From the Ground Up: Tadasana

Image: Iyogalife.com

My feet press strongly into the ground. Balls? Check! Heels? Check! Outside edges? Check! I try to feel my arches lift--as if to suck that grounding, stable energy of the earth up like I would suck the last drops of lemonade out of the bottom of a glass through a straw. My toes lift and spread.

Planting my feet firmly into the ground lifts the crown of my head just a little closer to the sky. For just a moment, I feel tall... regal... powerful!

I firm my calves, then my thighs. My femur bones spiral in just slightly, but at the same time press away from each other. I feel my bones stack.

I lengthen my tailbone toward the floor and firm my belly.

My chest lifts toward the sky as my shoulder blades descend.

I feel that same energy that I draw from the ground shine out through the top of my head and extend through my fingertips, pointing toward the floor.

But after a few moments of pulling and pushing, firming and gripping, aligning and realigning something almost magical happens: A softening--not of the muscles, but of the mind.

This is my experience of Tadasana.

Why Go to Yoga Class?

A few months ago, I went to a weekend workshop led by Jason Crandell, one of my long-time teachers. I had been feeling pretty bad about my yoga practice because (as I'm sure I've mentioned on this blog) I work nearly every minute of every day and I don't make it to yoga studios nearly as often as I'd like. In the workshop, Jason talked a lot about developing a personal practice and he mentioned that right now it just doesn't work for him to go to a yoga studio. He gets more out of practicing at home because it gives him the freedom to take his time and experiment with the things that he finds interesting and helpful, and he goes to a teacher a few times a year when he feels he needs to. It makes perfect sense.

Of course, it made me feel better about my practice to know that one of the yoga teachers I respect most in the world doesn't attend regular yoga classes. My home practice, no matter how irregular, at least gives me the opportunity to go inward, which is what the practice is all about. It's liberating to feel like when I go long stretches without setting foot in a studio, I don't have to feel guilty or disappointment with myself! This is what I love about yoga. It's good stuff.

But I will always love a good yoga class. I want to go to class when I can ... not because I need to or because I can't get what I need out of a home practice, but because it just feel right to me.

Here are 10 reasons I make every effort to go to yoga classes whenever I can ...

1. I like it.
2. I still have a TON to learn.
3. It inspires me--gets my creative juices flowing.
4. It's fun to meet new people, especially other yoga students!
5. I benefit from the positive energy of the collective group.
6. It makes me practice poses I know I'd never work on on my own.
7. Classes challenge me to hold poses longer, work a little harder, and push my limits. It's in classes that I'm capable of more than I ever thought possible.
8. A different perspective gives me new things to work on later.
9. Two words: Yoga Buzz.
10. Sometimes it's nice to let someone else guide you through the practice so you have to think less and really feel the present moment.

Why do you go to yoga classes?

A Love Affair: Supta Padangusthasana

I'm afraid to tell you this because I might jinx it ... but here goes...

I've been meditating again. Every day. In the mornings before work. This is something that has seemed like an impossible feat for me--someone who always wakes up a few minutes late, then rushes the dog out the door, and can never find the right thing to wear. Here's a trick I've learned. If I meditate before I start rushing around like a mad woman, the need to rush kind of evaporates and I make it work on time even though I'm moving a little slower as I do my morning rituals.

The most surprising part of my new morning meditation ritual (knock on wood) is that after I've focused on my breath for 10 minutes, I take just a few more to do an asana or two.... and my pose of my choice has been Supta Padangusthasana (Reclining Hand to Big Toe Pose). This is an odd choice for me. I've been obsessed with arm balances for the last year and have had very little interest in any pose that works on my already flexible hamstrings... And although I typically get bored of practicing the same poses every day, I've been coming back to this one (and only this one) again and again for the last few weeks.

Image: YogaJournal.com

Guess what? It's SO much more than a hamstring opener! Guess what else?! The twisted variation is my pose nemesis--Revolved Triangle! (I seriously hate this pose when it's a standing pose, but reclined it's pretty awesome.)

Anyway, I'm not sure if my meditation is giving me intuition to work on a pose that my body needs (rather than an arm balance or backbend that feeds my ego) or what the deal is, but right now I'm loving my practice!

