New Yoga Anatomy Tool

I’m starting an Anatomy for Teachers pilot course soon and considering the best

Yoga anatomie (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

options for imaging. There’s the Kaplan Anatomy Coloring Book, available for free download, and some great advanced video footage from Thomas Meyers’ Anatomy Trains workshops and dissections, all focused on fascia and meridians. But the ability to imagine the systems in motion and working together is golden. There’s a new set of software that promises just that, and at a really affordable cost:  Multi-fit’s Anatomy Imaging Software, with one section focused on yoga anatomy:

If you’ve used this software, please leave a comment describing your experience. I’ll report on mine in future posts.

Synaptic Gasp (Photo credit: ocean.flynn)

Related articles

• Anatomy of a Dissection (chaikadai.wordpress.com)
• Henry Gray’s ‘Anatomy: The Anatomical Basis of Clinical Practice’ (boeatau.wordpress.com)
• The Anatomy of Laughter (5min.com)

Alignment is Everything

strength in the engagement of the legs translates into core strength

Alignment sounds so very boring and technical, and yoga is almost always an expression of joy, a time to relax and let go into the present, and to be, sink into our bodies and discover our present moments.

So why bother talking very much about alignment, except in teacher training? I mean, obviously teachers should know something about alignment, but do we really need or want to interrupt the flow of class with it?

Yes! As a teacher, I attach great importance to speaking poetically about alignment and bringing out the metaphor of aligning with our inner truths, even exploring the duality that the concept implies. Alignment is absolutely the core teaching of, in and about yoga pose, because without attention to alignment of joints, planes and limbs, the poses only reinforce the very habits – samskara – we are in yoga class to unravel, unknot and unlive. In the absence of attention to alignment, we are not only unsafe mechanically, but we are grinding the grooves of our habitual responses ever deeper.

Let’s look at a simple pose, like Virabhadrasana, Warrior I. One foot forward, one back, hips square to small edge of mat, arms up. Simple, right? Simple, but not easy.

back leg is falling asleep and the hips have no energy!

The back leg reaching back has a tendency to fall, bend at the knee and generally “hang out”. When we energize and straighten it by engaging the muscles 360 degrees to center, what happens in the pelvis? The hamstrings and the hip flexors – iliopsoas – are opposing one another. By engaging that back leg, we tug the hip flexors, which sounds great, right – stretch is good. But what are we likely stretching?

More likely, we’re stretching the abs, not keeping the core engaged, compressing the low back and simply tugging the front of the pelvis down a bit. Why, How? The back femer, reaching back, brings with it the attachment of the hip flexor, which stretches as much as it can. Cool. But it’s a deep and not easily sensed muscle. What happens when it gets to it’s maximum? it tugs on the interior of the pelvis, the next place where muscle meets bone. Hmmm. There’s another section that crosses to the spine, and this is in turn stretched by the pelvis careening forward, but only to its limit. Beyond that, the belly pooches and the tailbone comes up. The low back in between gets crunched like a sandwich in a brown bag at the bottom of your backpack. Ouch.

And this is probably a familiar progression if you do any office work or driving at all, because the hip flexor is in it’s relatively contracted position for long periods of time. This is familiar, this is habit. This is what we’re here to bring attention to. And alignment allows us to do so.

What if you felt the alignment of your ribcage and pelvis in Mountain – the pose that looks suspicously like just standing there only with great attention – with a neutral pelvis by placing your thumbs at the bottom of your ribcage and your fingertips on the top of your hip bones. Now, step back into Virabhadrasana I, back foot turned at about 45 degrees, keeping the same alignment between hips and ribcage. Quite a revelation, huh? Notice where you feel engagement to preserve your alignment. Notice where you are tempted to fly out of alignment for the “look” of the pose.

Alignment is everything because awareness is everything. Whether you understand it from technical anatomical terms or from putting your hands on your ribs and hips to feel when they move, the awareness is what yoga is all about. Without it, you’re a Rhinestone Warrior.

