Turn out or lift the heels in drop backs? Feeling sore, should I take a day off? My doctor says I should stop practicing Ashtanga?--Ask a question

Students often write me with specific questions concerning their practice. Here are a few of the answers I have given the past couple of months. Enjoy!


1) Hi David,

I have been attempting to come up from drop back by pushing into my arms and using momentum to rock up to standing. I am able to rock up about 50% of the time. My heals tend to come up most of the time. I noticed in the PT3 video your student's heel also comes up but in the other video's the students heels don't come up but sometimes the toes go out like in 2nd position in ballet. What is the correct position?

Hi ____,
The correct position for coming up is variable, it can be different for different people. Generally I prefer lifting the heels to turning the feet out. Or another good option is to use a little combination of heel lift and turn out. I do caution people not to turn out too much, because it can compromise the joints, especially knees. Also lifting the heels can be felt more like transferring the weight forward into the mounds of the toes. It is best to minimumize both lifting the heels and turning the feet out. Rather try to track the hips, knees, feet as straight as possible, but this can be very challenging! Hope this helps. Thanks for writing!! David



2)Hello David,

Thank you so much for your videos. I think they are great. Now I'm new to yoga (a month or so) and I want to practice every day but i feel so sore sometime i cant even do the asanas right. Any advice? I appreciate any help and thank you in advance.

Hi _____, thanks for your message. That's great you've taken to yoga. It's natural you're feeling so sore because it's all so new. Practice as often as you can, but don't be too hard on your body or your self. You can do a smaller practice on those days when you feel you can't do the asana's right. But it is good to try to do a little bit each day, it's only if you get really, really sore and tired that you should take an extra day off when you need it. Best Wishes, David



3)Hi David,

I've been practicing Ashtanga yoga since October last year during a vacation in Bali from Prem & Radha. And I've been following your blog since then.

Since learning the primary series, I practiced every day at home.
Unfortunately I live in a place where there is no authorized/certified teacher. After a medical check up, I was diagnosed with mild scoliosis to the right. Another doctor also found I have a carpal tunnel syndrome (right wrist).

I told the doctor my sole fitness regime: Ashtanga 6 days a week.
She told me to quit Ashtanga as it seems it gives lots of pressure to my wrist. And the inversions, will only make my scoliosis worse.

I stopped practicing this week and substituted it with swimming every day just like the doctor told me. And I feel terrible. I miss my practice. Is there any way to keep doing my practice with carpal tunnel syndrome & scoliosis?

Hi _____, thank you for sharing your challenges with me.
First I will say yes most definitely you can continue to practice with scoliosis and carpal tunnel syndrome, but there are some extra challenges involved. You most likely will need to modify things and having a teacher can be a big help with this. Concerning your wrist (or wrists), the pain can tend to be episodic or more cyclical. Sometimes the pain may flair up more than others. In that case you have to be sensitive and aware and have a good plan for when you have pain. For instance you can take the pressure off your wrists when you do surya namaskara by: 1) not bending your elbows in catauranga dandasana, and instead go from plank to your next position. Or 2) you can make a fist out of each hand and do the catauranga on your knuckles. Or 3) you can buy a set of those wrist protecting props made by hugger mugger that accomplish the same fist idea but in a little fancier way. And 4) you can simply minimize or not do the postures that involve weight bearing on your wrists. For example you can go through both surya namaskara a and b using the wall without putting weight on your wrists. 5) you can do less surya namaskara and spend more time on the standing postures and other postures that don't involve weight bearing on the hands/wrists. When you get to the seated postures you can modify, reduce or eliminate the jump back/jump through vinyasa. These are just some of the possibilities, please know that there is always a way to modify the practice to suit specific problems or other extra requirements.

The essential ingredient is a love of ashtanga and in maintaining a steady devotion and trying to do the practice as accurately as your given circumstances allow. Inversions don't necessarily have to contribute to your scoliosis, but I would advise you to eliminate them until you are able to receive instruction from a highly qualified teacher. There are many aspects of the practice besides inversions to develop and enjoy at this time. Hopefully sometime sooner than later you'll be in position to get some hands on help with the challenges you are facing. But in the meantime you can try experimenting with the suggestions I've made and let me know how it's going.

One last small note is that there will always be someone to tell you that you can't do ........... the list of possible things or activities or dreams is endless and so is the list of people who will tell you can't do that something. Sometimes they may be right but equally sometimes they are wrong. And ultimately you have to decide how important something is to you. And when you've decided on that something that is important enough to you, you may need to guard and protect the heck of it in order to for it to remain a strong, positive force in your life. As people we can tend to be suspicious of what we don't know about, and if on the surface something looks strange or exotic or very different from what we know or are used to, we can tend to form negative impressions of that thing. But our own fear and unwillingness to be open to new or different things can us cause to make wrong assessments of things and to unfairly judge what we don't have enough information to be judging. I believe it would be a true waste for you to stop developing the ashtanga yoga practice that you have begun and love. If you practice properly there is a strong chance that ashtanga can help correct or at least minimize the negative effects of both of your problems better than any thing else that you will try. I have found that ashtanga applied properly, has huge potential for transformation and healing. Om! David

The Diaphragm is Key!! Don't Forget It. Observe It.

The diaphragm is the main muscle involved in breathing; when you get an experiential feeling of its actions, that knowledge helps you breathe better and thus helps you develop your yoga practice.
You can learn to sense the diaphragms anatomical location within the torso and to follow its contraction (inhalation) and relaxation (exhalation) phases. The diaphragm is a large sheet or dome shaped muscle that resembles a mushroom or a parachute and divides the upper and lower abdomen. It has an unattached gathering of fibers called the central tendon at its top that helps give its dome shape.

It attaches to several sets of ribs and has 'stems' that are called crura that attach to vertebrae along the front of the lower spine. The diaphragm is both a particularly large muscle and a core muscle. This is significant because, being large, its rhythm, actions and movements are quite easy to observe. And considering its deep and central location , the basic observation of its actions can take you far within your self, into the root and center of you.

Here's an image for you to work with: Imagine that your torso is a vast inner ocean. And the diaphragm is a giant jelly fish that is entirely at home floating up and down on the ocean currents within your torso. As you inhale experience its fibers contract, move down, flatten and spread and as you exhale experience its fibers relax, move up, bunch together and reform their dome like shape. Work with this image until you feel that the diaphragm's coming and going rhythm is THE fundamental rhythm within you; feel how central this rhythm is and how when you really tune into it, this rhythm pervades your entire body, and imagine that this rhythm could be the source of all of your movements. Following your diaphragms actions can lead you to discover and activate bandha's. For example, the elusive and challenging practice of mula bandha can be accessed with more ease and more logic when you approach it through observing the movement of the diaphragm. As you watch the rising and falling and expansion and contraction of the diaphragm see how the pelvic floor mimics the diaphragm by lowering and widening as you inhale and then rising and 'bunching' together as you exhale. When you tune into the diaphramatic and pelvic floor actions particularly during exhalation, you can better understand how to effectively 'seal' the pelvic floor in order to 'pull up' and redirect apana vayu. Both the pelvic floor and the diaphragm are horizontal, sheet like surfaces within the torso, one large (diaphragm) and one small (the pelvic floor). These two areas share a synergy, they act symphonically, and tuning into the larger, grosser one helps you tune in to the smaller, more subtle one.

Mula bandha is often defined as 'forcibly pulling up apana vayu' and causing the otherwise downward apanic energy to flow upwards. The upward movement of the diaphragm during exhalation provides you with the means of finding this redirection, the 'against the grain' energetic upward direction that characterizes mula bandha. You can achieve mula bandha by causing your perineum to ride on the coattails of the diaphragm as it ascends the torso when you exhale thoroughly, and there by seal your prana at the root. Following the grosser rhythm of the diaphragm and then the more subtle rhythm of the pelvic floor is what trains you to 'master' your senses, by moving mentally inwards towards center and gaining the ability to discern more and more subtle plays of opposing energetic, skeletal and muscular patterns.

