Step by Step: Crow Pose (Bakasana) & Shoulder Squeezing Pose (Bhujapidasana)

Hi everyone! Get ready to feel UPLIFTED! Literally! With these step by step instructions you will find yourself lifting up into crow pose (bakasana) and shoulder squeezing pose (bhujapidasana).

BAKASANA - CROW POSE

 Step 1- Come into a squat on a yoga block with your arms between your knees, palms flat on the floor in front of you with a bend in your elbows. squeeze the knees into the shoulders and press the hands firmly into the floor. Make sure every finger pad & knuckle is rooted into the ground so that you are using your muscles instead of sinking weight into your wrists.

 Step 2 - Begin to shift more weight forward into your hands so that you can pick up one foot off of the block. Keep looking forward with the chin out of the chest. Continue to hug the knees in, squeezing the shoulders. Engage your core for support. Lifting up will be MUCH easier when your core is engaged and you hug the knees in.

Step 3 - Keep the core engaged, hug the knees in, and now lift the second foot up off of the block. Look forward so that you do not fall forward and remember to breathe!!




BHUJAPIDASANA - SHOULDER SQUEEZING POSE

 Step 1 - Place two blocks hip width apart behind your ankles. Come into a forward fold with bent knees. Take your arms through through legs and place your hands on the blocks behind you, fingers facing forward. Keep your knees bent and work towards getting your shoulders close to, or underneath the knees. Hug the knees into your arms.


Step 2 - Begin to bend the knees deeper, dropping the hips down towards the ground. Keep hugging the knees into arms as you come up onto the toes, and then lift one foot up off of the floor. Place that foot back on the floor and lift the other foot up. Keep looking forward and keep the core engaged for support.

Step 3 - Pick up both feet from the floor and cross the ankles in front of you. Continue to hug the arms with the knees.





Keep in mind that with these two poses, and any other poses, you can stop at any step and work there until you are comfortable moving on. If you have never done these arm balances before remember to take your time & keep showing up to practice and before you know if you will be flying into bakasana and bhujapidasana!

Keep practicing yogis!!

Back Bending Tips

Hi everyone! As many of you already know from attending my classes, I like to add a challenge pose to each class that we break down and work on. The entire class is dedicated to that pose in many different ways: warming up the body properly, opening in the areas that will allow us to come into and hold our challenge pose, and working on the alignment necessary to come into the pose safely. As a way to provide all the yogis out there with take-home notes on the challenge pose of the week I am going to start posting them here. You will find a picture of the pose(s) being presented and the break down of how to do it, things to look out for, and key points to remember. As always, if you have any questions feel free to write me at info@PamelaNixon.com

This week are working on back bends. When you stop and think about it, we don't spend very much time in positions that cause us to arch backwards. We spend a lot of time bending over to pick things up, hunched over a desk or a computer, or curled up in a forward fold while we sleep. The position we put our body in can have a great effect on how we feel. When we are slouched forward with our shoulders dropping down and our chin tucked to our chest doesn't exactly make us feel cool, calm and confident, does it? Back bending, when done correctly, can can be very rejuvenating and energizing and have a positive effect on our emotions, our outlook and our state of mind! Think about what happens in a back bending pose: your chest and heart are lifted, your shoulders are back and you feel open and free!

This weeks back bend challenge poses are Natarajasana (king dancer pose) using a strap, and a variation of Ganda Bherundasana (formidable face poses) using blocks for support. Lets look at each one and break them down step by step!

Ganda Bherundasana

Step 1. Set your blocks up so they are shoulder width apart, then come into down dog with your finger tips behind the blocks.

Step 2. Shift forward into plank then lower to chaturanga with your shoulders resting on the blocks. Keep your core engaged and hips lifted slightly so there is no sinking in the low back. If your blocks are low enough your chin may rest on the floor. Do not put a lot of weight into the chin. Let the weight be in the hands and blocks.

