Infinite Bliss Yoga: Beginnners

Each month we're featuring a picture of a real, live teacher or student for inspiration or yoga-by-osmosis. We'll share the yoga of the pose and what the practice of it might offer or require.
This month, the featured pose is anjaneyasana, modeled here by Carrie Burr at Foxhollow Farm (October 22 weekend retreat info coming soon).

As we transition from spring to summer this month, enjoying some of the longest days of the year, we'll see some of the wildest growth in the form of green fields and backyards. Only through preparing the soil through nutrients and water in the spring, though, is this really possible.
Nature has a way of sensing opportunities to maximize life.
This pose looks wild and open and free (like the lush background), but it's really just a natural expression that comes from having taken the time and space to learn, align, and expand at just the right time in just the right way. May this summer grow us in to our heart's fullness.

Each month we're featuring a picture of a real, live teacher or student for inspiration or yoga-by osmosis. We'll share the yoga of the pose and what the practice of it might offer or require.

This month, the featured pose is adho mukha svanasana (ah-doe moo-kuh shwa-na-sa-na), v

This month's feature is a different take on the Sanskrit word that we use for postures, asana.

Asana means 'seat'. As in, "your seat should be steady and easy." We use this ancient yogic lesson to teach modern students how to perform the pose of the month and other athletic endeavors in class. (Soften, open to Grace. Then hug your muscles strongly...) But the truth is that the ancients weren't doing the splits or deep backbends as part of their yoga when that text was written. They were more likely referring to your seat in a room full of other yogis whose practice was a lot more like conversation than it was like exercise. It was and is important in yoga to take your seat in the room with dignity and integrity in order to have a meaningful experience.

The photos above are from the inside and outside of our new studio. We are so excited about fresh, eco-friendly paint and cork floors. We're excited about grasses that sway in the wind and our very own bathrooms. We also recognize that where you sit is important to what you get from your yoga. The top photo shows our little statue of Shiva dancing from the 'open' side, the side that is not concealed by an arm or leg. It is the side of invitation, of Grace, of the path to the heart. We feel that we've always been open, but now we're wide open, complete with big windows to let in the sun and a street-level entrance to be grounded in the neigborhood.

The bottom two photos are of the front glass windows, one low and through the glass, one with the reflection of our previous building clearly behind. Seeing ourselves a little concealed, sometimes in reflection, always by the light of the heart, helps us to be steady and easy in our yoga.

The guy in the top photo is Shiva. In this particular depiction, he is dancing, and his dance is called ananda tandava, the dance of bliss. The story goes like this: two yoga students were seeking a teacher. One, in the form of a snake, was burrowed deep under ground, listening for the drumbeat that would tell him that the party was near. The second student was up in the treetops, checking things out from above, waiting for the appropriate moment to move out of his hiding place. The two students stayed in each other's proximity for a long period before both of them finally recognized that they were seeking the same thing. In the moment that both students sat down on either side of the teacher, Shiva began his great dance.

Both students learned yoga at the same time and in the same place. But because they were sitting on different sides of the teacher, in different asanas, they took away different lessons. One student saw the arm and leg in fron of Shiva and took away a yoga of concealment and boundaries. The other sat on the side where the arm and leg were extended toward him, like an invitation. From that side, the teacher's body was accessible, so the student took away a yoga of openness.

The point is not that one student got it right and one got it wrong. They both got it, and they both have a steady, comfortable seat in the conversation that is our modern yoga.

Each month we're featuring a picture of a real, live teacher or student for inspiration or yoga-by-osmosis.
We'll share the yoga of the pose and what the practice of it might
offer or require.

This month, the featured pose is Handstand, shown here as L-shaped Handstand by Peter Vaananen, who can be found keeping the Friday morning class light-hearted. The Sanskrit name for Handstand is Adho Mukha Vrksasana (ah-doe moo-ka virk-sha-sa-na), or downward-facing tree pose in English.

Handstand is a Level I Handbalance. It is the first inversion taught in Anusara classes, because there's less foundation and therefore more freedom for the shoulders to align. But it requires lots of practice to master the full form, balanced in the middle of the room with no support.