Due to it's ability to help you tune in to Muladhara, the root support at your base, following the diaphragm also helps you to sustain your attention along the central axis from it's earth origins upwards. Observing the vertical action of the diaphragm and its influence on the pelvic floor is the key to aligning your self along the axis known as the pillar of light or most glorious (Shushumna). To be able to sustain your focus along the center line of the body from the base through the crown is one of the rewards of practicing pranayama partly due to observing the diaphragm within your torso and understanding how to optimize its muscular actions. Start by befriending the giant jelly within, see how to shape and guide the movements of this large muscle, and see how that skill leads to awareness of the more subtle physical actions following the breathing patterns all the way to their ends and awakening the the subtle actions of the bandha's.

And here's one more note: because the diaphragm drives the ever repeating cycle of the breath, it has a major role in helping you understand vinyasa. When you study the diaphragm you study vinyasa from a a central vantage point; through breathing you follow the opposing movement patterns that make up the ashtanga sequences. In Ashtanga yoga practice, through combining vinyasa and breathing, you endeavor to generate and to harness the dynamic bio rhythms at the heart of you. That is why Sri K. Pattabhi Jois called Ashtanga a 'breathing and movement system'. The most accessible way to get to the heart of the rhythm of this breathing and movement system is to doggedly follow the actions of the diaphragm and see how those actions translate into vinyasa, into sequences of rhythmic opposing movement patterns.

See if you can follow the diaphragm's vertical, up and down actions within the torso, focus on the connection between rhythm in breathing and rhythm in creating actions in your asana's and in your movement transitions. Each time you effectively tune into the deeper rhythms of your breath, you are in a position to have some small epiphany about your movement or your posture at its source. Go into your earth support and along your glorious axis, find the immovable state of the asana, get the spectacular view all through the simple act of tuning into the diaphragm and heartily enjoying your breath!

Indepth Study Day Four: Alan Watts Creative Meditation

Here is an excerpt from the book Om Creative Meditations by Alan Watts. This passage explains one of the major themes I am playing with during the Indepth Study.

"What is actually going on in the world is far, far different. Every view that we take of the world and every selection we make of what is important to notice is simply one way of looking at things, and there are infinite ways of looking. Considering such things makes us aware of how much our knowledge of the world is conventional knowledge. We tend to a selection of particular things which we have been brainwashed to notice, and we disregard the rest. It is as if the world were a Rorschach blot and there is one offical interpretation of the blot. Everybody agrees that is the way it is. Along will come some great genius who points out that we can look at the world an entirely different way, and at first everyone will say it is crazy. But if the genius persists long enough, we come to accept the new vision. Now we can look back at Cezanne's paintings and see that it does look like that. We can look at Van Gogh and see that he really did understand how it feels. They have taught us to see.


The moral is that each one of us has a certain veiw of the world which both horrifies and delights us. We have a program for cradle to grave of which we believe society approves, and we get very put out if we do not get to follow it exactly. This social interpretation of the cosmic Rorschach blot is expressed in words and conventions and we think it is what life is all about. Well, it is nothing of the kind. In trying to escape convention and the barriers that words create between you and reality, you may choose to renounce your identity, in effect saying "Now the game is over. Let's find out what lay behind it. What is really going on?" Be very careful that the next passing swami does not sell you on still another institutionalized version of the real world. For instance, the notion that when you are awakened all differentiations will vanish is a conventiaonal view of the universe.

Now obviously there is a way in which you can see the world for yourself; it may very well agree with what other people see and you will be able to communicate that way of seeing to others. It may be by no more than a glint in the eye that you will know someone else sees it just as you do.

All our meditation practices are simply to open our consciousness to what is going on, as distinct from what is said to be going on. To do that, we must suspend our words, suspend our descriptions, and be alert to the actual happening.

It is as simple as that.

-Allan Watts (Om Creative Meditations)

6 Days a week since 93'

The category "From David's Ashtanga Journals" describes excerpts from David's ongoing book journal. The excerpts are minimally edited.

April 4th, 2011

Recently, I told this story about myself in a workshop.

In September my partner and I went to India, it was my first trip there after the death of Guruji. I had emailed Sharath to tell him we were coming and all was set but I had this resistance to Mysore. I'd made more than a dozen pilgrimages to India and never once 'traveled' or seen the other parts of the country. Guruji was in Mysore, why would I want or need to go anywhere else? I was sad to have to directly face that Guruji wasn't there anymore and surfing had been on the back of my mind for more than a decade. As a skateboarder, I would pretend to surf the concrete like a wave. I'd always wanted to set aside some time to have a surf vacation, preferably in or near India so that I could still do some Yoga. But my practice and studying with Guruji always took precedence. But this time I decided to go with the surf yearning...sort of.




Somehow my partner and I ended up on these remote islands off the east coast of India called the Andamman islands. I had a twin objective: to spend some much needed time focusing on my asana practice and surf. We found an idyllic setting on a pristine island. The color of the ocean was dreamy and inspiring. We found a resort with a largely unused Yoga room located up above the lodging area with a panoramic view spanning towards the ocean above the jungle foliage and tree tops.

So the surfing and Yoga combo started well enough. But it didn't take long for the battering of the waves to take its toll on my body. Practice became more like trying to stretch out and 'recover' from surfing. But I was still determined to do both. So I kept pushing for intensity in my practice. Then IT happened. I was in Parivrtta Parsvakonasana-twisting side angle. I felt this little, but distinct lightning bolt streak of strong sensations run directly across my sacrum. I immediately stood up and lost my Yogic powers of detachment and content. I limped around uttering plenty of expletives. I knew almost instantly that my month of intense practice and surfing was finished. I was very disappointed and also angry with myself for pushing just beyond my edge and allowing myself to play so close to it. I regretted the energy I had put into surfing. As the afternoon and next few days unfolded I realized my nightmare was true I could not really bend in any direction forward or backwards in any capacity. I made a decision to work with my Yoga practice in whatever capacity that was available to me no matter how limited. For the next month I did several hours a day of Pranayama alternating between supine positions and dandasana with my feet at the wall.

I thought I had reflected on what happened there and perhaps even extracted lessons out of it but it wasn't until I told this story to the people in the workshop that I realized I hadn't fully processed the event. When I told the story there wasn't really a point, whereas usually when I tell such a story there is some inspiration or message behind it. For me something was still dangling. And then an 'aha' moment came soon after. I'd always had two nagging dreams in my life; The Surfing Dream and The Yoga Dream. I'd had the surfing dream since I was a boy. It was also a fall back idea for me if the Yoga relationship didn't work out. I'd just become a surfer, spend my time in the ocean, riding waves. Then I had the Yoga dream. The Yoga dream was to continue to maintain and develop the art, grace and beauty of my Ashtanga practice. Since that time on the islands I realize there has been a shift in me.

As we all age we see how challenging it is to continue to practice in such a way that our bodies and minds stay truly strong, fit and supple. Other priorites come along to replace the fire, zeal, and devotion we have for practice. It is tempting to let ourselves off the hook thinking that asana is for youth. That somehow being intensely physical has a cut off point-perhaps it does for some of us. But for many of us, the discoveries we make as we flow though our sequences continue to feed our body's, minds, and souls. And we continue to be willing to make the sacrifices necessary to really go into our asana practices. We also realize more and more the extent to which we have to give up other things. This is the key if you want to have a fruitful serious asana practice, you must know it and fashion your life and choices to ensure it. There really is limited time and thus limited things you have available to put your energy into. The reality is that Ashtanga Yoga asks much of you; it gives you much but also asks much. The surfing dream has lost its power over me. Stuck on the Andamman Islands unable to really practice well, unable to surf--but able to sit there with lots of time for incubation and musing--it felt like the universe was saying: ' IF YOU WANT BOTH YOU'LL HAVE NEITHER' ... whoah!