Step 3. Walk your feet in towards your hands so your bottom is sticking up in the air like an inchworm. If your blocks are upright your chin will not reach the floor. If they are turned down and your chin is on the floor be careful not to sink weight into the chin which will put pressure on the cervical spine.

Step 4. Practice lifting one leg up into the air and hold here, then switch legs.

Step 5. When you feel ready you can take practice hops, or kick up so that both legs are extended up into the air. Keep pressing the hands down and avoid letting the elbows widen out to the side.






Natarajasana

Step 1: Make a large loop with your strap and place it in your right hand. Bend your right knee and place the strap around the right foot behind you. Rotate your elbow in, out, and up so that your holding the strap over your head and your elbow points forward. Hug the elbow in towards your ear.

Step 2: Reach the left arm up, bend the elbow and take hold of the strap in the left hand as well as the right. Both arms are bent, elbows are pointing forward. Hug the elbows in towards the ears and resist them falling out to the sides.

Step 3: Press the foot back into the strap, lift the knee a little higher away from the floor, walk the hands down the strap a little further. Keep repeating those 3 movements until you have found a comfortable place to stop. Tuck the tailbone to lengthen the curve in the low back and keep the elbows in. Keep pressing down through the left foot for balance. Feel the chest open and expand.



If you feel any discomfort in the low back during back bending, try tucking the tailbone a bit more so that you can relieve some pressure. If this doesn't help, back out of the pose a bit until you find a place that is comfortable for you. Your breath is a good indicator of whether or not you have gone too far. If your breath becomes agitated you may have gone too far. Be sure to work your way into back bends slowly so that you have the opportunity to recognize any messages your body is sending to you and always listen when your body says stop.

Awesome Playlist for a Super Happy Flow!

Hi everyone! It's been a while since my last post, but I wanted to share with you my playlist from today's vinyasa flow class. This mix is sure to get you in a good mode and get your body moving! You can't help but smile and feel good when flowing to these tunes!!

1. Life is Beautiful - Keb Mo
2. Hold Us Together - Matt Maher
3. Your Love - Keb Mo
4. If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out - Cat Stevens
5. Brighter Than the Sun - Colbie Caillat
6. The Sound of Sunshine - Michael Franti & Spearhead
7. I See Love - Keb Mo
8. Steer - Missy Higgins
9. Let Your Light Shine - Keb Mo
10. Love's Divine - Seal
11. Never Know - Jack Johnson
12. Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley
13. Live High - Jason Mraz
14. Have a Little Faith in Me - Anne Lise

Feel free to share your fave playlists!!

Baby Steps and a Healthy Diet

I recently went to the library and checked out the book Crazy Sexy Diet by Kris Carr, a cancer survivor who turned to holistic treatments and a healthy diet to help her through her battle with cancer. Her story is remarkable (and can be viewed in her documentary Crazy Sexy Cancer, for anyone who is interested) and I couldn’t wait to get her newest book and read all about her nutrition suggestions. One of the reasons I love the book is because it is NOT written by a doctor or nutritionist, but rather a normal every day person who can share her own personal experience with changing from the standard American diet (A.K.A crap) to a very healthy, plant based diet. What are her credentials to write such a book, you may ask? Throughout the time she spent fighting her cancer and radically changing her diet she traveled to many places, read tons of research and was able to meet with and interview lots of well known doctors and dieticians. As a result of all of that work, she is able to share with us that knowledge in plain, easy to understand, and even humorous language. Within the book are short sections written by well known doctors such as Dean Ornish MD, and a foreword by Rory Freedman, co-author of the best selling book Skinny Bitch. The book itself is 230 pages long and packed with juicy info on pH levels, sugar (the legal drug), juicing, how meat isn’t really that awesome, supplements, and so much more!! Kris talks about how we need to take responsibility for the food we are eating, and I couldn’t agree more!