What pose are you obsessed with right now?

Princess Pose: A Royal Affair!

I am perhaps the girliest of girly girls. I like pink, tutus, and tiaras. I have been known to wear high heels to the grocery store. I doodle flowers, rainbows, unicorns, and Care Bears in the margins of my notebooks. And I have been looking forward to Prince Williams wedding since I was 14 years old. Of course, at the time, I had envisioned it going down a little differently... For one, I was going to be there.. in a tiara.. You know, Princess Diaries style (I was recently told I look like Anne Hathaway, after all.)

Anyway, it recently dawned on me that I will never be crowned the princess of Wales. I will never be Miss America. I will not be a ballerina, Olympic ice skater, or even homecoming queen. My childhood ambitions are slipping away before my very eyes. (Sigh.)

But I can still be a yoga goddess!

Image: Womenfitness.net

There are plenty of poses that make me feel like a princess.  I feel pampered every time I get on my mat because I'm doing something that's just for me. But no pose makes me feel more princess-y than Supta Baddha Konasana. When I'm propped up on blankets and bolsters, I even feel like I'm sitting on a throne. There better not be a pea under those blankets....

Image by Flickr User: roxanneparker

What pose makes you feel like a princess?

Dear Hamstrings ...

Image: http://www.padma-yoga.net/

Dear Hamstrings,
Are you mad at me? I know I haven't been paying you enough attention lately. I'm sorry I'm always sitting for long hours at a desk without taking enough stretch breaks. But it's not very mature of you to stand your ground like that when I finally have a few minutes to practice my Paschimottanasana. Your behavior really hurt my feelings.. and it didn't help my ego much either. Let's make a deal. If I promise to stretch with you every night this week, and let you take as much time as you need to open... can we be friends again?
xoxoxoxo,
Erica

Obsessed

wholeliving.com

I have a new yoga obsession. Handstand. I can't stop it. I just kick and kick and kick up every chance I get. I'm not even sure why.

Handstand is not a new pose for me. I've been able to kick up at the wall for years. After the first time I tried a Handstand in a yoga class, I didn't have too much trouble because I remembered doing it when I'm little. I've been obsessed with arm balances for ages, but Handstand was kind of ho-hum.. until recently, that is...

What's different now? I stepped away from the wall and something magical happened... I balanced!

I'm not ready for the middle of the room stuff yet, but I can hop up and stay there for a few seconds before I either fall out of it or end up with my heels against the wall. If this isn't something you've experienced before believe me when I say it's an AMAZING feeling! The weightlessness! The freedom! The power!

I'm addicted. Seriously, I think I've tried (to varying degrees of success) 500 times just today. It's so exciting because I think once I've mastered balancing in Handstand a whole world of new and exciting poses will open up to me.. I'm stoked!

What pose are you obsessed with right now?

10 Things You Shouldn't Think About During Savasana

I have all sorts of inappropriate thoughts during Savasana that never pop into my head any other time. Here just a sampling of what I thought about during my Savasana today.

1. What I should have said to that lady who over-charged you for grapes at the market.
2. Taxes. I hope that accountant has all the info he needs.
3. Laundry. I wish my mom still did mine so I could just hang out in Savasana
4. Song lyrics -- Baby, I was born this way!
5. Commercial Jingles -- Sa-ki House. For today and tonight.. The most original, traditional, Japanese delight.
6. I wonder what the other people in class are thinking about...
7. Cupcakes. I love cupcakes!
8. I really wish I had a cupcake right now..
9. It's weird that one of the top search terms for my blog is "cupcake".. Do I really write about them that often?
10. I should definitely write a blog when I get home!

Speaking of Savasana thoughts, this is my favorite yoga video on Youtube:



Oh, and in case you're curious about the commercial... Here it is! Now you can have it in YOUR head during Savasana, too!

Glamorous Yoga Poses

As I write this blog, I'm watching the Oscar Awards red carpet... There are glamorous movie stars in fabulous sparkly dresses and neat tuxes, many of whom are living out their dreams before our eyes. It's the stuff that dreams are made of.

