, that's a problem.
a little fear is necessary.
if we're not a little bit disturbed by what we see, we haven't
been shaken up enough by yoga.
it's in this stage of yoga that we know it's up to us.
we're sovereign over our experience.
with our eyes closed, we turn in to our self, in all its darkness,
mystery, and unknown potential.
time for a new cycle.
august 2008
as we move along in
this practice, it both widens and gets sharper.
we access more of ourselves and the world.
at the same time, our preferences are more honed.
we don't want just anything.
we're not interested in 'whatever.'
we're interested in specifics. we're interested in the sacred:
here, not there.
now, not then.
this, not that.
we're getting right to the point of it all.
and that sharp point is you.
of all the things the world could do, it chose you.
you are the point the universe is making.
july 2008
this summer, celebrate what you've accomplished.
maybe a degree of higher education,
completion of some relationship,
release of some or other cycle of your life.
as you hold these celebrations dear,
enjoy these sweet summer moments of play and creativity
even as you look forward to
the unforseen possibilities of growth this fall.
will your studentship take you into the seat of the teacher?
will you make room for a new friend?
will you, with all of your uncertainty, step into an unknown
role?
june 2008
it's easy to remember when you're standing and holding a block
which way the head of the arm bone goes.
maybe not so easy when you're upside-down and backwards?
what does it take to learn these principles,
to make them so ingrained that
in a moment where the stakes are higher, where we might stand
to lose
a moment of bliss,
a relationship,
our breath,
we can in an instant
access
the clarity of our own hearts.
we may act and speak from what we've learned there.
that's called wisdom.
may 2008
every
heart longs to see itself in reflection.
how are we ensured that we're getting the full,
true
picture?
we see ourselves reflected back by our kula,
the company that our heart chooses to keep.
and every heart in the kula
stands affirmed in her place of power and
recognition.
the company of your choice is all the many ways you access
the vision of your self,
and it's all the many ways you are
(and i'll quote Mary Oliver here:)
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
april 2008
vimarsha.
this is an invitation to
reflect.
back, on what you received.
with gratitude.
what is the taste of the
experience of your experience?
what has it been like for you?
what did you get?
kula? a pose? a seat? a practice?
and reflect forward,
towards what you'd like to get.
what would you want more of?
how much?
contemplate these three:
what do you want?
how much do you want it?
what are you willing to do about it?
the way in which you answer the above
shapes the way we go forward.
as a yoga, and as a kula.
(yes! I do want to read/hear your vimarshas.)
March 2008
in any
position, there is
potential
for optimal alignment and health.
simultaneously, wherever you are,
you are already
full, purna, perfect.
imagine for yourself an energetic twin,
who holds you in all your fullness and perfection.
when we make
conscious efforts
to synchronize with that blueprint
our body senses that we're meeting our potential.
it becomes stronger, more resilient.
everything flows with more ease.
February 2008
vinyasa -
a sequence of poses held for a short amount of time
without interruption or resting
it's about swimming to match the current,
not
getting swept away.
more about placing ourselves, our bodies, our kula
in a special way,
moving within the rhythm (tala) of our breath
January 2008
niralambaya tejase
this last line of the Anusara Invocation literally means
a light not supported by anything else
a light that doesn't depend on anything else will endure.
when we connect to this radiant, ever-burning, heat-building
light,
we connect to a certain power.
a certain kind of stamina and strength
to hold ourselves in our choices with integrity.
Infinite Bliss Yoga, 1507 Bardstown Road,
Louisville, KY 40205
On the corner of Bardstown Road & Eastern Parkway, between
Objects of Desire and PizzAroma
502.485.0121 or Allison@infiniteblissyoga.org
|