Yoga Phrases that Befuddle & Bewilder

Poll time! What’s your pet peeve yoga-ism? Some phrase you’ve heard in yoga class that makes you go “Huh? Are you Kidding?” And of course they aren’t – that’s the funniest part

Have you been asked to “Bloom your sitting bones” and thought you’d rather Bloomin bloom bloom, if you only knew what it meant?

Leave your favorite – or least fave! – yoga-ism in the comments below and I’ll do my best to de-mystify or at least de-sanctify it! Sometimes, we just need to take it all a little less seriously, so we can get on with the parts that really matter.

Abundance

Having made some pretty drastic changes to my career life this year, I’m reflecting daily on what abundance and success mean to me. For real. I’ve been part-time as a Paramedic now for a few months, focused on building a practice as a teacher and a business as a yoga camping retreat facillitator.  My two careers are remarkably complimentary and the life I’m crafting is pretty much what I used to imagine when I was a girl. Pretty Cool.

I knew I’d move slowly, deliberately in my building. I knew that like learning yoga, building a practice and a living is best done one brick at a time. I don’t know about the rest of you teachers out there, or entrepeneurs of any stripe, independent, free-thinking crafters of service and beauty, but one of my most determined demons is named “Enough.” Is there enough, do I have enough, do I do enough, do I know enough, Am I enough, will there be enough? Enough knowledge, classes, time, strength, patience.

And the answer every day has been “yes” and that shrinks the demon a bit, but this demon drinks from a deep well, the well of emptiness that is at the center of being a human being, the one we identify with our fears, traumas, shortcomings and failures until we learn that it just is and that that’s Ok. But it really is part of being human, so it remains. And by sitting with it, calmly and persistently I’ve learned the meaning of abiding and of love.

And today I got to dance with it in the park, and we both forgot it was a demon. I’m working on building an outdoor yoga class in a park near my house, so Tuesdays at Noon I go the park and practice. So far it’s been alone, which is only a problem if you were hoping it to be different. I’m promoting it and have garnered interest, but so far I’m alone. More experienced teachers tell me this is part of the building experience. I wonder if I should make it earlier (Albuquerque is rather warmish at Noon, and it’s monsoon season, so it’s what passes for humid in the desert), should I go to a park in a more upscale neighborhood ( we are decidedly working class here in my ‘hood), should…. I should do yoga, I decide.

And I’m about to flip my dog on the second side when I look up and my eyes meet the lovely grey eyes of a little girl watching – she later tells me she’ll be 10 in September – one arm tucked behind her back, hand wrapped in front of her opposite elbow, legs entwined, head cocked to the side. We both smile. I flip & ask if she’s ever done yoga. Once. She joins me in downdog and we laugh at the name. She follows me into pigeon and her sisters and friend join us. We’re all doing pigeon, except for the youngest who is bouncing into people and grass like the park’s a mosh pit, giggling all while, and we join her as I teach them what to call pigeon in Sanskrit, our heads bouncing from side to side as we sing-song through “Eka-pa-da-ra-ja-kap-o-ta-sa-na”, little mosh darling falling down among us.

And I think, “This is IT. This is what I want, this is what I do. This is enough. This is more than enough. This is everything.” And even my demons laugh and all fall down.

Drawing In

I tried this as an experiment recently: Sivasana at the beginning and end of class.  I’ve decided that it’s an advanced practice.

Doesn’t sound tough does it? It’s like nap time at the beginning. But have you watched three year olds who just came in from recess try to lay down? It’s like that pop-up gopher game where you’re meant to pop the puppets back down with a soft mallet. Monkey mind most active.

What a tremendous testament to our practice. Sivasana is nearly torturous for many at the beginning, and almost always luscious at the end. What’s changed? The embodied mind.

