"Do not think of yourself as a small, compressed, suffering thing. Think of yourself as graceful and expanding, no matter how unlikely it may seem at the time." ~B.K.S. Iyengar
I've become quite enamored by alternating Dangling and Squat a couple of times and then moving to the foot poses in Yin practice. Not only do the meridians and many fascial lines get efficiently targeted this way, it feels amazing and I'm noticing pretty remarkable results. I've never known how much of my inability to squat flat footed was due to bone structure and how much due to soft tissue - because of birth defects, the bone structure in my legs is rather idiosyncratic - but I'm experiencing more opening than I though possible. Try it for yourself and tell me in the comments below what you notice and how you feel!
0 Comments
Sometimes I create a class and figure out later why it works. That's what happened this week.
When I'm planning classes for the week and feeling uninspired, I just show up on the mat. I realized this week that sometimes inspiration is the tiniest kernel. I was looking for something that built on the last month's classes, that connected students directly to their own experience... and I was over thinking it. I finally just got on the mat figuring at least I needed to cheer myself up. I was craving twists. This class is mostly what my body did. I rearranged a few things on the basis of realizations I had while practicing. This is my favorite way to plan classes: not plan. One of the deep themes I've been studying - in bodies, in my experience, in books, blogs, watching people in class and at the gym - is "head forward posture." E-pi-dem-ic. Epidemic in our culture. And connected to so much suffering - from neck and back pain to headaches, belly disruption, even depression. The posture is so natural given our computer and screen focused activities, but the knock on effects in the body, when they go unopposed, are devastating. The posterior chain or the superficial back line is key to our ability to moving from the core and postural balance. Without strength and connection to these structures, our body has to hold up from the front rather than support from behind and inside. Learning to revolve from the deep belly up while creating a stable foundation from the pelvis down is a great way to build connection and sensation into the deep core and back body. Try it, see what you feel. Share it in the comments below! Restorative Yoga classes are a special treat that I recommend everyone indulge at least once a week - whether you provide this experience for yourself at home or you allow me to guide you. Restorative practice includes a gentle "warm up" - Moon Salutations, here - and then long rests (not holds) in completely supported asana, sometimes with guided meditation. In the diagram above, the rectangular paddle looking things are blankets placed strategically to support the body for maximum release of muscular effort - you shouldn't even feel as if you have to hold your arms up. Covering the eyes is an added way to trigger the relaxation response and deeper sense withdrawal, or pratyahara. While there isn't a wide variation in poses used for Restorative practice, you'll find you don't miss the variety once you sink into the experience. Your body will bring the novelty - where you feel tightness and release, how the body melts from week to week - and guided meditations will guide your monkey mind into releasing it's grippy little paws for the hour. Leave a comment below about your Restorative Yoga practice this week and be entered into a drawing to receive a guided recording of this class. Yin class this week starts with the feet: Ankle Stretch and Toe Squat. Yin yoga targets the fascia and connective tissue, so is done "cold" without a warm up and without ujjayi breath. We stay with postures for 2-5 minutes, making the sensation the object of meditation, much like you might make the breath the focal point of seated meditation.
Starting with the feet can be intense because they receive so little attention in everyday life - negative attention, even, in heels and constricting shoes! But this is also where many fascial lines are anchored and similarly many of the meridians these poses also impact. Beginning with the feet is both very focusing and a way to knock on the body's doors and request admittance to release more deeply. By applying intelligent pressure and stress to the fascia in the feet, we're opening up the entire system by which we interact with the ground, balance and move through the world. this will create effects, particularly over weeks of practice, in the joints and balance in the rest of the body. No pose impacts a single meridian or fascial line, and even one meridian or line has knock on effects on the others. These poses will create systemic changes, though the focus of many poses in this class are the Stomach and Urinary Bladder meridians. The Stomach meridian has to do, not surprisingly, with nourishment and balancing the differing substances we take into our bodies and lives. the Urinary Bladder meridian impacts balance of the fight-or-flight and rest-and-relax systems known as the autonomic nervous system, making it's balance crucial in healthy handling of everyday as well as extraordinary stress. Add a Yin Yoga practice to your week and see the transformative effects in your active asana practice as well as your ability to settle in seated meditation as well as move through your world with ease and grace. Leave a comment below about your Yin practice this week and be entered into a drawing for a recording of this practice! The difference between restorative & any other style of yoga is both intensity of effort and duration in poses. Rather than working with muscular opposition, hugging in, radiating out, spirals, loops, etc you create a space for your body to melt into the pose. The time spent in both preparation and melting can more greatly emphasize the already meditative possibilities in asana practice. It’s useful to warm the body up to the practice with chandra namaskar – moon salutations. At least one practice a week should be restorative. The effects of restorative practice are hormonally supportive, metabolically positive, meditative, stress relieving, rejuvenating and can supercharge your regular practice.