I can make a yoga metaphor out of anything, but this one is almost too easy--all the hard work, the failed auditions, beaming confidence, and all the many people it takes to create the actors (not to mention the films themselves!). Choose your own metaphor.... Tonight, I'm more interested in the glitz and glamor.

Yoga students are glamorous in our own right. There are a few poses that make me feel kind of like an Oscar nominee, myself. Here are my choices for most glamorous yoga poses. What are yours?

 

 

HeatherYoga.com

YogaDestin.com

 

 

 

 

MagicTimes.com

YogaJournal.com

Eye Pillows: Not Just for Savasana!

Image: Carolman.net

A soft, cool eye pillow is my absolute favorite yoga prop. For me, an eye pillow offers instant relaxation by providing a little bit of pressure on the Third Eye point (that's the pressure point in the middle of the forehead). I also love that eye pillows are often scented with lavender or other soothing aromas. Plus, they're small enough to throw in your purse and take with you anywhere.

But if you think eye pillows are just for helping you relax for five minutes at the end of yoga class when you're in Savasana (Corpse Pose)--Think again!  Eye pillows are extremely versatile if you simply know how to use them.

Sleep Aid. For all the same reasons an eye pillow helps calm the mind during Savasana and restorative poses, it also helps when you've got trouble quieting the mind to sleep. I almost always drift off to sleep with an eye pillow over my eyes (mostly because my room isn't dark enough!), but it helps me let go of the day and drift off to sleep.

Extra Support (When You Need Just a Little). Maybe your knees are just a few inches away from the floor when you sit in  Sukhasana (Easy Pose) or your thigh is just an inch away from the floor in Pigeon Pose. There's not enough room for a block and it can take a long time to fold a blanket to give you the support you need. An eye pillow is the perfect solution.

Shoulder Soothers. If you're lucky enough to have two eye pillows try putting one on each shoulder the next time you feel tension set in. The light weight of the flax seeds and the soothing lavender will work together to remind you to soften and gradually melt the tension away.

What's your favorite use for an eye pillow?

Just in Time for Thanksgiving: A Yogic Feast!

  Wild Turkey

 

Wild Turkey Yoga Pose

taniabondyoga.co.uk

Fancy Thanksgiving Gravy Boat

 Fancy Thanksgiving Gravy Boat Pose*

*Do not attempt directly after Thanksgiving dinner.

Festive Pumpkin Pie

Festive Pumpkin Pie Pose

Flickr User: YogaMama.co.UK

I hope you all have a great holiday! I'm thankful for each and every one of you!

Cultivating Confidence

Image from iyogalife.com

Confidence is on my mind a lot these days because I'm realizing that it makes all the difference in how people perceive you. A confident yoga teacher emits a completely different energy into a class of students than a teacher who isn't sure of herself. Confidence in a job interview can sometimes make up for a lacking in your skill set. And confidence at a dinner party can be the difference between being the life of the party and making others feel uncomfortable and awkward.

One of my favorite yoga workshops I've ever taken was with Iyengar teacher Patricia Walden a few years ago. It was all about poses that help build self confidence -- something I could certainly stand to have more of lately!

She explained that when she started practicing yoga she was shy and introverted, but practicing certain poses gave her the confidence she needed to come out of her shell. (You can see some of the poses here, but the story is so short, it doesn't really do the workshop justice! Plus, I KNOW there was a Handstand and Crow in there somewhere.) Obviously, it worked for her because now she's one of the most respected teachers in the United States, and she speaks in front of thousands (maybe even millions) of people a year. She doesn't even seem nervous.

I can relate to her story because I've noticed that the more I practice, the more confident I feel in my abilities, too. I think this is why I'm such an arm balancing fool! I'm the girl who used to have such lacking upper body strength it was a struggle to overhand serve a volleyball in high school. But now I can balance all of my body weight. And I don't even fall on my face... usually!

This practice is both uplifting and humbling at the same time. One minute you're rocking a pose, feeling like you could fly. The next second your balance shifts, and you crash into the floor. In a split second you come back to earth--and back to reality. It's like the practice was designed to show you your strengths, but remind you that you're human and make mistakes, too. It's a balance--a dance--that builds a cool confidence, but with humility and the understanding that we all make mistakes. Without the mistakes, there would be no success. It's a valuable lesson I've taken with me off the mat and into my life.