I have had the book for about a week now, and as a result of finding so much information to absorb, I am only ¼ of the way through it. After only the first chapter I began to panic. With every word I read I started thinking that my diet isn’t good enough. I started making mental lists of all the items I need to cut out and soooooo many items I will need to add. I began to question my choices at every snack and meal, analyzing my food and thinking to myself this isn’t healthy enough, or, eat this and it will surely kill me some day! I definitely got a little carried away, but with so much information on making healthy choices right in front of me, it was hard not to! The more I thought about it, the more I realized that just like anything else, if you want to make a change, baby steps work best. If I were to try to overhaul both mine and my husbands diets in a matter of days we would surely both revolt. Trying to make drastic changes in a short amount of time is a great way to set yourself up for a failure. Recognizing that it was best to take it slowly, one step at a time, I decided to reflect on my current diet and all of the changes that I have made to bring myself here today.

First of all, I stopped consuming the Standard American Diet (love how the acronym is S.A.D.) over ten years ago, so that was my first big step in the right direction. I did away with meat and most dairy long before I even knew the benefits of it. I don’t eat fast food of any kind, don’t drink soda or other soft drinks (except on a special occasion or maybe the one time a year I actually visit a bar) and I have never been a huge fan of coffee. OK, OK I did have a small addiction to Starbucks Vanilla Soy Lattés a while back but I have kicked that habit, I swear. While I hate smoothies, I do love juicing, I eat a good amount of fruits and veggies, and although I have recently reintroduced dairy back into my diet I only consume it every now and then. So when I stop and take a look at my diet I can tell myself I am already doing a good job. But there is always room for improvement, and this book has opened my eyes to things I didn’t know, and things I knew but wanted to pretend weren’t true. Sugar, for example, being a legal drug. This I was aware of but I liked to claim ignorance. I am a HUGE fan of sugar whether it is those yummy vegan cupcakes that my sister bakes or the awesome tofutti soy ice cream I can’t get enough of at $5 a pint. I’m reading a lot about what sugar actually does once it’s inside your body. Sure, it makes me and my mouth happy, but it turns out my blood and my organs are singing a different tune.

So how do you make changes to your diet without going broke, crazy or wanting to dive face first into a freshly baked batch of fudge brownies? I have decided to start with a list of 10 easy ways I can change my diet for the better, whether it be increasing something healthy I am already eating, reducing or eliminating something unhealthy I am eating, or simply finding a better alternative. I don’t have a complete list yet, but here is what I am working on so far.

1)     Start juicing daily. I have my eye on a super awesome juicer at William’s Sonoma. I am hoping by the end of the month to bring that baby home with me and start juicing for me and my husband on a daily basis. Luckily we live in close proximity to several lovely farms where we can buy fresh produce so I can support local farmers as well as eat organic. In Kris’s book she suggests a ratio of 3 veggies to 1 fruit. If you’re worried about wasting all that pulp, she also offers some suggestions for baking so you can put it to use! Or you can always throw it in your composter if you have one!

2)     Cut down on the sugar. This will probably be the toughest task for me when it comes to revamping my diet, so I have vowed to be patient with myself and consider each small sacrifice a step in the right direction. I’m not going to completely deprive myself of sugar because that would make me pretty sad. But I am definitely going to reconsider all of the sugary vegan treats I bring into our home and how often I am consuming them. One thing I never really do is try to find an alternative. When I am having a sugar craving I go right for the good stuff without looking for a healthier alternative such as nut butter on a rice cracker with raisins. While that doesn’t sound nearly as appealing as a tofutti ice cream cone, it just may be sweet enough to keep me out of the freezer for one night. And right about now, that’s all I can ask for!

3)     More raw veggies. I have always heard about the benefits of a raw diet but I have never really been interested in too much uncooked food. After reading a few pages on the importance of raw veggies however, I now understand that it’s important to get a few more uncooked veggies into my diet so I can get the vitamins and nutrients my body needs. Overcooking food strips it of its good stuff, so my plan is to get a few more uncooked veggies in throughout the day. Easy Peasy!

4)     More Legumes! I’m not a huge fan of beans. It’s the consistency……yuck. But there are some legumes that I do love, so I need to start working them into our meals more: split peas, lentils, chickpeas….all of these can be added to salads, soups, and many other dishes and are a great way to get important protein.