Do you see it? What is holding you back, from going further, I'm talking about things that truly don't belong there. Not things in your life that do belong, like a great job, relationship, children, art and such, ultimately, those things feed you and your soul in just as necessary ways as your practice does. I'm talking about the things only you'll know what they are. The expendable parts of your life that you are choosing to divert your energy into. The reality is that Ashtanga might help a person be better at nearly any physical activity, but nearly any other physical activity will compromise your Ashtanga practice in some way. For me, even how much I admire the soul of true surfing, I still choose my Yoga practice. There's a subtlety to it that is not found elsewhere. Even dreaming about being a surfer diverts my attention, even the possibility that I might drop my serious practice and go surf takes away from my practice.

I now feel more grounded, lighter, and more excited about Yoga practice. I wish I could just touch your feet and you'd feel what I feel and then you would drop those lesser dreams you are harboring that aren't worth it. Funnel your energy towards the real heart of what you want to share, create, and become-- unswerving, able to keep the target in your sights. You'll see a major shift in your experience, new found energy for what you want will arrive to help you. I'm no longer dreaming of surf vacations, I'm dreaming of dropping into my body, into my center, finding that flow, finding the depths, the athleticism, presence, power, finding that ability to illuminate the entire inner field. I prefer sensing, feeling, intuiting and thinking my way into the pure enjoyment, pure consciousness, and the profound experience of now, that Ashtanga Yoga offers.



May 2011 Research for my new Pranayama dvd began on the Andamman Islands.

Asana Kitchen: Working Towards Viparita Chakrasana (PT 3)

To View on my new blog!

Greetings! Here's the final installment of this Viparita Chakrasana series; I could easily have made this an 8 part Asana Kitchen or more!  There is so much to explore about this complex, dynamic, and amazing posture. However, by reviewing pts 1-3 you should be able to make a decent start. Or if you are practicing tics tacs, I hope you can get new ideas for how to develop it and refine it and eventually nail it! Enjoy!

I would also like to mention that the application for my 2011 and 2012 Indepth Studies are now posted on my website.  I will also be teaching a Mysore Intensive in India (Kovalam, Kerala) for the month of February, 2012. You can apply for that on my website as well.

Hari Om,

David

P.S I will be back with a new post in two weeks!

Asana Kitchen: Working Towards Viparita Chakrasana

You can read this on my new blog!


Greetings!

Part two of this series deals with rhythm in the tic tacs. It is the shortest video of the three because I want you to work with the 1, 2, 3, rhythm for a week before you move on to Part three. It is crucial that your body understands how much momentum and rhythmic motion is needed to successfully come back over. So this week your job is to integrate the 1, 2, 3 into your backbend!

Check back next week for part three!

David

Asana Kitchen: Working Towards Viparita Chakrasana or Tic Tac's Part One

You can view this post on my new blog!

I am pleased to announce a new installment of the Asana Kitchen. For the next three weeks I will be posting parts 1-3 of the challenging and beautiful Viparita Chakarasana, otherwise known as Tic Tac’s. I would like to thank all of my students who participated in the filming, Joy for editing the epic post, and Claudia who not only asked the question but also filmed herself doing the posture. Sending in a video was a great way for me to directly see what she needed to work on.

I hope you find the instruction helpful!

Hari Om,
David

The Doubt in Faith

Hello,
I am back in the US touring and teaching. You can find my updated teaching schedule on my website. You can also read this post on my new blog! www.davidgarrigues.com/blog

Filling and Refilling Yoga’s 5 Jars
(Or Qualities to Cultivate for Progress in Practice)
Sraddha—-FAITH
Virya———ENERGY/STRENGTH
Smrti———MEMORY
Samadhi—-MEDITATION
Prajna——-AWAKENING OF WISDOM OR INSIGHT

Found in Yoga Sutra 1-20, this unique combination of qualities are meant to be cultivated and are the gifts of your practice. They can be thought of as 5 jars that you want to fill and keep filling. Note that these jars can be difficult to fill, can easily become depleted, the contents can get used up without your noticing, and you can also easily neglect to fill them back up.

Each person will have a different relationship to the qualities and jars. Sometimes one or two of the jars will seem very large compared to the others. These larger jars will be easier to fill up, easier to keep a ready supply of, and will take longer to deplete. Other jars will be very small, difficult to fill, hard to keep stocked and to replenish. It can be challenging to get an accurate sense of exactly what your relationship to each one is at a given time. For example do I have a big jar of faith that is easy to re-fill, how much faith (vs doubt) about Spirituality and/or my individual path do I really have? How easy is it for me to trust the inner work I’m doing and trust that this personal work is connected to something important, something larger then my ego, something that will lead to healing and wisdom within me and extend to the world around me? The difference between what I believe consciously and what I believe unconsciously might make accurate awareness elusive and therefore thwart my sincere attempts to acquire any given quality.

To make an accurate accessment about my ready supply of these five qualities I need to be able to observe myself carefully and without judgement. If I struggle wtih doubt often, then I need to know that about my self. I need to know that the faith jar will be challenging to fill up and might get depleted easily. But the tricky part is I may also not feel ready to fully face and accept my small doubts nor my large doubt. Here’s a little story that illustrates some of my struggles with faith vs doubt.

Recently I was really chewing on the idea of faith in practice. I felt sorry for a student of mine who is very rational and very skeptical of anything he can’t see. He asked me if he can keep practicing if he doesn’t buy into any of the Hindu underpinnings that are present in Yoga. He dismisses reincarnation, God, prayer, and approaches his study from a perspective of philosophical inquiry with it’s high regard for skepticism and reliance on rational thought. But its not as simple as that because he also doesn’t at all feel like practice is merely physical and finds the idea of practice as a glorified gym workout singularly distasteful. He states plainly that he doesn’t do Yoga for merely physical reasons. Listening to his struggle, I felt so blessed for my seeming ease wtih FAITH. I thought that somehow there’s part of me that simply ‘knows’ that there is a purpose each of us has to fulfill–that our consciousness is meant to be used for realizing the ‘ truth’ or ‘goodness’ of everything, of the Source.

I thought I was done considering the possibility of, ‘What if I believe there is nothing inherently spiritual about people or things? What if I deeply question whether there is any purpose, any grand truth? What if this is all random, meaningless, and there is no ultimate realization or meaning or something that existence is leading to?’

I was mulling all this over when I saw a low budget sign in front of a fire station. This sign had removable letters so that the firemen could post different messages frequently to keep passersby interested. The message on this day read:

SMALL DOUBT SMALL FAITH
GREAT DOUBT GREAT FAITH

Wow!! Revelation—-Faith does not mean blind faith, easy faith. This caused me to really look within, to see the small ways that I lack faith, to see how frequently and largely I doubt both Spirituality in a collective sense and my own personal relationship to my faith. When I really dig down inside I see that faith is something I have wrestled out of my doubt–one practice at a time–something I’ve agonized over and continue to agonize over especially when it’s time to apply my faith. When you look within I imagine you’ll find your supply of faith is contained in a jar you lovingly fill as you pour energy, unstintingly into your practice. Its a freeing and powerful realization that having doubt, large or small, is not necessarily a sign of a lack of faith. It could be quite the reverse–and that could explain why my student so clearly knows that practice is so much more than physical and yet he is not going to pray to Ganesh or take a set of beliefs such as those of reincarnation that don’t fit for him.

Furthermore when you really consider your practice and your relationship to any of these five qualities, you will likely see that, in the long term, none of these jars are easy to fill, nor to keep filled. If you think one of them comes easily, it may behoove you to look again, and see if there is more depth to explore.

Each quality has to be artfully chiseled as a stone mason does when she patiently, one hammer stroke at a time, fashions a figure out of stone. Your ability to meditate (samadhi) to become entirely mentally absorbed in what is unfolding within you will be hewn painstakingly out of your practice. Prajna-wisdom born from deep within your body will also come, hard won, from your practice. Indeed you fashion your energy, insight, faith, concentration, and your memory out of the long string of daily practices performed lovingly with great patience and care.

