Posts Tagged ‘yoga’
Tuesday, June 7th, 2011
Yesterday, I took the first class in my new blog project to highlight and celebrate other local yoga teachers in Denver. I went to Lisa Schlelein’s All Levels Flow class at Karma Yoga Center in Wash Park.
Summer has arrived in Denver and the heat was sticking to my skin by the time I arrived to this late afternoon class. Lisa’s theme for the practice focused on cooling the fiery pitta energy that often gets thrown off balance during the summer months. We began with some refreshing Sitali breath – a perfect start to a summertime practice.
Even as sweat dripped down my face throughout the class, I felt cool and centered. Lisa’s calm and balanced energy encouraged meditative movement through the poses. Her even pacing, clear and precise alignment instruction, and soothing voice guided us towards a peaceful, yet rigorous, practice. Throughout the class, Lisa made a point to note the physical and emotional benefits of the poses we moved through, further inspiring an attention towards reflection and purposeful action on our mats.
One of the things I love most in a yoga class is when I can tell that the teacher put careful thought into the sequencing of poses towards an apex pose. The obvious care and precision that Lisa brought to her sequencing made me feel honored and held. When a teacher takes the time to craft a class carefully, my heart soars. I feel as if the teacher has offered me a precious gift on my yoga mat. Lisa’s clear and unwavering focus on opening our hips and shoulders culminated in Dragonfly pose. Thanks to the care she put into the sequencing, the pose felt easeful and freeing when I arrived into it.
Lisa’s class was a true offering to her students. It confirmed for me the importance of this project. Lisa, like other great yoga teachers, carefully crafted her class as a means of honoring and uplifting her students. I hope that, through these posts on the beauty and power of the yoga classes in Denver, I can do the same for our local yoga teachers.
Here’s a picture of the beautiful Lisa Schlelein! If you have the chance to take her class, don’t miss it!
Tags: Denver, Denver yoga classes, Denver yoga teachers, Lisa Schlelein, yoga, yoga classes in Denver, yoga teachers in Denver
Posted in By Denver Yoga Studios, By Denver Yoga Teacher, Denver Yoga Classes, Karma Yoga Center, Lisa Schlelein | 2 Comments »
Thursday, January 6th, 2011
“At the approach of the rainy season, peacocks dance. When they start, they lift up their trailing tail feathers and spread them to form fans… This pose resembles that of a peacock starting his dance.” – BKS Iyengar, Light on Yoga
Pincha Mayurasana (Feathered Peacock Pose) is commonly known as Forearm Stand and registers 12* on the 60* scale of difficulty in Light on Yoga. Getting your legs up to the wall and your head off the ground comprises the first challenges of this yoga pose. The second challenge of Pincha Mayurasana comes when you attempt to balance in the center of the room.
Personally, I struggle with the second of these two challenges. If the wall is nearby, I can easily come into Forearm Stand with legs not touching the wall. If I back completely away from the wall, fear takes over and I topple over myself. For me, the key to balancing in Pincha Mayurasana without the wall is to slowly back away from the wall, one inch at a time. Every step away from the wall take you one step further away from your comfort zone, but perhaps one step closer to enjoying the pose in the center of the room.
Today, I still have a wall nearby when I practice Forearm Stand. Someday, perhaps, my journey away from the wall will take me into the middle of the room. But, for now, it’s an inch-by-inch journey.
How do you explore Pincha Mayurasana away from the wall? What physical or mental preparations help you in your path toward this inversion?
Tags: arm balances, arm balancing yoga poses, asana, BKS Iyengar, inversions, Light on Yoga, Pincha Mayurasana, yoga
Posted in Pincha Mayurasana | 9 Comments »
Monday, November 8th, 2010
Uttana Padasana (Extended Leg Pose) registers as 9* on BKS Iyengar’s scale of difficulty.
This yoga pose helps tone abdominal muscles, and strengthen back muscles. Furthermore, the extension and gentle bend in the neck stimulates the thyroid and helps regulate it’s activity.
If resting on only the crown of your head and your buttocks proves too challenging in this asana, try Paripurna Navasana instead. Navasana will still draw upon your core strength to help you tone your abs, but will not create strain on your neck.
Tags: ab toning, asana, BKS Iyengar, core strength, Light on Yoga, Paripurna Navasana, thyroid, Uttana Padasana, yoga, yoga poses
Posted in Uttana Padasana | 1 Comment »
Saturday, November 6th, 2010
Anantasana (Sleeping Vishnu Pose or Side-Lying Leg Lift) registers as 9* on Iyengar’s 60* scale of difficulty.