So as you can see these new goals aren’t going to break the back or my stride! If I focus on making some small changes over a period of time and think a little bit harder about the food that I’m putting in my mouth, I can continue taking steps in the right direction. If you’re having trouble with the idea of making yours and your families diets healthier, try making a list! Start with small, reachable goals that will allow you to see the changes and feel successful! As your diet moves in the right direction you can start adding more items to the list! And I strongly suggest that everyone run right out and pick up this book – even if only one of her suggestions makes its way into your lifestyle you will be so much better off because of it!

I’m going to eat some carrots and hummus now. J

No Yoga = blah blah blah. Yuck.

I am writing this blog post in a very agitated state. Due to a shoulder injury, a stomach bug and a bout of laziness I haven’t hit my mat in over a week. How do I feel, you may ask? Let me tell you: I feel grouchy. Angry. Stiff. Sore. Tired. Irritated. Lazy. Unproductive. I have been sleeping. Procrastinating. Complaining. Wasting time. Watching too much TV. Eating junk. The list goes on and on. This all around funky mood I am in has got me thinking about all the good things I feel when I make it to my mat regularly. Or even occasionally! That list is also endless. But allow me to share a few. When I practice yoga….

• My body feels well. My muscles, bones and joints feel strong and healthy.
• I feel inspired. I want to do more, be better, live healthier and share that with the people I love.
• My mind is a bit clearer. Just like everyone else I have tons of thoughts racing through my mind at any given moment: to-do lists, errands, meals to cook, places I have to go, etc. But when I make it to my mat on a regular basis it seems a little quieter up there, a little calmer.
• I am a lot happier. My mood is elevated and I’m sure it doesn’t go un-noticed. I can turn into a bit of a monster when my practice goes out the window.
• I am more patient with the people I love.
• I have a greater desire to help others.
• I feel more productive. There is nothing I like more then finishing an awesome yoga practice on a Saturday morning and realizing its only 10am.
• I have more energy.
• I complain a LOT less!
• TV is a lot less appealing when you are feeling good in your body and therefore I watch less. I would rather be moving!
• I have a desire to eat better. My vegetarian (mostly vegan) diet is pretty healthy as is, but at times I slip into a vicious sugar cycle where the more you eat the more you want! My practice gives me such a healthy feeling inside that I want to keep making healthy choices by eating more fruits & veggies!
• I write more. When my practice takes a hit … so does my blog! Without yoga I have less to share. When I practice regularly, I write regularly!

I could go on, but we would be here all day. I hope that reading a few of the benefits I feel from my yoga practice encourages you to begin or continue your own!

What does your asana say about you?

On the surface, our asanas can look like nothing more than a physical posture we somehow wiggled ourselves into. But if you dig a little deeper you’ll find that each pose reveals a little bit about you, maybe even telling you things you didn’t know. This morning I came across a beautiful quote - “Every asana holds the potency to give us the deep recognition of who we really are at our essential nature.” ~ Bernadette Birney, certified Anusara teacher. I instantly fell in love with this. I feel like it perfectly sums up exactly what I have been thinking about myself lately. I have been noticing things about myself when I am on my mat that have helped me to understand myself a little bit better when I am off the mat.

When I dig a little deeper I notice that the way I think, feel and respond to my asanas are very similar to my reactions in every day activities and situations. Here are a few poses that have helped me learn a little bit more about who I am.