In closing here’s a little poem that speaks to the challenge of filling and refilling the jars:

How soon do you forget what you just learned in practice? Almost immediately

How soon does doubt replace faith? Almost immediately

How soon is meditation replaced by distraction and scatteredness? Almost immediately

How soon is the bright fire you kindled during practice diminished to a faint glow in the hearth? Almost immediately

How soon is the wisdom you gain, even the deep wisdom covered by ignorance? Almost immediately

There it is, But

I and you begin again

Almost Immediately

Asana Kitchen: Dropping Back (PT 3)

Namaste! I'm pleased to offer Part 3 of The Asana Kitchen's drop back series. I encourage you to get out your mat, warm up your back and practice along with the video and instructions. This time I've also included written notes to supplement the video!
After this I'll have one more post before the New Year. Thank you for following my blog by watching my videos and reading my writings. I'm excited for another year of sharing Yoga with you all. If you have benefited from my blogs I'd appreciate you sharing them with your Yoga friends through any of the social media channels. I'm available as a resource to you and your Yoga community. I would love the opportunity to work with you in person. To invite me to teach at your studio, please send me your contact information and we'll make it happen! Be sure to check back for my last post of the year because I'm going out with bang...! Hari Om!! Jai Ma! Enjoy! David



Review of Alignment Principles for dropping back and coming up:

The arms vertically, actively reach up palms facing each other
Lift the upper spine upwards and curve it far forward into the body.
Move the sacrum forward into the body causing the hips to move forward. Resist the forward movement of the hips by grounding the thighbones, make the thighs powerfully firm and stabilize the legs.
As you start to go back reach up, out and over.
Continue to lift the chest and curve the upper spine up and forward into the body. Keep the legs straight and firm as long as you are able. The stronger and more flexible you are the less you'll ever have to bend your knees when you drop back.
As you drop back, touch down, stabilize the arms, land with as much control as possible, and then let the body sway slightly further in the direction it was already going. Use momentum to rock forward as you prepare the legs to support the weight of the spine. Keep the head back, keep your eyes fixed on a spot between the hands.
Lead with your chest, try to lift and curve the spine creating the exact same action that helped you drop back. Project your spine and hips forward until you feel your legs underneath you supporting your curving spine and head. Keep your head back until the very end finally bringing the head up when you are standing upright.

*Use the wall or other props as is necessary to create a healthy, sustainable step by step progression for learning to utilize the alignment principles.
*Don't go for 'too much too soon'. The true enjoyment and benefit comes from flowing with the dynamic, rhythmic play safely within the limits of your body. Not in reaching an end goal. Use your alignment knowledge to know where your particular edge is.
*Be patient allow several months or however long it takes for the proper knowledge and body intelligence to come to you in order to master this life affirming, dynamic move.

***Note about the pelvis as you set up to drop back: rotate the pelvis in a slight backward tilt (like a gentle tuck, but not a tuck that flexes the lumbar spine)
achieve the feeling of this backward rotation by imagining the pelvis as the paddle wheel of a mississippi steamboat. (the axle passes through the hip joints). Imagine the paddle wheel turns in a counter clockwise direction, moves up and over from front to back.
*****Also note lengthening the coccyx means cultivating a sense that your vestigial tail is actually a real tail with length and weight. Imagine that you have a tail like a monkey or a great cat, a tail that has weight and dangles down behind or between your legs. Let this feeling of having a tail ' drag' the back of the pelvis downwards towards the earth. This action helps awaken uddhyana and mula bandha's.

Additional Notes

Focus on the drop back first as a way of getting started. Dropping back is generally easier than coming up.

First get ready action, for the significant play of forces you are about to set in motion. Center your self as though you are about to surf, to catch and ride an ocean wave, it's THAT kind of readiness--poised ready to respond, to execute, and balance.

Go through your set up progression (see above) to ensure maximum opening of the chest and thus maximum participation of the upper spine and in order to optimize the use of your legs.

Clearly center yourself over your foundation even as your center of gravity shifts forward as you go back.

As you reach up and over make sure you take the head back and look for a spot on the wall, pad or ground, a spot between the hands that will help visually orient you to prepare you for landing.

There should be a tiny bit of give in your landing for softness but keep the arms straight.
If you let the elbows bend and give way to easily you'll increase the chances of bonking your head upon landing.

Once you have the feeling for dropping back, think about coming back up. Initially a fair amount of rhythm and momentum can provide you with the extra surge you need to come up.

In order to use momentum effectively you have to attempt to come back up utilizing the motion that was generated when you dropped back. When you drop back your body's weight will be going down and back towards the wall (even though you have lifted your spine up and forward in opposition to this) In order to come back up, you want to let the body continue in the direction it was already going for a little longer. Keep the arms straight and let the body move in the opposite direction than you want to go to come back up. This step is key to creating momentum to push off and come up. You drop back, touch down, let the body sway slightly further in the direction it was already going then prepare the legs to support the weight of the spine. Keep the head back, keep your eyes fixed on your spot between the hands.

Lead with your chest, try to lift and curve the spine creating the exact same action that helped you drop back. Project your spine and hips forward until you feel your legs underneath you supporting your curving spine and head. Keep your head back until the very end finally bringing the head up when you are standing upright.


1) use the wall:
A) as an effective, safe way to begin.
B) as a way to progress step by step while staying in control of some of the important alignment principles.
C) to help you work with your fear of dropping back.
D) to feel of the essential role of rhythm in learning to drop back and come up.
2) Use firm foam pads
(as shown in part's 2 and 3 of the series. the pad dimensions: 2" high 12" wide 24" long)
A) when you can drop back with wall and are able to get most of the way to the floor.
B) when you've become comfortable enough using the wall to skillfully and rhythmically drop back and come up with clear breathing
C) when you want to focus more on learning to come up.
D) when you can drop back and come up from the floor but want to refine specific points and work with aligning the legs or get the feeling of keeping the heels more grounded.
E) when you want to use less momentum to come up.
F) when you want to soften your drop back landing.

=====Earth=====

*Contemplate the role of the earth and the importance of feeling grounded when working on drop backs
*Find the earth through the legs and then trust the earth! Trust the legs!
*consciously lower your center of gravity so that you feel physically closer to the earth.
*work with imagery to enhance the stability of the legs in your posture. Imagine that the feet and legs have thrust up through the earth similiar an outcropping, an island that has thrust up from the ocean bottom.
*learn to lift and curve the spine forward into the torso in order to use the support of the legs to center your self and control your speed dropping back and coming up.
=====Rhythm=====
*use momentum and rhythm to invite the entire body to participate dynamically in dropping back and coming up.
*co-ordinate the rhythm of the breath with sweeping rhythm of the skeleton
* feel an ascending, uninterrupted curve through the length of the spine.

*gaze over and down at a spot on the ground between your hands leading with the eyes on the way down and allowing the eyes to follow on the way up.
*proceed confidently, knowing that you will be able to execute the move. Hesitation causes you to interrupt the rhythm and gives you the message to close the chest and not to rely on the foundation of the posture.

To purchase pads go to the Friendly Foam shop
You need 24"L x 24"W x 2"H If you mention you need a yoga prop, with those dimensions, and say you want the firmest kind of foam they will understand.

Developing Practice with Yoga Images

As a way of developing my understanding and going deeper into my Yoga practice, I collect and study myths, stories, and pictures of Indian deities. This week I've provided a few images and written some reflections on their possible meanings. These images are full of devotion and often connected to sacred stories that contain Yogic teachings. I've found that studying Yoga imagery and stories clarifies and shows the depths of the basic techniques of ashtanga practice: asana, pranayama, bandha, vinyasa rhythm, dristi, japa mantra, and meditation. Using Imagery allows you to withdraw inwards with more ease during practice. The myths and images of Yoga are meant to help create internal maps that show how to orient within the body to optimize awakening consciousness.

