During this class and yesterday's I learned an interesting modification. When you are in butterfly instead of having your feet facing you can grab your feet and use your thumbs to kind of peal the feet open. The pealing open accomplishes the knees pushing down without any pressure on the actual knees. Totally cool. A few good breaths lowering down straight back and then a few curling down to get a little lower, all the while using your hands and thumbs to peal open the feet to the ceiling. Great modification and allowed me to open the hips more and get lower.
The other thing I really like about this practice is the beginning breathing exercise. Hard to describe but there is an opening sequence where you start with your hands in prayer and intertwine the fingers as you lower them down into an almost cracking your knuckles point at the bottom... total exhale archived. Then you lift the arms by pressing out in front of you in an arch up to above your head total inhale archived. Then you switch to prayer pose with your hands and slowly lower. Repeat a bunch of time taking as long as possible to breath.
So after class I got to talk to Elliott who was working the desk. (Elliott, when you read this, if I am way off base please comment as your worlds were much better than mine.) I was picking up the CD when we struck up a yoga conversation, one of those deep meeting of the minds like the vulcan mind meld. Anyway, we talked about two subjects. One was kids yoga and the other was a great bit about uncomfortable poses and their links to the introversion vs extroversion dichotomy.
So firstly Kids Yoga. Elliott teaches some kids yoga classes and was talking about how the kids get to really open up in a win win situation where there is no competitive focus. In our world where the kids are battling everything from tops to dragons to Pokemon, Yoga provides a unique environment where kids can focus on personal practice and group energy and experience. It strengthens them to resist injury, increase flexibility, and develop coordination. My oldest Jordan has wanted to try yoga for some time. There is a yoga place in columbia that offers kids classes. I will look into it and report back in a future blog post.
Then Elliot talked about in these classes he uses yoga to help reach those kids that are always active, talking, the extraverts and helps to teach them stillness and control while also reaching he introverts to help them reach knowledge and confidence. He talked about the kid that spent the entire class watching the practice, did not participate but watched. Then went home and taught it ot his parent. This is the introvert that must internalize before action.
We talked about the camel or big sperm pose where you lean back and open the heart chakra up to the sky. Most of the time I leave that pose early feeling vulnerable, uncomfortable, unstable, maybe even mad. The energy of that chakra has a lot to express. So Elliot says he challenges his students to lay still after that pose and see if they can do it. The extroverts will have a hard time with this, adjusting their clothing, hair, etc.
He goes on to reflect on the skill that can be grown to push through the discomfort, angst etc with stillness and growing that skill to take-on out side the classroom. He talked about how instead of letting those feelings control you, you can control your reaction and harness positively, to help to deal with uncomfortable situations to gain strength and calm. Using Yoga to grow strength and clam and balance in the outer world is a great benefit of practice. He said it better but I can't remember the exact words. It is the skill of not to react in dangerous situations like telling off someone at work or in a politically charged situation , if you can learn to control yourself there, you can save yourself and everyone else a lot of trouble. I think I have the feeling of it and I can say 100% that I have felt the benefits of this in my world. I will try to work this the next time I do this position. Thanks to Elliott and my visiting practice in Toronto at Moksha North York.
No comments:
Post a Comment