Many of us are plotted along the handstand-balancing continuum in wildly different places. Whether you've been spending your first moments before class trying your balance in the middle of the room or if you're still looking towards getting your hips over your shoulders in 'L-pose' , it can be helpful to think of handstand as a daily practice of taking where you were yesterday and adding to that. Then take where you're going to be and pull it back. Thereby the yogi and the space-time continuum have a different kind of relationship.

1. Your wrists will feel better with your index-finger (pointer) knuckle rooted.

2. Don't be afraid to space out your hands. Peter's using the Revolution Mat by Prana...taking up almost the whole width. (A shipment is on its way to the studio.)

3. But, don't get too far away from the wall. Proper spacing gets you to a 90-degree angle. Anything bigger is energetically inefficient.

4. Keep your arms straight by energetically pulling your hands, forearms, and shoulderblades toward one another.

5. Push firmly one foot against the wall until the other foot begins to float away from the floor. Jumping here doesn't work.

6. Take all of the things that you just practiced, and add more. Then see yourself as the person who can do this, and pull him back to you.

7. When kicking up with one leg, the leg that's not on the floor must be straight.

8. Try kicking up in lots of different ways, so that upside-down starts to feel secure.

9. Without closing the space between the thumb and index finger, claw those fingers toward one another.

The practice of seated poses requires some patience and some extra effort and awareness. Where standing poses, inversions, and backbends automatically bring us to heightened awareness to balance and effort to hold ourselves upright, seated poses may increase our tendency to relax with gravity in to the floor. So, before practicing seated poses, warm up with some lunges, including twists, to get the leg muscles working, warm, and supple.

Then, check your seated foundation. If the low back (the sacrum) cannot tip in and up, creating the natural inward curve in that part of the spine, then you must sit on padding. If the knees are above the crest of the hip (iliac crest), try more padding under your bottom first, then pad under the knee. If the groin muscles hold the knee off the floor, they'll grip too much and won't allow for opening in the hip. Creating the possibility for safety and comfort is the first step in this give-and-take.

The forward bend has two phases: getting the shape of the pose, including the low back tipping in and up, and an even extension throughout the spine. Phase one may involve the padding previously mentioned. It will also involve firming strongly the leg muscles so that the thigh bones can press in to the floor. Phase two keeps all of this, then extends the spine evenly. Easier said than done. Often, one part of the spine (the neck is part of the spine), will move forward out of turn, leaving the parts above and below stuck back. The remedy isn't more pushing forward. You've got to get the pushy part to back off. Then everything moves forward together.

Now, finally, the turn. Twists invite a change of perspective. Once you're established in your situation, look around for inspiration and ideas. Then pick a course. The actions of the legs and hips will take you. Again, this isn't about pushing forward. It's the actions on the back side of the pose that convince the front side to go where it's going. Widen the leg and hip (in this pose, the bent leg, Stephanie's left side), creating space in the pelvis for the front (straight, her right side) leg buttock to scoop under, moving her more to the front of her body, the front of the pose.

It can seem inelegant or unglamorous to engage the friction of conversation and compromise rather than just to glide through effortlessly, every party seeing the beauty of our way. Maybe it can seem more spiritual to be unaffected by the hardships of day-to-day life and practice. Great yogis seem cool, calm, collected, fresh, even in the heat of August. They just know how to guide the winds their way. You can do it, too. Practice helps.

This month, the featured pose is Eka Pada Rajakapotasana (ek-uh pad-uh ra-ja ka-po-ta-sa-na), or one foot king pigeon pose in English.
The pose is shown by Heather Cash, regularly seen on Tuesdays at 6PM The Practice.

Eka Pada Rajakapotasana is a Level II Backbend. The 'raj' in the name means 'king' or 'sovereign', referring to the sovereignty of the yogini over her experience. While we realize that we can't just do or be anything (that's not really what makes a sovereign, anyway, is it?), everything we do is what we choose to do. We're always making choices based on what's possible for us and what's our own deep personal preference. May we remember our innate freedom this weekend and act as 'rajanaka', the little sovereigns who weave ourselves masterfully into the world that is ever-looming us.