• Downward Facing Dog has reinforced for me how much I love organization. Down Dog was always a bit of a sloppy pose for me. I could hang out there forever allowing myself to sink deeper and deeper due to flexibility in my shoulders without any thought to alignment or form. It was ok, but it never felt … right. It wasn’t until I discovered Anusara yoga that I learned how important alignment is in each and every pose, and for me that lesson began in down dog. Once I was taught the proper alignment for the pose I felt things begin to fall in line inside my body. My bones were lined up they way they were meant to be, my muscles were doing the jobs they were meant to do and everything felt like it had fallen to place. I felt organized. Finally, the pose began to feel good. That is exactly the feeling I like to emulate in my day to day activities. Of course I can be messy from time to time (my husband can attest to that!) But I love when things are lined up and neat, I enjoy making lists, I’m a huge fan of organizing with bullet points and numbers. Organization is definitely my friend and on the mat, that comes out in the form of alignment. When my body is aligned properly my poses feel neat and organized, and that is when I feel the best!
• Extended side angle has shown me that when things get tough I have the urge to quit! There are times that I have found myself facing some challenging tasks that I enjoy and want to exceed at, and then there are times I have faced challenging situations that scared me, annoyed me or just seemed too hard, and thats when I want to run in the other direction. On the mat the poses that make me want to give up, roll up my mat or lay down in childn’s pose are hip openers like extended side angle. I find myself struggling there, trying to keep my alignment right, my breath steady and my mind from wandering, while my muscles are screaming, let me out of this already!!! Similar to my on-mat experience, off the mat I find that while facing tough decisions, having a difficult discussion with someone, or attempting a challenging task that doesn’t appeal to me, as soon as it becomes a little bit too hard or pushes me past my comfort zone, I want to bail. On the mat I try to remind myself to just take it one breath at a time. I make an effort to stop looking for a way out of it, and start looking for a comfortable place to be in it. This is the lesson I need to remember in my day to day activities. One breath at a time. When faced with a difficult situation I cant start looking for the exit sign. I need to start looking inside of myself for the strength and courage to face what I am dealing with.
• Crow pose has shown me that when I put my mind to something, no matter how difficult a task it may be, I can succeed. This definitely goes hand in hand with my lessons learned from extended side angle. From my very first arm balance, crow pose, I was hooked. At first I saw crow pose as a challenge I needed to conquer. It was a difficult pose for me and I wanted it bad. It took me a lot of practice (and a few more lessons on awareness and alignment) before I could finally get up and hold it, but once I did the feeling was amazing. In the beginning it had been all about the physical challenge, but once I could actually do it, I felt so strong and capable. There is something about being able to support your own body weight that is very empowering! And despite the fact I know I have the urge to run from difficult situations, arm balances like crow pose have shown me that if I stick around and give it a good shot, I most definitely can conquer anything I am faced with.

Next time you roll out your mat set an intention to listen to the story your asana practice is telling you. Listen to your body, check in with your breath, notice where your mind has gone. Try to find that connection between your asana and your life.

Who is controlling your happiness today?

This morning I was cleaning out my email inbox when I came across some old emails from a former co-worker. They weren’t particularly nice emails, as a matter of fact, they were rather offensive, questioning my character and insulting my intelligence. I had intentionally kept them in case I ever needed proof of how inappropriate they had been, but had since forgotten about them and was surprised to come across them again this morning. I don’t know why I decided to read them again, but as I did I felt my blood begin to boil just as it had the first time around. I became so angry at this person and the words they had used towards me. This situation has been over and done with for quite some time now, yet there I was mentally putting myself right back into it and allowing it to bring me to a negative place. Until that moment I had been having a rather fine day, but now I was clinging to anger and resentment. Those negative feelings stayed with me for a good part of my morning like a black cloud hanging over my head. In a moment of clarity I began to wonder, why had I ever let this person get to me in the first place? Why did I give them that kind of power of me then, and why on earth would I allow them that power again, now? I then started to think about all of the things, people and circumstances that we allow to control us. We give power to so many other things throughout our day and strip ourselves of it at the same time. If you stop and think about it, from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to sleep you have all the control in the world over your mood, your emotions, your words, your actions … it isn’t until we willing give it away that that changes. If we allow someone to do or say something to us that brings us to a negative place, we have given them the power to do so. If we let a situation we are facing cause us stress and unhappiness, we are handing over our power and our control and giving in to it. It is like we are throwing up our hands and saying, “OK! You win! Make me miserable! I have no strength of my own to stop you.”