The scenes convey Yogic symbols that are powerful visual cues that are meant be absorbed within the body and within the deeper mind. They are purposely not meant to be absorbed in a merely intellectual manner, that is why they are presented as stories and images, and why they make so much sense as they occur to you when practicing. Using the stories and imagery helps you absorb the deepest aspects of practice but also there is a fun aspect to it, contemplating a story or an image is playful, sleuth like--absorbing, and fascinating; It's vexing and enlightening to muse over possible meanings and applications to practice. My hope for this post is to spark a curiosity in you, that you'll become steeped in the imagery of Yoga to the point that when you're practicing these images will arise from within your posture, from within your flow, from within your receptivity and concentration and guide you into how to orient your self with more wisdom, ease and soul.

MAN IN LOTUS RIDING FISH
I love this image because it gives you a playful, powerful, accurate image of an Asana's flow. Yoga postures are about striking firm, clear, rooted positions and becoming fiercely immovable. But also when you find 'the immovable spot', there is such a fluidity to it; it's much more like a ride than becoming immovable like a statue. But perhaps most important is I want you to take this picture literally, what if you were in the sea working on your seated asana's riding on an amiable fish. What would you feel? You would have to connect to the ground in an entirely different way. You would have to connect to the ground as not static--but in motion-- alive and with a fluidity not unlike the course of fish swimming in the sea. Depth in asana work requires you to tune into this kind of subtle motion of the ground under you. The image of riding a fish is a perfect analogy for how to tune into the 'fluidity of rootedness'. The earth is constantly in motion under your feet or seat and this will effect how you do your asana work. If you can become aware of this vibratory movement it will effect your entire practice. I also appreciate that this work was carved centuries ago, and thus shows that the animal energy and flow aspect of asana practice is ancient yet continues to thrive, is still developing, and will be passed along to the future generations of passionate Yoga artists.

This image must be unique in connecting seated asana's with swimming fish!--until now I never quite made the connection that fishes swimming in the sea are serious Yogi's!

DURGA RIDING TIGER
According to the yoga sutra's when thoughts or feelings cause attraction or aversion within me, forces go into play that obscure my ability to discern and really be present. When I learn to concentrate and settle my mind then I see reality. During the times the mind is not settled, I don't see reality, but instead I identify with the various thought patterns. My mind continually spins out reality obscuring patterns. Even though their qualities are phantom like and illusory, somehow I'm repeatedly fooled into thinking that these patterns are substantial and real. Identifying with thought patterns translates into me reacting to sensations and experiences in automatic and habitual ways rather than with receptivity, flow, and with what is appropriate at this very moment.

It seems so simple to wake up, to see, to be alive and to respond creatively in each new moment. And yet the image of Durga riding a tiger shows how difficult it really is to live in a state where my mind is settled and I see things as they really are. Consider the tiger she's riding. The tiger represents illusion, desire, aversion, the powerful, root forces that cause the reality obscuring patterns of consciousness. The forces that cause me to misperceive reality are as powerful and dangerous as a wild tiger.

And the triumph of seeing through my illusions is on a par with taming and riding a tiger. As a goddess Durga has conquered illusion within herself, she has made peace with the forces within that cause thought waves to spin forth. This image reminds me of the mastery that can come to me so naturally when I orient as I'm meant to. Energetically Durga represents the source, wisdom, the hidden knowledge lodged in my heart. Her image shows me that my animal powers are meant to serve my heart wisdom. She shows me the proper relationship between the energetic forces within me where my Self (Durga) commands and (the tiger) my mind and senses serve my heart.

Symbology of the weapons:
Trident: symbol of the 3 guna's the primary strands or qualities (sattva, rajas, tamas) that make up all material phenomenon. Durga has achieved the ultimate Viaragya (detachment) in that the guna's do not push or pull her any direction. she has gone beyond the guna's and thus she can conquer even the most fierce demon.

The sword: the sword is a symbol for discrimination. Progress in Yoga means being able to think clearly and to see things with accuracy. Often in my lack of clarity, I misread my experience and so my mind causes me unnecessary pain. I place value on things that are not worthy and I undervalue the treasures that are right in front of and within me. My deep Self as Durga wields the sword of discrimination and thus is able to cut through this fog of ignorance.

The severed head: The real Self in my depths is fierce and symbolically severs my head from my body. This means my ego, my wrong ideas's about who I am and the petty self absorbed feelings and thoughts that normally rule my inner world must be killed. The locust of power within has to dramatically shift from a small ego centered place to a deep, large, powerful center that creates and embraces my self and others and realizes everyone's integral part in the cycles of existence that lead to Consciousness.

Agni: God of Creative Fire

(Pavan is another name for Vayu)

In two previous blogs I discussed the ancient Vedic practice of personifying the elements. One reason to give the elements features and personalities is to get more experientially in touch with the qualities they each possess. Through stories and pictorial representations you identify with and relate to fire, earth, wind etc as living beings, as allies that show you the pitfalls to avoid in practice and how to gain wisdom and go further into Yoga. I'll continue that theme by looking at Agni, the God of fire. Agni is an important Vedic deity who is the 'vital spark', the element of life in everything animate and inanimate. 'He is the fire of the sun, of lightning, and of the hearth of worship, and is the divine personification of the fire of sacrifice'. In art Agni is portrayed as a red man with 2 flaming heads (one benevolent, one malevolent) , 3 legs and 7 arms. He rides a Ram and wears a garland of fruit. Agni has 7 tongues (each with a special name) to better lick up the offerings of ghee added to the sacrificial fire. The offerings are poured into Agni's mouth and he then passes them on to the Gods. He also conducts the Gods to the sacrificial locations on earth. Thus Agni is known as a messenger between earth and heaven, between men and Gods. I've included 3 stories about Agni at the bottom of the page. I've used themes contained in those stories as references in my article, so you may find it helpful and inspiring to read them.

The fire sacrifice is the heart of Vedic worship and is a religious ceremony conducted by one or more priests who build a fire in a specially constructed pit that serves as the altar. The priest then chants sacred verses in sanskrit from the Vedas while throwing various offerings of ghee (clarified butter), flowers, and herbs into the fire. The purpose of the ritual is to bring the participants in direct contact with God by connecting them with the elements, the underlying forces that cause life. Agni is the God of fire and is known as the hotr: the head 'priest' who presides over the sacrifice. In India, during the peak of Vedic times, the ritual sacrifices became lengthy and elaborate requiring hundreds of priests, large amounts of money and months or even years to perform. At some point these rituals ceased to provide spiritual nourishment to growing numbers of people. Perhaps, in reaction to the increasingly complex Vedic rituals, people began experimenting with completely opposite alternatives. Some of them withdrew into solitude and created Yoga and Meditation practices; began to map the world within the body in order to connect with Divinity. They found that using imagery to create the entire fire ritual within the body brought transformation and wisdom.

Modern Yoga has roots in this lineage. Daily, in your Ashtanga practice, you have the opportunity to beautifully enact a fire sacrifice. Using bandha's, dristi, and ujjayii your torso becomes the fire pit altar. Awareness is the fire and your sacred movement of asana's are the oblations that you continually offer to the fire. You are Agni with seven tongues licking up the offerings and carrying them to your core where the wisdom of your heart is nourished.

Because fire is THE most important element in practice, you must work consciously with your fieriness or lack of. It can require tremendous energy to get to a place where fire presides over your practice, where tapas leads you-- where action, will, effort, concentration, perseverance, care, love, and enthusiasm all lead you. These are the qualities that spark and ignite your creative fire. You utilize the basic techniques in practice to bring forth your benevolent fire, to generate the right kind of heat in the right proportions. The techniques are meant to give you the ability to skillfully manage fire, to generate or dissipate heat at will. That is why it is so vital to study these fundamentals and to continue to refine them and become more skilled in applying them. When you are unskilled, either through lack of experience or negligence, you have less access to your fire, to your passion, and less access to caring about what's most important to you. Hence you may have to work harder to generate heat and to access your mental power. And you may not be accurate in your perception of what and where your center is in relation to your fire. As you become skilled, you see how proper breathing generates fire, applying bandha's generates fire, dristi creates fire, meditation and focus generate fire, and work with the flow of vinyasa sequencing generates fire. You learn to work with fire adeptly and with care as a craftsman or artisan; as does a chef or a blacksmith or a steeler at steel forge. According to Rumi: ''The cook says: I was once like you fresh from the ground. Then I boiled in time and boiled in the body. Two fierce boilings. My animal soul grew powerful. I controlled it with practices and boiled some more and boiled once beyond that..."