This month, the featured pose is Vasistasana (va-shi-sta-sa-na), also known as side-plank pose. The pose is shown by Kyle Jackowitz, who teaches Tuesdays and Thursdays at noon.

Vasistasana is a Level I Hand Balance. It's named for the sage Vasista. This month we'll focus on the teachers who have gone before us. When we open to Grace, their teachings move through us, allowing us to connect to the collective remembrance of all the great yogis. When we draw in muscularly to ourselves, we bring the teachings deep inside to merge with our own innate intelligence. The teachings together make us steady and stable, difficult to move. Then, and only then, we can add movement and adjust the practice in a meaningful way, one that honors the wisdom without and the wisdom within.

Staying adaptable is key to bringing the teachings forward in us as us. When we do this, we become a light of yoga. This pose is adaptable to any level of practitioner.

The first variation of the pose Kyle likes to call 'flying buttress,' as the pose is stabilized by the top foot pressing firmly in to the mat. When practicing this variation, focus on keeping the bottom side of the pose full with your breath. This is the invitation to make the pose easier, allowing the breath and the ancient wisdom to carry you.

The second form, with legs stacked, is less stable in the foundation, so it is important to keep the connection to the breath and then also to draw in to your own inherent intelligence and confidence. In this pose, it's in the core of the pelvis. Once you're solid in the knowledge of the basic form, you can add to it. As you lift the top leg to take it into tree, the leg extension (shown above), half-bow, or half lotus, move the thighs back and wide. If you lose the connection to the teachings, you'll likely fall. We all fall in our excitement to be innovative - just try again. Once you can move the top leg in to the variation you'd like to take, scoop under your tailbone and draw the flesh of the buttocks towards the backs of the knees. This is how yoga moves forward in to your experience. Now, from the belly, shine the light of your teachers through all the parts of your body, sharing your yoga with the world. This is how we honor the gift that we've been given.

May 2009: Lotus

This month, the featured pose is Padmasana (pad-ma-sa-na), or Lotus pose.
The pose is shown by Mary Vaananen in her garden, one of the many arts she enjoys in addition to her yoga.

Lotus is a Level II Seated Pose. It's another flower pose, so appropriate for celebrating spring! This particular flower looks like it might have four petals, much like the lotus symbol for the root chakra at the base of the spine. The lotus symbols for the chakras increase in petal number, all the way to 1,000 for the crown chakra. The higher petal numbers correspond to the higher vibrations of each chakra. We don't necessarily equate higher vibrations with 'more enlightened.' We're more concerned with the vibrations existing in harmony.

But we do know that as we practice, we have greater access to the higher vibrations. As the vibrations increase, the petals break in to more and more petals. Almost like pieces of themselves. As we go up in vibration, we become more multi-faceted. A jewel, a flower, you in all the many roles and guises of yourself.

This pose is notoriously tricky to get in to, but there is a path in to the hips and even a specific sequence we call "How to Grow a Lotus." It includes a short warm-up, a few standing poses, a couple of pigeon poses, and a series of seated and supine poses, including twists. (Try lotus first lying on your back.) The key in practicing all of these poses to give you the greatest chance of getting in to this position is to learn how to establish and keep one element as you add on others.

The principles that we need for hip opening (and for all poses) go like this:
1. Set the Foundation/Open to Grace
2. Draw energetically toward the center from the outer edges
3. Establish an ever-widening spiral in the legs from the inner foot through the low back
4. Create an ever-contracting spiral in the legs from the waistline to the outer heel
5. Expand in all directions from the center

Five principles line up with five elements. These five elements exist in all of us and in all poses in varying degrees. They are all of the ways that we are outgoing, expansive, and spacious. They are also all of the ways that we are introspective, private, drawn inward. They make us complicated, interesting, and make figuring ourselves out murky and unclear.