There is a piece of paper taped to my bathroom mirror which reads “I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it. – Groucho Marx.” I skim over that note most mornings, and yet the words usually go right through me. But today after getting upset over those emails I stopped to think about it. Each and every second of the day we are making a choice either to be in control of our happiness, or to hand that control over to someone or something else. We cannot control what other people will do, think or say, and there are plenty of other circumstances that are out of our control as well. But we always have control over how we react to those things. We choose if we are going to be happy in the moment, or let something else bring us down. I know it is easier said than done, and I am by no means above all of this. In fact, in between the email incident and writing this blog post I gave my control over to several people and situations while I was driving, in the grocery store and other places. But it is definitely something worth thinking about, and something I am going to try and pay more attention to. Each morning as I brush my teeth I will make it a point to read each and every word of that quote and really absorb the words I am reading. I want to stop giving so much control to other people and situations and start taking control myself! As you go through the rest of your day, ask yourself, who is controlling your happiness today?

Where to start when you are new to inversions. Part I - Handstand

Inversions are challenging, there is no question about that. They take time, effort, practice and patience. But the rush that comes along with accomplishing something challenging makes them sooooo worth while! You may have seen yogis who have been practicing for a while seem to float up into an inversion making it look effortless. But when you’re a beginner it can be a bit overwhelming. So, where is the best place to start? Try following these steps to begin working towards handstand.

1) Begin with a few rounds of Surya Namaskar, Sun Salutation, (or any other sequence of poses you are familiar with) to warm up the body. While it can be tempting to jump right in and try to flip yourself upside down, a proper warm up for the body is necessary and believe me you will feel it if you skip this step!!

 

2) Downward Facing Dog - Although we tend to think of other poses first, down dog is an inversion, too. Come into down dog when your ready and begin to work on your foundation here, your hands and feet. Feet are separated hip width apart, even wider if there is tightness in the hamstrings (muscles in the back of the upper leg). Heals are reaching down towards the mat, but it isn’t important that they reach; it is just the direction they are traveling. You can keep a little micro-bend in the knees here, if needed. Hands are shoulder width apart, fingers spread wide. Root the hands into the mat and press the inner edges (thumb and pointer finger side) down. Squeeze the mat with your hands to activate the muscles in the hands and wrists. Tail bone is reaching up and back and your chest pressing back towards the thighs. Begin to peddle out the legs, bending the right knee and then the left, warming up the body and loosening up the hamstrings. Stay in down dog for 5 breaths if you can, then lower your knees down to the mat and sit back in child's pose to rest for a few breaths. Return to down dog. Repeat 2 more times.

3) L-Dog (or half handstand)- L-dog is a great place to start when you are learning handstand as it introduces both your mind and your body to the idea of being upside down. With your back to the wall come into downward facing dog (following the foundational steps mentioned in number 2.) Begin to step one foot up onto the wall behind you, keeping that knee slightly bent and pressing the entire foot firmly into the wall. Then step the second foot up, both knees are bent now. If only the balls of your feet are on the wall begin to press the entire foot, including the heal, into the wall. Locate the spot on the wall that is in line with your hips and walk both feet up or down to that invisible marker if they aren’t already there. Slowly begin to straighten the legs. You will feel your weight shift forward a bit as you straighten your legs and your shoulders come over your wrists. Look down at the floor, just a few inches behind your hands. Continue to press the inner edge of your hands down and squeeze the mat. Hold your L-dog for as many breaths as you can, then slowly walk your feet back down the wall coming into down dog. Bend the knees and rest in child’s pose for a few moments. When you’re ready, come back up for a second L-dog.

 

4) L-Dog Variations: From here, if you are feeling comfortable with your L-Dog you can begin to play around with your leg position and weight. From L-Dog extend your right leg up towards the ceiling while pressing your left foot firmly into the wall. Right foot stays flexed, toes pointing back towards the wall. Then lower the right foot and lift the left. Keep the tail bone tucked under to lengthen the low back. When you are ready, walk the feet down the wall, returning to down dog, then lower the knees and sit back in child’s pose.