Long holds in intense positions: it's either a first date, performance art or yin yoga. Lucky for you, these poses "Feel sooooooo good!" according to one recent student and you can mix and match, alter the time in pose and total practice time.
Just the first 4 poses are a great preparation for sitting meditation and are great for letting go before bed. Do you practice yin yoga? What are your favorite poses and sequences? Tell me in a comment below! Yin yoga works with sometimes intense sensations over longer periods of time (2-5, even 10 minutes), and relies on the difference between pain and intensity. We'll discuss 3 different ways to work with intensity and turn anything into meditation.
Yin yoga is a style of yoga that focuses on "yin" tissues of the body: the fascia, connective tissues and bones which are yin relative to the yang muscles, yin with respect to having less blood, less water than the muscles on which regular hatha yoga practices focus. If you've come to a place in your practice where you feel stuck, it's likely the fascia surrounding the muscles that's the culprit and yin yoga is the way to work with fascia. These tissues are, however, less pliable. The forces we exert on the yin tissue require relaxation of the muscles, a relatively "cold" practice (without warm up or heat that activates the muscles) and longer time in pose. These poses can be quite intense, but that is all within your control: go slowly and explore closer to the minimum edge of these poses until you are comfortable with the sensations and how to work with them. Four ways of working with intensity in yoga and life
Why would we want to work with these tissues? Aren't these the exact places you tell us not to stress during regular classes? Yes. In regular yoga classes we are focused on muscular engagement, strength and flexibility. We specifically warm up and engage muscles, which compress and put their own strain on joints. In a regular yoga class, we don't want to add stress and can't access the fascia. In Yin yoga class, we release patterns of holding and habitual engagement in the muscles so we can intelligently work with the connective tissues. The joints have more space so shearing forces aren't directed into them. This is less forceful, more patient work. The reason to work with these tissues is that the fascia and other connective tissues are exactly where we hold our patterns - our "stash" of habit, filter, assumption and experience. If you're stuck working with a certain area of your body or class of poses and haven't been able to "stretch" your way into the experience you want, Yin yoga is most likely exactly the secret key you've been looking for. You've probably heard that bones are strengthened through stress; this is one reason some form of resistance training is recommended for graceful aging. Without stress, the processes that rebuild bones are circumvented. In zero gravity, astronauts actually loose bone density. But this happens with physical inactivity of any kind: a casted limb, bed rest or simply a sedentary period of time. Yin yoga intelligently applies stress to the bones and the connective tissue in ways that strengthen rather than strain and which can lead to increase mobility and vitality. Additionally, because postures are engaged for minutes rather than seconds and target fascial lines, they interact with what Eastern Medicine refers to as meridians in the body. This week's practice focuses on forward bends and therefore interacts with the liver meridian, though kidney, gall bladder, urinary bladder, spleen and stomach also run through the legs. This is a gentle stimulation and leads to greater balance. The most important thing about Yin Yoga is to discern the difference between pain and intensity. In no instance do I recommend you remain or move toward poses that create sharp or electric sensations: these are "pain" and signal danger to tissue (soft, connective or nerve) in the body. However other sensations often avoided are actually signals of need in the body. Erich Schiffman popularized the distinction between minimum and maximum edges in his book, Moving Into Stillness. Your minimum edge in a pose is the first inkling of sensation created by a direction of movement. In Yang Yoga practices, this isn't a very useful place to stay, though it's vital to understand. In Yin practices, this can be a fruitful place to explore sensations and make decisions about how much intensity to generate by moving toward a pose. If you're looking for the next horizon in your practice, Yin may open up a whole new world. You can come to class, request a consult or book a private lesson by Skype or in person in the 505 to get you started. Already have a Yin practice? Tell us about it! What has it opened up for you? Trikonasana blends strength and flexibility, hip actions and shoulder actions, side facing pose and even elements of backbend and twist in ways that can challenge and reward, help you find openness and help you discover openness you already have.