So, as you go through these asanas, the principles will seem to condradict each other. How can you both widen and narrow the pelvis? How can you be both wife and mother, two very different facets of yourself in the same body? (Because you shouldn't be with your husband the same way you're with your son.) How can you be more and more things at the same time? You grow a multi-petaled lotus. One breaks in to more and more of itself to make more beauty, more life, more love.

Each month we're featuring a picture of a real, live teacher or student for inspiration or yoga-by-osmosis.
We'll share the yoga of the pose and what the practice of it might
offer or require.

This month, the featured pose is Svarga Dvijasana (shwar-ga dwi-ja-sa-na), or Bird of Paradise pose.
The pose is shown by Laura Patterson. Laura will be teaching the Friday 6PM class beginning in May as well as a new 7:30 AM class on Tuesdays and Thursdays with Allison.

Bird of Paradise is a Level III Standing Pose. It's named in English for the exotic flower, but its Sanskrit name doesn't translate exactly. Literally, Svarga Dvijasana means 'twice-born pose', but you can see the similarity. The flower, like the pose, looks like it unfolds twice, a flower 'born' out of the first, existing bloom. There's one sturdy stalk that supports a glorious, celebratory unfolding of beauty.

Nature does this all the time. In the spring, our cultural images of eggs and baby chicks represent a sort of second birth, a renewal. We get to do it, too, and it's as mystical and miraculous as lining up with Nature and letting her lead the way. It takes so many days of temperatures above a certain level and a certain length of daylight for flowers to know that it's time to venture out. And when they do so, there's no turning back so they may as well go out with gusto.

So, let's look at how waiting for Nature's opportune time and moving with Nature's cues take us in to this pose. Start out with lots of easy hamstring and shoulder opening in your warm-ups and sun salutations. Add in some twists (they help with hamstring opening!). Another big part of doing this pose requires some stamina in holding the preparations as you go from stage to stage, so practice holding Parsvakonasana, either with the top arm behind the back ('half-bound') or with the full bind (bottom arm under, top arm behind). Pause here. Wait for the next breath, and with it the next wave of energy or prana. It's tempting to want to push up too fast, but remember to let Nature lead the way. That's what's going to make a second blooming possible.

Once you feel ready for the pose, you may begin either in a wide stance for parsvakonasana or a more narrow stance, like for uttanasana. Either way, bow your torso forward in a gesture of humbly recognizing the bigger flow of energy. Keeping your legs steady, especially hugging the shins toward one another with a commitment to what you're doing, take one arm under that knee and press that hand into the ankle or calf. Establish a deeper commitment by taking the shoulders back in space rather than rounding the back. (Your willingness to participate in this process is also part of it all.) Keeping both shoulders back strongly, clasp hands outside the outer hip. If you bend your elbows, it will be easier to wrap around the slimmest part of the leg towards the knee. (See Laura's elbow and upper arm toward her knee below.) Narrow your stance until you can bring your balance to your 'free' leg. Stay participating fully by keeping the toes and legs active and the shoulders back as you come up to stand with your breath.

Coming to balance in this variation is beautiful enough. If the conditions are letting you know it's time to go to the next level, bow forward again a little and begin to straighten your bound leg. A big internal rotation of the leg from the big toe mound all the way up to the low back will bring fluidity to the leg and hip, much like a spring rain. Once you've blossomed as much as you can, scoop under with the tailbone, bringing heat to the belly. From that heat comes your own particular radiance. May the seasons bring you ever more ways to bloom.

March 2009:savasana

This month, the featured pose is savasana (sha-va-sa-na), or corpse pose in English.
The pose is shown by Van at 9 days old. He was born March 5, 2009 at 1:03 AM. He weighed 8 pounds, 11 ounces, and has been pure delight for his parents.

Many yoga teachers remind their students at the end of class that this pose of rest may be the most difficult one of their yoga practice that day. Students may feel pressure to be completely still in body and/or mind. They may find it difficult to keep their eyes shut, especially if they're very new, surrounded by the unfamiliar.