Agni has two heads, one benevolent, one malevolent. Benevolent fire nourishes, gives warmth, light, and thus Agni is welcome in every home. He sustains life. He gives comfort, has charisma, joins people together and brings a magical, joyous glow to any gathering. In practice you cultivate the benevolent fire within to ride the flowing vinyasa lines that combine effort and receptivity. You hone in on just the right rhythm, depth and tone of breath in conjunction with subtle action of bandha's. You continue to work with your mind tuning in to thoughts, emotions, memories, longings and all the variety of turnings. Since he is known as 'the fire of the sun', Agni is associated with Surya the sun God. Agni sometimes accompanies Surya on his daily ride across the sky in his chariot led by seven horses. Surya's realm in the heavens is a symbol for the head and so his light represents consciousness and spiritual intelligence. Visnu's (God as sustainer) celestial weapon of choice is called the sudardarshan cakra, known as the discus of light and is fashioned from fragments of the sun's rays. Visnu takes unerring aim, hurls this discus, and chops off the heads of offending demons. Visnu's discus is the ultimate symbol for consciousness, the mental qualities of fiery brilliance, laser like intensity and ability to cut through ignorance. In practice you become an observer, a shaper, and a friend of the powerful, fiery quality of mental energy and you learn to direct this energy where you choose. When you work intimately with fire in practice you cultivate Tapas, the heat caused by the friction of reining in the mind and redirecting the energy of the senses. Sri K. Pattabhi Jois said that when you're established in tapas: "impurities are destroyed, the antah karana (inner instrument, made up of mind, intellect, ego, and the faculity of discrimination) becomes purified and the body and sense organs are perfected".

Fire's qualities also include burning, destruction, and episodes of disappearance and hiding. Agni has a malevolent head; he burns and destroys, can ravage virtually everything in his path. Through his destruction, Agni brings death, sorrow, loss, and pain. To be in relationship with fire is to accept risk and hence the necessity to respect its power in your practice because uncontrolled fire will burn leading to pain and injury. Agni has red skin, the same color as anger, tension, lust, and inflammation. Too much fire can make you frustrated, irritable, intolerant, narrow minded, and prone to extreme emotions and bursts of temper. Excessive fire can lead to pushing, bullying your self and others, and possibly even lead to disease. Agni is known to be unpredictable, wild, and reluctant to be yoked to the domestic hearth. But also not generating enough fire can be equally detrimental. If you can't really access your fire you may not be in touch with your center, with your creative purpose. The body may remain cold and get stuck, and be difficult to open. Injury can result from attempting postures when the body is not sufficiently heated and malleable. More importantly lack of internal fire can prevent purification and transformation. The fiery qualities of passion and enthusiasm help you overcome lethargy and resistance and give you the energy to persevere through challenges and enjoy the beauty that you create on the mat each day.

Because he represents purification and renewal, Agni's benevolent role in the inner imagery of practice takes on further dimensions. Due to the softening of Brgu's curse (see story #3), Agni purifies everything he consumes. Agni is known to be a friend of Vayu (the life breath of the Gods) whom he strengthens and helps. When you use ujjayii to cultivate the free flow of Prana throughout the torso you awaken the body's innate ability to purify and cleanse itself by way of breath. With Ujjayi you also stimulate the Vishuddhi cakra in the throat area. Vishuddhi means purity. Working intimately with the throat and palate releases the jaw, relaxes the brain, enhances the cycle of the breath and enables Prana to pervade the body. Vayu and Agni work in tandem to purify the body from the surface layers of skin to the core, going specially into the heart and the depths of consciousness. Purification comes from the sacrifices you make when you choose to practice Yoga seriously.

Sacrifice literally means 'to make holy', or the offering of anything to God, or to a divinity. This is the real heart of Yoga practice: to use your creative fiery life force to find your connection with Divinity and to share that connection somehow. You also use your fire to face what blocks you from connection. Sacrifice means simplifying, reining in, choosing to abstain or let go, to center, to respond to the necessity for growth, to an urge for depth and renewal. You choose to follow your deeper more soulful longings over shallower more external and immediate longings. You make the effort to bring what is unconscious to consciousness. You face things about your self that you'd rather hide from. You face your anger, your greed, your dependence, your lethargy, your doubt and cynicism. You face your past, how you were raised, what sorts of negative experiences, habits, and beliefs you've been carrying around with since childhood. You experience and move through your pain from the past, the hardships you've encountered that now cause conditioned negative habit responses. Agni loses his ability to successfully perform the sacrificial rites because he gets fat taking in too many offerings. He's too sluggish and lacking in fire to prevent small disturbances from stopping him. Practice gives you strength and stamina, gives you the ability to adopt a positive outlook even in the midst of apparently overwhelming contrary evidence, without blindness or naivete. The vigor and physical challenge of practice is like getting an opportunity to burn the Khandava Forest each day. You abstain from eating and drinking before and during practice, you empty out, breathe, and sweat. You blaze and flow and have another chance for renewal today. When Agni saw his 3 brothers preside over the sacrifice (as 3 fire sticks), he saw them burn and then die. Fearing death he hid and could only be coaxed back by being granted a long life and a share of the offering in the form of Soma, the elixir. Perhaps this means in order to benefit from practice you have to commit and become steady, you can't continue to hesitate or doubt, nor can you afford inconsistency, the pattern of stopping and starting or trying one thing then another. Unless you dedicate your self to your creative fire long term, it will continue to hide and elude you. Even when you show up to practice everyday fire is whimsical, some days it's plentiful and robust, other days it seems absent or a difficult kindle to stoke. When your creative fire hides look for it in the feet and thigh bones. Look for it within the pelvis and the rhythmic movements of the pelvic floor. Look for it at the end of the out breath and at the origin of the in breath. Look for it within the torso, along the spine, and in the space between the pelvis and head. Look for it within your vinyasa rhythm as you create flowing transitions. Look for it within your throat and voice and the sound of your breath. Look for it in the circulation of Prana throughout the body. Everyday you are compelled to feed this fire and steadily work with your inner evolution.

Story One

One common theme in Agni stories is that he's always being searched for because he either disappears or hides. In one such myth, Agni hides when he sees that his three brothers, symbolized as three fire sticks, die after performing their duties as presiders over the sacrifice. Agni is next in line for the job, but fears death, and also has a distaste for the domestic duties of hotr, leader of the fire sacrifice. So he goes into hiding in one of three places. He hides in the earth (wood and plants), in 'the waters', and in the sky. After a prolonged search by men and gods, Agni is found in the plants. To win his agreement the gods offer him immortality; he also demands and receives a share of the sacrifice in the form of soma (the elixir, or intoxicating beverage). Agni is thus bribed into coming back to perform his duties as hotr.

Story Two

The Sage Brgu has carried off a betrothed woman to his home. The Rakshasa (demon) who had intended to marry her went searching for her and the Sage. He came upon Agni and demanded to know where he and his betrothed resided. Agni was known for not being able to tell a lie as well as being able to go into the hearth fire of every home. Thus he knew where the woman and Sage lived. Since Agni told the Rakshasa where his woman was, Brgu cursed Agni and said he would be an 'omnivore', and would consume everything, pure and impure, indiscriminately. Agni protested this curse as unfair and disappeared from every hearth. The cosmos went dark and cold. Brahma coaxed him back. He was able to soften the curse by stipulating that Agni, no matter what he burned, would remain pure and that everything he burned, both pure and impure, would be purified. Mollified, Agni returned to action bringing warmth, light, and fierce leader of the fire sacrifice.