Hips, Shoulders, Core. Strength and Flexibility. All come together in the trifecta of Trikonasana. Try the first two poses with care - they are Yin poses and create intense sensation. Intensity is distinguishable from pain: pain in the tissues we're working with is sharp or electric, sometimes throbbing. Intensity can be moderated and may signal opportunity. More on this tomorrow. Questions about the stick figure mammas? Trying this class and want to share your experience? Let us know - leave a comment below! Moon Salutations are the calmer, less strenuous, more peaceful cousin of Sun Salutations. They aren't talked about in the ancient texts and are a modern creation by people creating alternatives that work for different bodies and different purposes. Because of this, there are many interpretations, some bearing little resemblance to the Sun version and others more. You can see a lovely and compact representation of many alternatives here. In the schematic to the left you can see the version I practice, which incorporates rounder, softer, slower movements and a chi kung exercise for the water element. This practice can be the perfect warm up for a Restorative pose or session of poses or a stand alone practice. I find it focusing and a great way to connect with physical sensation right before meditation. And followed by some Brahmari (Bumble Bee) Breath in Savasana in bed, it can be a great before bedtime practice. Mountain is the same as the one to which you are used, but with softer knees. You can meditate here at beginning or end or simply practice breath awareness. Try allowing the arms to float up with soft elbows and the hands to hover out in front of your heart with the fingertips 3-4 inches apart, as if you are holding a beach ball. Shoulders soft, gaze unfocused - like you're trying to see shooting stars. Stay here two or more minutes at beginning and end. As you're ready to begin movement, the arms come up and overhead but round, like the moon. The gaze is at the palms. When the fingertips touch overhead, the backs of the fingers, hands and wrists come together and descend to trace the front line of the body. The hands actually touch the body from the middle of the brow, down the face, throat, chest, belly and then the inside of each leg. Your gaze follows the hands as you slowly curl in and down to a soft kneed forward fold. Exhaling, step left foot back and drop your knee. Next exhale, right knee back. Next exhale, lower down to chest chin and knees. Inhale into low Sphinx or Cobra. You can make this a Yin Seal pose and stay awhile if you'd like. Exhale Child's Pose. Inhale look forward, Exhale left foot forward. Exhale right steps forward, Forward Fold with soft knees, shoulders, head. Place your left hand inside right, palms up, as if you were cupping a drink of water from a well. Begin to curl up slowly, dropping the tail bone and stacking the spine from the inside, watching as the hands are drawn up just in front of the midline of the body, as if you're drawing up water from that well. As the hands come to the level of the heart and the shoulders drop and head stacks, still gazing down at the hands, turn the fingers to point up at the sky and bring the thumbs and pinkie fingers together, creating Lotus Mudra in front of the heart. Remain for a few breaths. Begin the next cycle by holding the ball again and use the right foot to lead this time. Do even numbers of sets so you lead with each foot equal numbers of times. Leave a comment if you try this series and share your experience! Breathe as if it were the most interesting, luxurious thing that could happen to you. Because it is.
Before you get out of bed and again after you get back in for the night, put one hand over the place where your ribs come together and the other over your soft low belly. The first few breaths will have lots of effort and striving. You'll be trying to breathe, so you'll breathe deeply or shallowly. That's okay. Go with it. When you have a breath that comes like a visitor, just enjoy it and then watch it go. Linger in the spaces. Enjoy the not trying of it. Enjoy the motion without effort, the wildness of it and the rhythm. Enjoy paying attention to your constant but neglected companion and watching it come to exuberant life under your caring gaze. And promise to visit again. |
Powered by HealthTap Christine Stump - Yoga Teacher in Albuquerque Categories
All
|