Ananta is one of Vishnu’s names and is also the name of the serpent on which he sleeps, Sesa. In Light on Yoga, BKS Iyengar says of Anantasana, “According to Hindu mythology, Vishnu sleeps in the primeval ocean on his couch Sesa, the thousand-headed serpent. in his sleep a lotus grows from his navel. In that lotus is born the Creator Brahma, who fashions the world. After the creation, Vishnu awakens to reign in the highest heaven, Vaikuntha.”
Practicing this yoga pose is like sleeping on a serpent. While the asana appears to be a relaxing, lounging pose, balancing in Anantasana is actually quite difficult. With such a narrow part of your body resting on the floor, you often begin rolling forward or backward, as if riding on the back of a slithering snake. Rooting down firmly through your forearm and your grounded leg proves essential to maintain your balance in this yoga pose.
Think of the effort and attention you bring to this balancing pose as a meditation on calm and stability in the midst of change. How can you be like Vishnu, riding peacefully on the waves of ever-constant change? Perhaps, from the depths of your attentiveness, a sense of serenity will bloom, like a lotus, from within you.
Tags: Anantasana, asana, core yoga poses, Iyengar, Light on Yoga, Vishnu, yoga
Posted in Anantasana | No Comments »
Friday, October 29th, 2010
Supta Padangusthasana (Supine Foot to Head Pose) registers as 13* on Iyengar’s 60* scale of difficulty.
Often, we get so caught up in achieving a perceived “goal” within an asana that we lose sight of the other aspects of the pose. We so desperately want to touch our toes in Paschimottanasana that we’ll round our upper backs to get there. In Urdhva Prasarita Ekapadasana we’re so fixated on reaching our extended leg to the sky that we lose a stable and squared off alignment in our hips.
In Supta Padangusthasana, we often focus so much on grabbing our big toe with our hand or reaching our upward leg as close to our head as possible that we lose sight of the grounded leg’s alignment. As you move your upward leg towards your torso, notice the tendency of your grounded leg to rise away from the earth. The grounded leg lifts to compensate for tightness in the extended leg’s hamstring. So, while you may be congratulating yourself on achieving some perceived goal of reaching your leg closer to your head, you’re reducing the efficacy of the asana.
Iyengar beautifully demonstrates Supta Padangusthasana with his leg touching his head and his grounded leg rooted into the ground. Notice how in my version of this pose, my bottom leg rises away from the earth, especially at the back of my thigh.
For now, I prefer to explore Supta Padangusthasana in it’s more preparatory stage, reaching my hand around my big toe and yearning my shoulder down toward the mat. Even then I must continue to reach my grounded leg back down to the earth. When you reach for your big toe, if your bottom leg lifts off the ground, situate a strap around the ball of your extended leg’s foot and hold onto the strap instead.
Rather than viewing pieces of a pose with a goal-oriented mindset, look at the pose from all angles. Viewing the asanas as the sum of all their parts invites a more holistic approach to the practice.
Tags: alignment, asana, Iyengar, Light on Yoga, Supta Padangusthasana, yoga
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, October 27th, 2010
Iyengar registers Chakrasana (Wheel Pose) as 4* on the 60* scale of difficulty. A 4* asana may seem like one you can jump right into, but handle Chakrasana with great care.
Personally, I can’t or won’t do this pose. I’m not sure which. The pose requires you to begin in a variation of Halasana with your hands planted on the ground, then gently roll your shoulders off the mat and roll onto your head. Yikes! The minute I read these instructions my cervical spine (the area of my spine where my neck is) was on red alert.
I find the risk of injuring or compromising my cervical spine in this pose to be too great to attempt the asana in its entirety. Iyengar, no doubt, performs the asana with ease, but as a far less skilled practitioner, I don’t feel comfortable exploring a pose that puts so much direct pressure on such a delicate part of my spine. For me, the initial preparatory stage of the pose meets my edge.
Moral of the story: Honor your edge and respect your neck. You only get one cervical spine. Make sure you handle it with care.
Which poses do you believe should be approached with the utmost care and caution? How do you honor your edge within your practice?
Tags: alignment, asana, cervical spine, Chakrasana, Iyengar, Light on Yoga, neck, yoga
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Sunday, October 24th, 2010
Jathara Parivartanasana (Revolved Abdomen Pose) registers as 5* on Iyengar’s 60* scale of difficulty.
Iyengar notes, “In the initial stages the right shoulder will be lifted off the floor. To prevent this ask a friend to press it down, or catch hold of a heavy piece of furniture with the right hand.” This is the first time throughout Light on Yoga that Iyengar suggests partner exercises as a useful way of deepening the experience of an asana.