5) Hand Stand - Turn to face the wall and come into downward facing dog. Continue to root the hands into your mat as you walk your feet in closer to your hands, arms stay straight. Lift one leg up off the ground keeping it straight, muscles engaged and extending out through the heal. Bend the opposite knee towards the floor and then using the power in that bent leg like a spring start practice hops, feeling the weight shift into your hands. After a few hops on one leg switch sides. You may find that this is enough of a challenge for now and you want to stick with the practice hops, or you may want to try kicking all the way up into a full handstand using the wall behind you for support. Once your feet make contact with the wall, keep the legs straight, feet flexed and tail bone drawing towards the heels. Keep your gaze down, just a few inches behind your hands. You can stay here with your feet on the wall, or practice taking one foot off the wall then returning it, and then the other foot. Once you’re able to find your balance and stability, you can begin to take both feet away from the wall. As you become more comfortable with your handstand, practice kicking up farther away from the wall so that you can try to find your balance without your feet making contact with the wall, knowing it is there if you need it for support. When you’re ready to come down, lower your feet back to the floor with as much control as possible, lower your knees to the floor and sit back in child’s pose.

6) After your inversions feel free to round out your practice with any other poses you wish. End with Savasana, deep relaxation.

After your savasana, take a moment to reflect, to acknowledge your effort and achievements. Bow your head in gratitude for your practice; recognize your courage in facing a challenging set of poses.

When practiced regularly, you will be surprised how quickly you build the strength and balance needed for handstand. So carry on inverters, carry on!

Namaste.

My Obsession with Inversions

I just got home from an amazing yoga class taught by Shannon Elliot and I'm on a bit of a high. It’s the inversions that do it to me. Once my biggest fear in yoga, inversions are now what excite me most in class. An inversion is a pose in which up is down, or down is up. What comes to mind for most is probably head stand or hand stand. In these poses your completely upside down. I can’t get enough of them. There is something so addicting for me about being upside down. The reverse of blood flow, the shift of weight from my feet to my hands or forearms, the different perspective … I love it all. When I come into handstand for example, I feel brave and strong. We could probably all benefit from allowing ourselves to feel these things more often. When I’m up in the pose I’m working hard, but there is an element of peace and calm as well. When I come down I feel proud that I have just accomplished something difficult and I didn’t give up. I also am able to feel accepting of myself and of my limits. I know when to push and when to back off. I know when to go up and when it just doesn’t feel right. Knowing when to stop is a practice all in itself. Putting myself in the position to recognize those things allows me to know myself just a little bit more.

To a beginner yogi or even a more seasoned one, inversions can be daunting. Our bodies are naturally upright so it’s understandable that we may have a little bit of anxiety when it comes to turning ourselves upside down. Not only does our mind object, but our bodies may as well, fighting us when we try to invert.

Inversions take time and practice. Not only do we need to build up the strength in our bodies to handle them, but we need to cultivate the open mindedness and the willingness to try them, too. A lot of times we talk ourselves out of something before we even try, and there is no shortage of that on the yoga mat. We may tell ourselves we don’t have the skill or the strength and we defeat our selves without giving it a shot. We fail before we even try to succeed. My own personal issue with inversions used to be my concern for what others thought. I was afraid to try a pose that the rest of the class was doing because I cared too much about what they thought of me. It took a lot of time for me to be comfortable with the idea of putting myself out there when others might judge me but once I was willing to try I found that most people are way too concerned with their own pose to even notice what I was doing! Once I was able to stop caring what everyone else in the room thought of me, I was free. Free to make mistakes, free to fall out of the pose, free to stop when I had to. But I was also able to learn from my mistakes, cultivate strength and balance and keep on going. It doesn’t happen over night of course… you don’t just wake up one day and decide your going to do a one-handed hand stand (haven’t mastered this one yet…!) It takes time, it takes patience and it takes an open mind. I think it is important to recognize that the person on the mat next to you who comes up in a handstand without the support of the wall had to start somewhere, too. The person in front of you who has held their crow pose for 10 breaths now hasn’t always been able to do that. We all start at the very same place and from there we take it at our own pace in our own time.