If we think about this pose as just a 'letting go' of our attachments to this world, our bodies, or our feelings, we're missing at least half of the yoga of the pose. The half that we're missing is the assimilation of our yoga, the integration of our experience. Savasana invites us to trust our bodies to absorb enough of our yoga for today and release what we don't need, all while not having to try to get the most or do the most.

You're getting enough. You're doing enough. Soak it up.
February 2009: ardha chandrachapasana

(ard-uh chun-druh-chuh-pah-sa-na), or half-moon, sugarcane bow variation, in English.

The pose is a Level II Standing Pose (shown here by Allison and Van at 36 weeks).

Standing balancings can put us in a vulnerable place because no one really wants to be seen wavering, falling, failing even. We always want to be seen at our 'best', most poised, balanced. This pose always reminds me of the second stanza of Antonio Machado's poem, "Last night as I was sleeping":

Last night, as I was sleeping,
I dreamt -- marvelous error!-
that I had a beehive
here inside my heart.
And the golden bees
were making white combs
and sweet honey
from my old failures.

As Nate and I add another layer of challenge to the balance of our everyday, we're both delighted and a little nervous about shifting from the known to being less sure-footed in that balance. Even in my own asana practice, I know that there will be a period of taking what this birth offers me and pulling it deep in to the honeycomb so that it can become rich, potent, refined. It's never the same as before, and it's not meant to be.

Now, about the pose...This pose requires a bit of hamstring flexibility and enough openness in the top leg thigh to hold your foot and arch back. Start out with a few hamstring stretches and thigh stretches in your sun salutations to prepare your body for the shape of the pose. Then, add triangle pose to your standing postures as well as an 'easier' standing balance, such as tree pose. Now, try regular half moon pose. Even just practice coming in to and out of that pose to learn what's most likely to throw you off balance. Once you feel a bit more solid in this variation, begin to bend your top leg without reaching for it yet. Give yourself some time to acclimate to each stage. Every stage is an opportunity to take your previous wobblings and pull them in to your self as something sweet.

Notice that the harder you get in this pose, the more determined, the more frantic you become, the less successful you are. In some cases, 'what doesn't kill us makes us stronger,' but the sentiment of Machado's poem is that your old failures are the raw material for something healing and nourishing, nurturing and beautiful.

As you go in for the final form of this pose, pause and allow your breath to soften you and make you sweeter. Along with that, keep the legs humming with energy by spreading your toes. (You'll know better where your foot is through your 'internal gaze'.) Imagine yourself as having sipped in nectar from your arms and legs all the way to your belly. From that place, extend back through the limbs, bathing your whole body and countenance in a golden, honey glow.

January 2009 Pose of the month: urdvha dhanurasana
(oord-vuh don-your-ah-sa-na), or upward-bow pose in Sanskrit. Often, we call this pose 'wheel' in class.
The pose is a Level I Backbend (shown here by Hope Stith).

Almost more than any other pose, when students experience this pose for the first time, they tend to get excited about it. It's one of those 'did you see me do it?' moments. Often, it's a fun reminder of the gymnastics or play that we did when we were smaller people. As we grow older, we become more involved in the day-to-day, taking-care-of-our-lives activities and are less playful. And our bodies often let us know that.

Here, Hope wears a red outfit, the color of the muladhara chakra (moo-luh-dar-uh chuh-kruh), or root chakra at the floor of the pelvis. The chakras are energy centers along the central axis of the body that are depicted and described as wheels. They may spin too slowly or too quickly or, when 'balanced', spin optimally. When the root chakra is balanced, we feel stable, nourished, 'grounded'. When it is underactive, we may fear not having enough to sustain us or, if it is overactive, we may feel too grounded and unable to move.

In order to feel both grounded and able to take care of our embodied selves as well as open our hearts to play in this pose, we must create balance at the base of the pelvis, the place of the root chakra. So, when practicing this pose, it is important to focus on opening the hips and thighs, allowing the tops of the thighs to release to the back of the body even as the back of the hips and pelvis move toward the front body.

We often start this practice with the following two preparatory poses in order to allow students to adjust and realign in each phase.