Story Three

A story from the Mahabharata features Krishna and Arjuna as well as Indra (the most important Vedic God), and Agni (the second most important Vedic God). Agni has grown fat by consuming too much of the ghee that was offered to him by his worshippers and has become too heavy and sluggish to properly maintain the sacrificial fire. Indra known for his jealousy of Agni, saw an opportunity to take advantage of Agni's weakened state; he sent a small rain shower or a gust of wind down upon each of Agni's sacrifices, easily put out the fires, and thus prevented the success of the rites. Agni went to Brahma, the creator, to complain and to try to save his job. Brahma chastised Agni for his gluttony and greed. Agni showed heart felt repentence and so Brahma gave him a chance to slim down and regain his strength. The hero's of the Mahabharata (The Pandava's) had been unjustly awarded a wild, unkempt tract of land in place of the inheritance of their rightful kingdom. Rather than protest or fight the injustice, Krsna and Arjuna, on behalf of the Pandava's, decided to clear the land and build The Pandava kingdom there. First they required the entire overgrown tract of forested land (called the Khandava Forest) to be cleared. They enlisted the services of Agni with the special instruction that he was not to be offered any Ghee to assist him in burning the forest down. Agni went to work, burned everything to the ground, regained his strength, and was able to oversee the sacrificial rites of humanity again.

Trusting Earth

According to the Vedas the ancient goddess Prithivi is the personification of the earth. That means that the earth is not just the earth; she's a Goddess. She is described as 'great, wise, and energetic, She 'lavishes gifts upon her worshippers', she is 'that which holds everything'. She's 'beneficent and kind to all'. Also she's 'the inexhaustible source of abundance'.

You'll know the truth of each one of these descriptions if you tune to the earth during practice. You'll feel how kind and unstinting she is in her support of you. You'll feel her gift of tremendous power and energy through your feet and legs and how the dynamic expression of each posture is rooted in her abundance. You'll feel how she allows you to tether your self to her so you can soar skyward and thus set your spine free to spin and elongate and coil. You'll find your self plugged into the earth standing in triangle posture praising her gifts of spaciousness in your body and loving the spontaneous affinity between her and your consciousness. Also you'll find that a magnetic bond develops between you and the earth especially when you practice the primary series With each forward bend and vinyasa you get low to the ground, you prostrate, you pray with your body again and again to Prithivi, the nourishing, caring source of abundance.

Gravity is the downward force that pulls anything that has weight towards the center of the earth. One way to deepen your connection to the earth is to become conscious of its gravitational pull on your body. You can actually sense your weight being drawn irresistibly downwards. Go with it, enjoy it and let your self be drawn closer to the earth. And feel how she reaches for you, how she actively supports you. This way of tuning in involves letting go, becoming receptive, and feeling an almost lazy heaviness within the body. You relax and suspend effort. When you allow this combination of qualities to inform your posture, you're movements become more circular and cohesive . You are present in a deep rooted, whole, yielding way.

During practice, allow the parts of the body in contact with earth to widen, sink, and increase their connection to the ground. And see how in return, the ground increases her connection to you by supporting you more. By this awareness you create a powerful magnetic affinity between you and the earth. Your posture becomes immovable, super grounded, and energetically alive much more than when when you try with your will or when you try to apply intense physical effort to achieve a posture. Paradoxically, the softer, more spacious, and receptive effortless qualities that accompany trusting the earth give you the strength and power that you won't be able to find by willing or excessive effort. It can be thought of as a more feminine or yin way of being in a posture. You're receptive. You give way, let go and become expansive. You just are. And yet your posture will also express powerful strength and energetic vitality.

Two more of Prithivi's gifts to her devotees are feelings of spaciousness and timelessness within. Take time to contemplate these qualities and how the connecting with the earth gives them to you when you invite her into your practice. Connecting with earth in a posture brings a dynamic sense of spaciousness inside the torso that allows the tidal ebb and flow rhythm of the breath to reach its full expression. During practice the lungs and ribcage need to be able to expand and contract to their full capacity with ease. Also the spaciousness that results from tethering your self to the earth through the legs frees the spine to elongate, coil, spin, and stretch; Prithivi gives you the ability to enjoy the spine's full range of motion.

Overall, the strength of your posture comes from the earth and enables you to loosen up, become spacious and find satisfying, large, circular patterned movements that integrate the entire body into your posture. The body is cleansed and healed by these wholesome, earthy, deep patterned movements and life force pervades your inner world. Perhaps you arrive in a place where you really belong in your body and your inner world, from the boundary of skin to the core of the bones, becomes your sanctuary.

Timelessness implies that time ceases, that the passing flow of moments seems to slow down. Or maybe your concern diminishes for what time it is or what happened or is going to happen. You become timeless because you go to a deeper level of consciousness where you cease to give importance to the mesmerizing temporal sequence that ordinarily seems so concrete, so rational and so real and thus dominates. One of the most beautiful images associated with the awakening of Kundalini (the coiled one), is that when she enters Shushumna Nadi (the most glorious channel) and travels up the core of the body from base to crown, she swallows time. Perhaps swallowing time indicates that the moment NOW suddenly moves into the foreground. The past and future fade into the background. NOW opens up an entirely new world. Now is complete, precious and needs nothing added to it or subtracted from it and thus stretches out and lasts. When you strike a pose that is truly rooted in the earth, time ceases just like when Kundalini travels up the core of the body. Indeed connecting with earth awakens Kundalini, helps you to slow down, to be weighty, to tune into center, and become a vast, spacious, container that holds large stores of life force.

When you awaken your life force by bringing the earth clearly into your body in your practice, meditation results; your inner world becomes animated, vivid, and clear. You begin to understand and listen to your heart wisdom. You tune into your own unique style of unadorned bliss. You are happy to linger there.

But also turning your body into a vessel for life force, requires working with and accepting whatever comes. Thus it is equally necessary to learn to sit with and accept your pain. The reality is we are constantly causing pain to ourselves and others through our ignorance and inability to be fully awake and responsive to the present. Our mind attacks us with all manner of guilt, blame, and criticism; we're either too lazy and 'good-for-nothing' or we're exhausting ourselves striving for that never-to-be- reached perfection so we can finally be somebody or have some worth. The pain comes on all levels: physical, mental, and even the deep level of soul longing. Getting in touch with earth gives you the rock steady firmness and patience to feel, endure, and accept your pain and thereby transform it.

You tap the earth's support and use your power to contain and accept all the various aches, physical injuries, ailments, diseases, the toll of aging, and eventually even the terror and perceived pain of death. And through the earth, you create the space to contain and accept your bouts of mental anguish ranging from mild inner nagging and low level worry to highly agitated vicious, attacking mind that surges with aggression. You even have to accept familiarity of clinging to your habit patterns that are based in fear and result in unsatisfying, harmful repetition.

Daily you have to come back and face your same tight places, same blockages, same weaknesses. It is essential to remain receptive and firm rooted continuing to nurture your self in the midst of it. Yoga and Prithivi teach you to cultivate the patience to keep on giving and giving to your self, to keep forgiving your pain and ignorance. So as you step on the mat each day anew, you bring in the earth and keep on cultivating patience, rock steadiness and nourishing, caring support for your self. These gifts from the earth are the bedrock foundation of Yoga practice. Remember that to be in touch with the earth IS to be nourished, like a child who finds comfort in the close vicinity of her mother, feel how your body gravitates towards the comfort of Bhu Devi the Earth, the 'great, wise, and energetic' Goddess.

I have provided an exercise for you. You can either listen and practice to it on side bar player of the blog or you can read it and practice it on your own. The intent of the exercise is to help you tune into the qualities of support and generosity that the earth gives. Stand in Samasthiti or sit in lotus (or an equivalent seated posture). Let your posture be a prayer to Prithivi the great earth mother who feeds and bestows benevolence on her children. See her as a beautiful woman with rich green skin and four arms.