Many people loathe partner work in a yoga class. I used to be one of them. Whenever a teacher would ask us to partner up, a sense of trepidation and irritation would arise in my mind. “Why do I have to have a partner? I came to yoga to be alone and do my own thing. Can I even trust this person?”
With time and with the help of great teachers who offered truly enlightening partner exercises in class, I began to see the benefits of this aspect of practice. Working with a partner enhances our knowledge of body mechanics within an asana, invites us to expand our practice off our solitary mats, and fosters trust and receptivity. When we collaborate with thoughtful partners in yoga class, we tap into a sense of community and shared passion for a practice that too often seems characterized by isolation.
If you’re interested in the more playful side of partner work, check out this fun series of partner exercises on Yoga Journal.
For teachers, read this great article in Yoga Journal about ways in which to safely introduce partner exercises into your classes.
How do you feel about partner work? Love it? Loathe it? Share your thoughts.
Tags: asana, Iyengar, Jathara Parivartanasana, Light on Yoga, partner yoga, yoga
Posted in Asanas, Jathara Parivartanasana | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, October 5th, 2010
Uttana Padma Mayurasana (Intense Stretched Lotus Peacock Pose) registers as 25* on the scale of difficulty. If this is 25*, I tremble to think of what a 40* pose looks like.
Coming into Uttana Padma Mayurasana requires more lower back strength than I possess today. Like Parsva Urdhva Padmasana in Sarvangasana, the asana also places a lot of weight and pressure on your wrists and hands. Furthermore, any backbending pose that includes Padmasana legs provides a very intense stretch in your hips. Iyengar provides no information on the difficulties of the pose or the ways in which to explore the pose with greater ease. But, you don’t need a words from advice from Iyengar to know that you must approach Uttana Padma Mayurasana with tremendous care and respect for the difficulty of the asana.
As I move into the second half of poses in Light on Yoga, I know I will encounter more and more asanas that prove inaccessible to me at this point in my practice. Thankfully, “accomplishing” every pose is not the point of this exercise. My intentions when I began this project were twofold: to enrich and expand my personal practice with new knowledge of familiar and more exotic poses, and to share with others a candid view of my yoga practice. My intentions remain unchanged.
So often yoga practitioners (and yoga teachers, perhaps even more so!) only share their physical triumphs on the mat and shy away from highlighting their psychological, emotional and physical struggles. But, I gain the most inspiration and insight from practitioners and teachers who reveal their practice more completely, candidly discussing not only their joys, but also the points in which they feel frustration, impatience, or defeat. Those practitioners remind me that we are all moving along our paths, one step at a time, and for each of us, unique challenges await. When we share all aspects of our journey with others, we truly evolve as practitioners. We develop greater faith in our sangha (community); we deepen our relationships to others; we live more authentically. The “achievement” of a 25* or 60* pose pales in comparison to the expression of that level of candor.
Tags: asana, candor, Iyengar, Light on Yoga, Uttana Padma Mayurasana, yoga
Posted in Uttana Padma Mayurasana | 2 Comments »
Monday, October 4th, 2010
Parsva Urdhva Padmasana in Sarvangasana (Side Upward Lotus in Shoulderstand) registers as 7* on Iyengar’s 60* scale of difficulty.
Parsva Urdhva Padmasana in Sarvangasana increases the stretch felt in Urdhva Padmasana in Sarvangasana. Iyengar’s version of this pose appears far more dramatic than mine since he is able to draw his hips parallel to the floor and off to the side. When I attempt to draw my legs closer to the floor on my left side, extreme tension develops in my left wrist and I back off. This asana puts a great deal of pressure and weight in the wrist joint.
Many of the asanas – Chaturanga Dandasana, Bakasana (Crow), and Adho Mukha Vrksasana (Handstand) to name a few – tend to put weight and pressure into the wrists. In these poses, you can reduce pressure on your wrists by making your fingers more active, pressing each fingertip into the earth as if it were pressing on a tiny button with all its might. But, in Parsva Urdhva Padmasana in Sarvangasana, your fingers are pressing into your lower back and therefore feel less grounded. Nevertheless, continue to press your fingertips into your lower back as much as you press your wrists into your back. This slight adjustment may relieve a bit of wrist pressure in the pose. And, of course, if it doesn’t, it’s time to back off from the asana. No matter how graceful someone else’s pose looks, listening to and honoring the cues of your body is the most powerful expression of grace on your mat.
Tags: aligment, asana, Iyengar, Light on Yoga, Parsva Urdhva Padmasana in Sarvangasana, yoga
Posted in Parsva Urdhva Padmasana in Sarvangasana | 1 Comment »