Have you noticed your confidence increase since you began your yoga practice? Which poses make you feel like you can conquer the world?

Leaps and Bounds

Image: AshtangaNews.com

There's a fine line between a leap of faith and a stupidly blind jump. I've been doing a lot of leaping and jumping lately, and I'm not sure whether I'm doing it out of faith or stupidity. I know Hanuman, the Monkey God, is known for his giant leap of faith. So I decided to do a little reading about Hanuman to find out if I'm in his good company... or just taking stupid risks.

Hanuman took his great leap to save Rama's brother, Laksmana, who was wounded in battle. Hanuman took on the impossible task of leaping to another continent (the Himalayas) to get an herb to save him. When he got there, he didn't know which herb to collect so he picked up the whole damn mountain and brought it back with him. It might have been a little clumsy, but it worked! It was a selfless expression of his devotion and love for Rama.

We each take little leaps every day--making little sacrifices for the ones we love the most and for a whole host of other reasons. We do the best we can. Sometimes we're so strong we can carry a whole mountain across the ocean ... other times we fall flat on our faces and the mountain clobbers us before we even really get going. The real act of faith is getting up and trying again.

Another Ah-Ha Moment

I love my new home--I love the people, the atmosphere... I'm even getting used to the weather. I haven't, however, gotten into my yoga groove here yet. The yoga studios here are adorable, the communities are thriving,  and the teachers are sweet and knowledgeable, the classes are ... well... not as challenging as I'm used to. I'm sure eventually I'll find the right class, but until then, I'm amazed at all the great things I'm learning through online videos. I've been able to keep up my daily practice through challenging classes through online services like YogaGlo.

But I was shocked that I had a legitimate yogic break-through by watching a short video on Youtube! All my other ah-ha moments have come with the direct guidance of a teacher who knows my practice and gives me individual attention. The fact that I could simply be a fly on the wall in a studio and "get" the nuances to a technique I've never quite understood makes me giddy! It opens up a whole world!

Oh, here's the video! After watching it I tried jumping through and jumping back and I DID IT!! (Who knew something as simple as crossing your legs at the shins instead of your ankles could make such a difference?)



Have you ever had an ah-ha moment that came from teachings in a video?

Poses that Suck

Image: MyYogaOnline.com

Every yoga student I've met has at least one pose that pisses him off--at least a little bit. If you've been reading my blog long you know that I hate—no, detest—maybe even, LOATHE--Parivrtta Trikonasa (Revolved Triangle) and its close relatives Parivrtta Parsvakonasana (Revolved Side Angle Pose) and Parivrtta Ardha Chandrasana (Revolved Half Moon Pose). Frankly, the only thing I hate more is the teacher who asks me to hold one of these poses for more than three breaths. (Of course, the hate subsides into sincere gratitude when the teacher lets me come out of the pose.)

Yesterday, I was in a yoga class that incorporated my least favorite poses. We held Revolved Triangle. Then, we held Revolved Half Moon. I cursed under my breath and thought, I'm never coming here again! But in the next set of poses, the teacher called out Ardha Chandrasana (Half Moon Pose). Finally! A pose I love! Then, it hit me. You see, it wasn't so long ago that I hated Half Moon Pose with as much enthusiasm as I now hate Revolved Triangle. In fact, I remember thinking one of my teachers kept teaching it just to mock me—including it into every class just so he could see me fall over. (Jerk!) But with time, I got better at it. I didn't fall down any more , and eventually I learned to love it. 

Since then, I've been thinking about what makes us hate the poses we hate. Is it because they bring out our physical weaknesses, which irritates our egos? Could it be that they simply make us uncomfortable? When we learn to like a pose we once hated, will we always find another pose to dislike, or is that just me? Does anyone not hate at least one pose?

How has your most hated pose evolved during the time you've practiced?

Independence Day Yoga

Image source YogaJournal.com

Today, Americans celebrate our great country by setting things on fire, eating barbecued processed foods, and drinking copious amounts of beer. It's the American way. Isn't freedom great!?