Imagine, not that you are on the earth but rather, you are part of the earth like an out cropping, an island that has thrust up from the ocean bottom. You ARE earth from your feet, legs and hips all the way up the spine and through out the entire body. Allow the parts of the body in contact with earth to widen and sink and increase their connection to the ground. In return, feel the ground increase her connection to you by supporting you more. Allow your weight to rest on your bones. And feel that the bones are buoyant and eager to receive your weight. Intentionally lower your center of gravity by letting your body be irresistibly drawn down wards towards the earth's center.

As you plug in, merge with earth more and more. Cultivate the feeling that you are earth, that you are the nourisher and supporter of all the life within you. Naturally you create space and care for everything within you, all your emotions, thoughts, moods, actions, reactions, pain, and dreams. You continuously bestow nurturing care and benevolence upon your self. Glimpse the power of the earth, of being infinitely generous and supportive of all life and enjoy your connection to that source.

Befriending Hanuman

In order to provide some background to this weeks post, here's a super short synopsis of the great spiritual epic The Ramayana. God (Visnu) incarnates as a man (Ram) in order to destroy the demon Ravana. The story goes that Ravana, through performing rigorous austerities, became the undisputed king of the 3 worlds. Practically invincible, he became wildly corrupt and wreaked havoc on the balance of the universe. Earlier he had won a boon that ensured that almost nothing in existence could kill him. However, in his excessive pride, he neglected to include a human being or a monkey in the list of what could not kill him. So Visnu incarnated as Ram, in order to put an end to Ravana's tyranny. And Visnu's wife, Laksmi, incarnated as Sita. Thus Visnu and Laksmi were married on earth as Ram and Sita. After many twists in the story Ram and Sita were exiled to the forest for 13 years. Ravana heard of Sita, her renowned beauty, decided he must have her, abducted her through trickery, and carried her to his kingdom on the island of Lanka. Ram met Hanuman, the monkey God, during his search for Sita. Hanuman became Ram's devoted servant and ally; he led a search party for Sita and found her held captive within the Ravana's fortress on Lanka. Ram assembled an army made up of men, monkeys, bears and others who went to Lanka and defeated Ravana and his forces. And thus the Universe was restored to balance.

The Ramayana can be viewed from many perspectives; from one perspective, called the esoteric Ramayana, it is said that all of the characters and events take place within the body, within a person's psyche. Ram is the Self and Sita is buddhi; the great intuitive intelligence. Ravana is the ego with its attachment to all the organs of sense (thus he has 10 heads). Symbolically the ego steals away buddhi the intuitive inner wisdom causing a separation between intelligence and Spirit. This split brings darkness and pain and a feeling of lost emptiness void of Self. Yoga practice leads to rejoining intuitive intelligence (Sita) with the Spirit(Ram). Hanuman, leader of the search, is the main instrument in bringing Ram and Sita together again; he symbolizes breath, an unswerving devoted ally and servant who helps rejoin Intelligence with Spirit.

This weeks theme is on Hanuman and his connection to the breath in practice. Hanuman's connection to the breath can be traced to his father, Vayu, the wind god. Vayu is known as the 'life breath of the Gods'; as a wanderer, an explorer and a messenger of the gods. The word vayu means 'to blow' . When Prana (life force) enters the body it is known as Vayu and gets divided into 5 regions (Prana, Apana, Samana, Vyana, and Udana). The vayu's are directly in play when you work with the cycle of the breath using ujjayii and bandha's during practice. Metaphorically speaking Vayu is breath within the body and Hanuman is the child of breath. Thus Hanuman represents the fruits of working with breath, your energy, your urge to serve the Self. Hanuman epitomizes devotion to the highest possible degree; he is in many ways more revered in India than Ram due to his loyalty and complete self surrender to Ram. One time Hanuman was hanging out around a campfire with his monkey buddies. They started chiding him about his 'appearance' of total devotion to Ram. Hanuman listened for a few minutes and then simply stood among the monkeys gathered in the circle and ripped open his chest exposing his heart where a miniature Ram and Sita were housed. When Hanuman exposed his true heart, it only revealed his beloved, Ram and Sita. Working with breath as the center of your practice eventually gives you the gift of a fierce, loyal and strong ally devoted to Spirit.

From studying, enjoying and trusting breath, little by little you win strength, clarity, and stamina to cultivate free breathing in asana practice. You intelligently employ Ujjayii Pranayama, uddhiyana and mula bandha's, awareness of the piston like movement of the diaphragm and tuning in to the rhythmic action of the pelvic floor. By observing the cycle of the breath, the expansion (inhaling, Prana) and contraction (exhaling Apana) of the two polar opposite Vayu's, Prana and Apana, you harness the potency of Prana, of Shakti, of powerful life force carried on the breath. You become a shaper, a sculptor, a connoisseur, a scientist, and a lover of breath and move from the surface to the depths of the heart where your real longings are lodged waiting for you to find the courage and receptivity to listen to and respond to them.

This shift of inward movement can be reflected in small ways. Your capacity to immediately experience and feel what is happening within and around you changes profoundly. You care more in present time (instead reflecting days, weeks, months or years later) about what is happening inside of you. You watch to how you respond and get clear where your responses lead you. You understand where your attention is engaged and for how long and on what sorts of objects, emotions and thoughts. You learn to gauge the value of where your energy goes and to direct it more at will to whatever you choose. An acceleration of feeling, thought and awareness takes place and your capacity for intimacy and love increases as well as the ability to tolerate loneliness and being alone. These small steps of inward turning can lead to a deep flowing towards center, to spiritual knowing, to the creative expression that you are meant to bring forth to share. You are literally more alive and more intimate with your self and everyone and everything.

But notice the risk involved in this----when you breathe you really FEEL; when you really FEEL, you feel more expansiveness and joy and connectedness, but you also feel more pain, more grief, more of the hurt and loss that the world continually spins out. Once you dive in, you are in---you engage fully with whatever comes. To free your breath is to risk everything---love and pain. Bliss and grief. However risking is the only real option along with learning to face the independent, solitary path you are on. Authentic practice requires risking and opening to where breath leads you. Such openness and gambling gives you an emotional and physical power reflected in your stance towards everyone and everything you encounter. You become loving, unshakeable, rooted, centered, receptive and fierce; you belong here in this body and finally can walk the razor's edge that is required to continually ride the breath.

The demon Ravana represents the ego and the world and all that pulls towards mundane power. There is an irresistible attraction to that power. Ravana himself though an arch demon is known for his charisma and beauty, his learning, his skill in battle, also a fine musician, and even an ardent devotee of Shiva. The benefits of power that go with money, fame, position, even of partner, family, friends cannot not be ignored or underestimated. Your health and evolution partially depend upon your successful attaining and wielding of these powers. However, these are still lesser powers that don't compare with the ultimate power of Spirit.

You are Spirit and are meant to realize and express the unique little piece of individual Spirit that you are. It's built in to the challenge of the game that we are bound to hanker after the lesser powers and spend too much of our time and energy caught up in them either trying to win them or hating and somehow rebelling against them. Maybe we resist turning inward because the path of Spirit appears to be so lonely, independent and solitary. The power of Spirit is found within as opposed to the polarized outside where people and things can appear to dazzle and captivate our senses and longings; or the opposite where we respond to power by rejecting or being apathetic towards it. But either way, our energy is dissipated. Additionally, the negative aspects of ego are tough to root out as evidenced by the fact that each time one of Ravana's heads gets chopped off in battle, another head immediately sprouts anew to replace the old one.

When you undertake Yoga practice to awaken the healing energies that can guide you forward the only direction to go is inward. To be alone with your self. Yet the path seems so impossible to tread without help. And that is the necessity and appeal of Hanuman, the egoless servant who exists to serve the bent of the Spirit within. To access such an ally within ourselves is vital to our progress. Intimacy with breath and reflection can play a significant role in that connection, in realizing you are compelled to find your unique and original heart and Spirit. When you learn to focus with stamina and access your breath, when you feel fully plugged in to your body by the flow of breath, where breath is the center, where you feel breathed by the breath, then you become Hanuman, born to serve Ram; you become the unswerving, loyal servant and ally whose sole mission is to reconnect your intelligence with your Spirit.