1. First Surya Namaskara of the day: slow, slow, slow. I used to dive into it, only to find my sacrum, hamstrings, and hips yelling back to me, "We're not ready!" Why was I rushing? Sometimes, the tightness would be so much that I would have to bend my knees as I folded forward. But a couple of weeks ago, in my dusty 16th-floor hotel room in Atlanta while my partner was breakfasting with my little one down on Floor 2, I experimented with folding forward very, very slowly. Hips rolled like liquid over the femur bones and my face came to my shins. I will, for the unforeseeable future, not rush Surya Namaskara. Especially the first one of the day.
2. Baddha Konasana. My teacher blew my mind with this one just last week. I asked her how I can get my chin to the floor, how I can release my shoulders from pulling up on my feet too tightly. She watched me get into the pose, and she said, tuck your tailbone a bit. What? I thought (for...um...8 years or so) that I was supposed to stick my tush out when folding forward (you know, the whole "back bend before bending forward" idea). What I discovered, with her help, is that sticking your tush out internally rotates the hips. Tuck the tailbone slightly, and you will find that the groin and hips open (externally). Mind blowing. Take it into the Prasaritas, Upavishta Konasana, and the Eka Padas...and it's even more amazing. One piece of advice has revolutionized my whole practice—I have for a long, long time wondered how my hip sockets were ever going to open. Well, they were never going to (without serious injury) if I kept doing what I was doing.
3. Kapotasana. Is deepening these days. But I have noticed for the last year that the pose locks my sacrum tightly in place and it takes all the way to Yoga Nidrasana to smooth it out again. One thing that helps, as (I think it's supposed to): when I come out of Kapotasana and press my hands into the Earth to release my back (before coming out of the whole pose), I squeeze my knees together and deepen the backbend even more. The energy shoots from my low back all the way up my spine. It's pretty amazing, actually. This morning, when I came out of the pose, I nearly cried. This redistribution of the energy—and, apparently, utter cleansing of the root and heart chakras—helps the transition into the next several postures without the stuckness back in Kapotasana...
Building on this last point: indeed, I would say, the exit from the asana is really the entrance into the next. It's another off-the-mat illumination: transition out of inspires transition into...we can do this poorly, and we can do this well.
And so the discussion begins....
ReplyDeleteFood for thought on each of these:
1. For at least the last year--probably late 2009--I have done SN with bent knees, at least to start. Every day, there is a different amount of bend on the first one. I do not concern myself with keeping them completely straight until I've felt a certain amount of opening in Down Dog. Thus, the amount of lengthening in the hamstrings on any Uttanasana is really to be no more than what I felt at the end of the previous Down Dog. The legs end up being straight soon enough--I generally want this before starting SN B. This approach helps me "dive into it" without hurting myself. Something to perhaps play around with--just a different approach.
2. I find the opposite here. I strive to stick out my butt for this one (though it's hard on to do on this pose, in particular). If I don't, I experience *less* external rotation.
3. Supta Vajrasana is said to "reset the sacrum" after Kapo. You might want to explore how you're doing that pose....