If you want to try this practice of playing dead both before and after, I suggest that you give yourself some structure for the beginning. Begin by noting sensation in your extremities. Really pay attention and feel it. Then pay attention to your sensation in your core (if you can find any at this stage, you’re particularly in touch that day). Then with each breath draw the sensations from your arms and legs and neck into your core. Now, I’m not suggesting you draw in pleasure or pain, just the unnamable raw sensation, unjudged. Some might call it energy. But it’s very concrete when you locate it within your body: the sense you have of your own body. Use your breath to draw it in.

Finally, draw all your attention to sensation down to your low abdomen and feel it expand and contract with each breath. By relaxing and contracting the low belly when breathing you are mechanically & chemically signalling your “slow down” nervous system to wake up. That’s right, wake up to slow down. There are all kinds of opposites that come together on the mat.

Self-possessed, Resolute, Act…

“Self-possessed, Resolute, Act

without any thought of results

Open to success or failure,

This equanimity is yoga.”  ~Bhagavad Gita 2.43

Practicing the yamas and niyamas while diving into new endeavors is a unique kind of challenge, I’m finding. New endeavors are exciting, energizing, but can be anxiety provoking. We’re breaching new territory, breaking old patterns, creating new (hopefully more conscious) ones.

Anxiety has a way of encouraging me to reach for old familiar patterns. And grasping is familiar. My way of grasping, though has a drivenness to it, an insistence on white-knuckle motion forward that can look like fearlessness, while it’s entirely the opposite. Some of my friends go into caves when they’re confronted with new and challenging situations, some run the other way, some go into their heads… there are as many ways of sheltering ourselves from the stress as there are people.

But there are equally many ways of remaining vulnerable, open, unconstructed in the face the exhillerating beauty we have – we often forget – invited into our own lives. For me, the yama of aparigraha – nongrasping – is key to returning over and over again to this open heartedness.

This week has been a blast for me. I’m teaching more this week than ever and have two workshops over the weekend. I’m swimming in yoga, and it feels good. And sometimes, when I take the bird’s eye, outsider’s view, I’m terrified, humbled and wonder if I’m stark raving mad. The nattering nay-bobs of negativity chatter away and doubt seeps in any crack and crevice. What if… what if no one comes? what if i have nothing to say or do? what if i freeze? what if i’m not …. enough?

And so I was able to write the quote above from the Gita by heart – not because my memory is full of such wisdom, but because I’ve read, said, written and embraced it so much this week it’s written on the inside of my forehead and transcribed into my soul.

Possessed by Self, resolute : Act. Prepare, practice, investigate, live in the moment, till the ground, plant the seeds, and, when the moment becomes ripe: Act. Then, the consequences are secondary, not even on the same plane. If you inhabit the place of the Self, the consequences aren’t even personal, they’re just action and reaction working themselves out, a play of energies to be observed and then… Act again.

 

 

Meditation, Restoration

From Thich Nhat Hanh’s Transformation and Healing:

“When body and mind are one, the wounds in our hearts, minds, and bodies begin to heal. As long as there is separation between body and mind, these wounds cannot heal. During sitting meditation, the three elements of breath, body and mind are calmed, and gradually they become one. … When there is oneness of body and mind, the breathing serves as “harmonizer,” and wee realize peace , joy, and ease, the first fruits of meditation practice.” (p. 45)

A note for Tuesday nighters: last night we started adding sitting meditation after our asana practice. Also an “off the mat” pose you can use at the office or grocery, on a hike or while doing the dishes.  As ever, I want to support you in taking your yoga into your world in idea, word and deed. Most of all, in energetic stillness.

Also remember, next week is the much sought after “Restorative Tuesday”! We have some luscious deep letting go to engage!

Namaste

:I bow to the gentle power & fierce beauty of you

New Yoga Teacher Podcast

Yay! just want to spread the word: Elsie and Hillary have a new podcast chat about teaching: www.mudramoments.com.  Yes, it rocks. You should go listen to it!