There is no shortage of reasons to give inversions a try. From a physical perspective, they improve the circulation of blood and other internal fluids which help to cleanse and detoxify the body, they help to strengthen our muscles, they can help to relieve back pain caused by compression in the vertebrae, and they can improve posture. In addition, inversions help us recognize that we can conquer our fears and take on challenges. They shift our perspective and give us a new way to look at the world. As one of my teachers puts it, turning ourselves upside down voluntarily makes it easier for us to accept when our world gets turned upside down. Inversions can also help with mental clarity. When we invert there is an increase of blood flow to the head, supplying the brain with lots of fresh oxygen which can increase levels of concentration and mental sharpness.

Tonight’s class full of inversions was just what I needed and I can’t wait to get some more! For anyone interested in joining me I’m attending an awesome three hour inversion workshop with Erin Klemme at P.S. 108 in Bedminster this Sunday from 1-4! See their website for more details!

Be on the look out for my next post: Where to start when you’re new to inversions!

My Love Affair with Yoga

Last week a fellow yogi asked me, “what brought you to yoga?”, and you know me, I just had to write about it :) It is interesting actually that I haven’t blogged about this one before as it is something I think about often.

Sometimes I wonder about other yogis and what their first experience with yoga was like. Was it mind blowing, or just so-so? I often hear stories about people whose first yoga class was a life changing experience, that they knew in the first few moments of class that they were destined to be yogis. They felt an immediate change in their mind and in their bodies. For many, it took only the first few breaths in down dog to know they were hooked for life. I didn't have an experience like that. For me, it was much more of a gradual relationship that I took my time getting into. The more stories I read about that “love-at-first-sight” experience with Yoga made me feel like I had missed out on something. I mean, sure I thought yoga was nice and all, but we were definitely friends first!

I was always very interested in fitness, nutrition and even holistic health, but yoga was not up there on the list for me when I first started. I attended my very first yoga class when I was around 18 years old. It was at a local YMCA and I was tagging along with my older sister. While I'm sure I thought it was nice and all, there were no sparks flying. I never thought to myself, this is what I have been looking for all my life. It was something to do that felt good and fit nice, but that’s about where it stopped. I took a few classes here and there when I could, but I definitely didn’t go out of my way to fit in into my schedule. I guess you could say yoga & I were causally dating.

 My relationship with yoga deepened over the next few years as I bounced around from studio to studio, trying out different teachers and different styles, deepening my knowledge of the practice. I became more and more invested, and what had once been mostly a physical routine for me started to become more spiritual. I had begun practicing yoga for one reason, and then it turned into something else completely. (Sound familiar?) I became more interested in the other aspects of a yogic lifestyle, not just the asanas. The yamas and the niyamas were of particular interest to me as I began to apply these social and moral codes to my every day life and not just to my mat practice. Throughout the years, yoga and I became closer and closer, and eventually evolved into the wonderful relationship we have today. I am happy to say that after many years of practice and study I now make my living as a full time yoga instructor. But I still consider myself to be first and foremost a student of yoga.
 
Sometimes I do wish that I had had that incredible feeling of love and attachment for yoga when we first met. Sometimes I don’t completely understand why I didn’t have that while others do. But I remind myself  that it doesn’t matter how we started out, what matters is where we are at now. I trust that it all happened the way it was meant to happen. Isn’t it true that the relationships we enter into slowly and take our time with are the ones that last? Maybe at 18, 19 and 20 years old I was not ready to invite yoga into my life the way I now have 12 years later. Maybe at that time, I was only meant to have a taste of what was yet to come. Now, I do feel that addiction to yoga. I get a rush from a great class or a really awesome inversion. I enjoy diving into yoga philosophy and learning how to apply the principals to my daily life. I crave the knowledge that I get from workshops and trainings, and I enjoy more than anything sharing that knowledge with the students who grace me with their presence during my weekly classes.

What, then, is your great love story with yoga? What brought you to the mat, and what keeps you coming back?