DAILY Upward Bow or Wheel Pose Setting up a strong preparation is 90% of accomplishing a back bend. Lie on back, bring feet in as close to buttocks as possible, place them parallel, hip width. Put a block between them to keep that parallel mindfulness in place. Place hand 3-4 inches from ears, fingers toward feet, forearms perpendicular to floor if possible. If elbows splay, place a strap around upper arm, above elbows to maintain parallel power in arms. Take a breath, exhale into feet, lifting hips up, take another breath and on exhale press hands down and lift chest, placing crown of head on floor. Open shoulder girdle, and press shoulder blades into back as you lift. If this is your first time, remain here, breathing. Come down the same way you went up, ie lift head and release neck, chin down, come onto upper back, then hips. Congratulate yourself…a lot. If you are fine moving on from here, continue to press inner feet into floor, and rise up like a lotus from your muddy waters. Bring chest toward the hands, not the feet. Work the hamstrings, not the buttocks muscles. The softer the buttocks, the more space you create in lumbar area, lengthening tailbone toward the knees. Work the arms outward, as parallel as possible, with most of weight at base of index fingers. Let head hang. On the first back bend, it’s nice to rise onto tiptoe, which offers more space to the shoulder girdle, once opened you can lower the heels. If and when breath becomes labored back off the pose. Take it in small bites, not one big gulp. Health Notes: Don’t work with this pose if you have carpel tunnel, headache, high blood pressure, or serious back issues. Otherwise it’s a fabulous pose to fight… Read more »
Read moreSearch Results for: Urdhva Dhanurasana
Camatkarasana
Wild Thing Pose This is a pose we all love and know as, ‘flipping your Dog.’ Enter from Adho Mukha Svanasana-Down Dog, lift R leg up and bend knee, keeping thigh and knee high and open. Bring weight onto L hand as R foot comes down behind L hip, as close to hip as possible. Knee can remain bent, but try to keep R leg extended, pressing down into feet, lifting hips and heart as high as you can. It feels like you unfurl into a one sided back bend. Let head and R arm extend back and up. A small note to help maintain high hips after flipping, look under L arm at L foot as long as possible, until the R leg is over and almost down. To return to Down Dog, flip back the way you came, bringing L arm over to floor, returning R leg back to mat. When you become advanced, you can take this pose into Urdhva Dhanurasana- back bend. Health Notes: As with the chest and heart openers, helps with depression, and fatigue. Strengthens arms, legs, and back. keeps spine flexible.
Read moreFull Moon At Dusk
Her imponderable weight rises Caught by skeletal spring branches Of the neighbor’s pear tree, Momentarily enmeshed In tiny nets of unfurled bud. She hangs- dropping gold. Lighter, she lifts silvery Full-orbed, pendulous Breasts and belly wrapped In sheets of silent silk. Her honeyed sheen dazzling The night sky Blazing a trail for other galaxies. Resplendent, radiant, rutilant, Equal consort to the Sun. She surrenders herself to earth Gathering the lost. Her turning reaches dark corners, Shadowed lives of the un-forgiven Now carry her light. *NB Note that this Saturday’s single class at 8:30 AM will shake and bake under the Full Moon -with ritual, dance, howling and chocolate. A time to welcome spring in all her manifestations and celebrations. Planetary Energies You are howling-aren’t you? Full Moon rising as I write. Remember, they often complete un-finished business by bringing to light a new understanding of un-answered questions. I remind you that this is a Super Full Moon, packing a larger punch for the earth, for all things watery, such as tides, and bodies. The dynamic bickering and mishaps of the past two weeks, many having to do with relationship, will grow clearer. The Moon-Sun face off in Libra-Aires is about the other in relation to self. Have you noticed lately the high emotional content of many contacts? Now we can perceive subconscious energies we’ve been dealing with, usually, old family patterns. Time for setting new boundaries, along with greater forgiveness-usually for self, if not others. Reminders that this spring is especially spicy, with fundamental changes demanded of all of us. We are re-looking at- ‘what must I do to build a better mouse trap?’ Help arrived with Mercury going direct on the 4th, but Pluto retrogrades Tues. 10th. Mars remains ‘backward’ until the 14,th soooo, continue paying… Read more »
Read moreJudging March Madness
Is March-Madness an outer or an inner state? It is a tippy month of seasonal change, coming in like a lion, out like a lamb, with everything in between. Does the body simply yearn any excuse to disrobe the inner quiet of winter? And is the inward turning, peace, or pent-up energy? Is the Vernal Equinox, marking the beginning of the Astrological New Year, an unconscious goad for uprisings and shifts? Does March, in wringing out winter, and begging spring re-birth, set needed chaos into motion? I find myself suddenly and surprisingly expressing strong opinions/judgments about the mildest ideas… “It should be this, not that”… “I refuse to accept that “This is all wrong.” Have I grown into one of the many over-the-top, blah blah blah-opinionated March Hares I so abhor? Speaking of judgment. It’s certainly more self-aggrandizing, and fun, to blame my madness on others, or abstruse abstract reasoning. Harder to sit with an inner judge who has pronounces life in authoritative, often autocratic, opinions. There are more than ten meanings listed for ‘judgment’ but you have to travel down to the sixth meaning, in Webster’s New International, to find judgment having anything to do with the mental act of judging, that is, dealing with comparison and discrimination, or placing a value judgment on something. What does this have to do with March, you ask? As outer and inner grounds thaw, it provokes un-settled nerves. What has occurred inside the winter chrysalis? I have no idea, but know I’m about to find out. I feel changes, but cannot yet act on them. Perhaps we all mirror the earth, turning toward a new cycle, but cannot yet access who and how we are to be. I feel old, well-habited skin re-shaping itself into a new form, but cannot yet assume… Read more »
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