Growing Pains and Milestones

I’m a great believer in celebrating small everyday milestones and delights, as well as acknowledging the embarrassing and unexpectedly awkard moments along the way.  Usually, I find unexpected events contain blessings I wasn’t smart enough to ask for for myself, but sometimes that has to be unearthed from feelings of being out of control, not measuring up or having let someone down – perhaps the three biggest causes of embarrassment I can think of right now. Sometimes it’s so tempting to turn away and hope either no one else noticed or that they noticed but didn’t realize it was your responsibility. Of course, this temptation is so foolish, in the deepest sense of that word, because the information is locked in your soul, wearing away at your sense of self, building a false one and keeping you from your best.

So, the celebration? I had my biggest class ever last night! 12 people! I know, it doesn’t sound like Carnegie hall, but it’s so different from having four or five people.  I’m excited by but not yet comfortable with so many students, being used to giving very individualized attention, expanding my awareness to include so much movment, so many moments, so many levels was a great challenge. 

After class I realized my yoga pants have a hole in the butt.

What a comedown.

Maybe no one else  saw?

Yeah, right.

But that was just one of those “C’est la vie!” moments – what can you do? Class is over & no one keeled over as a result of seeing my butt. Well, there was that one woman falling in Trikonasana…? just kidding

Adjustments are so intimate, the hands on ones especially. There is something of a May-December romance about them… “Here, try putting pressure just there… how does that feel?” There’s a sense of trust and vulnerability on both parts. Obviously the student is trusting the teacher to know what they’re doing and have caring intentions. The teacher, too, has to have watched the student enough to know how much they are attuned to their own body, to know how deeply their connection to their own embodiment reaches, and not to work more deeply than the student is prepared to respond.

I wanted to crawl under my mat Tuesday evening when I assisted a student in falling awkardly from a headstand attempt.  Well, to say I assisted the fall is to assume too much control. We were both surprised by the fall, and while I had the presence of mind to go with and settle her in balasana after she was down (unhurt, thank goodness!), she was shaken and I was mortified. What kind of teacher am I that she would fall while I was assisting her!

Well, of course, that would be the human kind. How many times did I fall when “assisting” myself into headstand? How many times have I fallen since supposedly mastering it, because I was either unattentive or trying something new? (my latest experiment is pressing up into handstand from it…. that’ll be a while

Now, I did learn that there’s a difference between asking someone to press their leg down into your hand and actually specifying that they should keep it straight while doing so, which I will do in the future. Moreso, I learned a little bit of what to look for in someone who is really ready to go upside down. Before we did it she told me she never had before. After, she told me the experience frightened her. It challenged me deeply to be steady and let her own this information about herself and integrate it in her own time. On my own part, I’m integrating what I’m learning about observing students’ readiness and emotions.

My own teacher has recently had t-shirts printed with her favorite translation of Sutra 1.2 (yogah citta vrttti nirodha): “Don’t believe everything you think.” These awkward falling times are such a rich ground in which to plant this wisdom: what was I thinking during that disturbing experience? is it something I believe? is it accurate? does believing it draw me closer to the person I want to become?  Does realizing I believe it make me feel the same way as finding out too late I have a hole in my pants?

A little shot of realism….

Shockingly (only to me), two yoga classes a day plus teaching plus a full time job plus my family is too much! I do have to admit that with the idea in mind I’ve been more focused and actually been on the mat quite a lot, so the plan was not an entire goof. But really, who did I think I am?

So, in the interest of maintaining my home practice, which feeds everything else, I’m focusing on Bikram this week. I feel a bit guilty and disloyal to my studio… a feeling partially dissolved by writing those words.

So I’ll go to a later class today and spend my morning with my home practice preparing to teach. I really should get rid of the mean coach in my head who thinks that blinding focus, grinding schedules and deprivation are assets. 

I did notice last night that my teaching is being affected by my new interest. I’m focusing on stillness and muscular activation more, and sequencing based on wringing & flooding actions. All to the good, I think. 

Off to my mat!