Today when I woke up, I felt excited to get on the mat and be with my Kula. But once I got on that mat, I felt stiff in my hamstrings and a moment of, "Oh no!" came over me. During our debrief it was good to know that reminents of Michael Jackson's, "You are not alone" was shared by all! When you open yourself mentally to grace (to life, to freedom) you will physically open. I promise!
I'd like to take a moment to rewind and share a few yoga facts with you:
- Yoga is a harmony, a union of your individual self (which makes you unique) and the universal self (the source from where we ALL come from) pretty cool, huh?
- Yoga was established about 1600 years ago as a formal tradition.
- There are more people practicing yoga in the entire world than in India.
- Though Classical and Advaita Vedanta yoga existed before, we now practice a form of yoga known as Tantra
- Tantra yoga (Tan= Expand, Tra=an instrument) is to expand ourselves, to integrating everything together so that we can look for the good.
The class during lecture and discussion was very philosophical today with questions like, "Why was yoga not made into a religion?", "Why don't we practice Classical yoga?", "If we have to have faith, is yoga then not a religion?".... I can't get into or discuss this yet as, it all depends. (I should also note that when you don't know the answer, It All Depends, is the right answer)
Let's look at the physical pratice we learned today. Our focus was on Muscle Energy today, Muscle energy is when you draw your muscles from the outside into one of the three focal points in your body, it is a movement of out to in. We learned to refine the four poses, Tadasana, Uttanasana, Adho Mukha Svanasana and Virabradrasana II (Hope I spelt all those right). The biggest learning and struggle today was finding the sacrum and arching it to create a curve in the lower back. Not to be confused with arching your kidney and T12 bone in the back, which in the long term can do the opposite of opening you. This will take patience and practice to get it. The good was that I could keep my arms in the right form during this exercise AND I managed to get through all the crazy things we did with the block today and it was FUN!
To teach yoga is to share knowlegde, it is to observe your students and refine their poses with simple, accurate instructions. I never realised how difficult and how much preparation went into it, until today! So without the use of my notes, I am going to write up a TRY THIS for you, if you're up for it!
Try This: Tadasana (Mountain Pose: looks easy. It isn't!)
Stand with your feet parallel
Aligning the base of your second toe to the centre of your ankle
Ground your feet heavy into the ground as if you have roots that stretch into the earth you stand on
Keep your legs straight
Imagine your leg muscles pulling up and tight like you're putting on really tight, tights.
Inhale and draw your Chest and shoulders up to your ears and back until your shoulder blades are flat on your back (it may feel funny but THIS is opening. It pushes your heart forward, open!)
Arch your lower back to also help with opening
Now put your palms together in a prayer in front of your heart.
How did it go? Could you follow these and did they make sense? Let me know!
Time to study, wash up and have another spectacular sleep and wake up to life!
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