Don't get me wrong. I like beer and setting things on fire as much as the next guy, but it's not the first thing that comes to mind when I think about independence and/or freedom. For a yoga student, independence is the understanding that you have all the wisdom you need right inside of you if you just look closely enough. Freedom comes when you tap into that inner wisdom and figure out how to liberate it. When you stop looking externally for answers, direction, and approval and learn to trust your own wisdom, that's when you realize you have the power to do anything you want in life!

I've got a long way to go, but I've practiced yoga long enough to experience little glimmers of that freedom. Here are the poses that make me feel the most freedom:

1. Adho Mukha Vrksasana (Handstand)

2. Tittibhasana (Firefly Pose)

3. Eka Pada Galavasana (Flying Pigeon Pose)

4. Urdhva Dhanurasana (Upward-Facing Bow Pose)

5. Savasana (Corpse Pose)

What poses make you feel free?

Pose of the Week: Handstand

I thought I'd be practicing up a storm this month. I'm stuck in California without a car, TV, or much furniture.. so what else would there be to do? It turns out, there's a lot of free TV on the Internet, and I've gotten really into a few bad, melodramatic, teen shows. That's right. Instead of practicing yoga for two hours a day, I'm spending my free time watching teen soap operas on my 13-inch laptop screen. I'm not ashamed. But I have decided I need a little extra motivation to get my yoga mojo back. A pose that I will work on for at least a few minutes a day, even if it's just during the annoying commercial breaks that interrupt my shows.

In honor of my new favorite TV show, Make It or Break It, about Olympic gymnastics hopefuls (who are, of course, always caught up in love triangles and other silly teenage drama), I'll work on my Handstand for a few days.

It's sometimes fun to just kick right up into Handstand on an impulse, but I've found it's better to do at least a few poses to work up to it (especially when the pose is just a dangling carrot to get you to get up and get moving.) My goal is to start working toward Handstand in the middle of the room someday. Here's my prep plan:

1. Open the hamstrings so I can comfortably get into position to kick up: Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward-Facing Dog), Uttanasana (Standing Forward Bend), Paschimottanasana (Seated Forward Bend)

2. Arms and Core: Plank Pose, Chaturanga Dandasana (Four-Limbed Staff Pose), Bakasana (Crow Pose), and one of my favorites--Wild Thing!

3. Backbends. If I'm practicing moving away from the wall, I want my body to be ready for the inevitable: flipping all the way over and ending up in Urdhva Dhanurasana (Upward-Facing Bow Pose). So I'll practice a few of those before I kick up, too.

What pose are you working on this week?

5 Poses You Can Do While You Drive

I'm not a huge fan of driving (see Namaste Jackass, 5 Steps to a Calmer Commute). I am both anxious and overly cautious nearly every time I get behind the wheel. I see my life flash before my eyes when cars pull out in front of me. I slam on the brakes way too much. I am meticulous to following traffic rules—I use my turn signal when there's no one around for miles. Traffic is my enemy. My body stiffens and my shoulders tense and elevate toward my ears.

Last week, I drove 8-10 hours a day for 6 days. But my move from California to South Carolina was somewhat pleasant despite my anxiety about traffic because in my hours on the road I discovered a few new ways to apply my yoga to my driving... I guess you could say I faced my fear, breathed through it, and found new ways to cope with the physical and mental effects of my irrational fears. Score!

Here are a few helpful yoga stretches I discovered that you can do safely while driving (when there's not a lot of heavy traffic and you are not exceeding the speed limit, of course).

1. Threading the Needle. Keep your left hand on the steering wheel at 10 o'clock. Bring your right arm underneath the left and walk your hand as far toward the back of the car as you can. Use the driver's side door as a prop to give you leverage and spread your right shoulder blade away from your spine. Repeat on the other side using your passenger seat as your prop.

2. Car Cow Face Pose. Bring one arm up overhead and bend it at the elbow so your hand comes toward the same-side shoulder blade. (Keep the other hand on the steering wheel). Use the back of your seat as a prop to get a deeper stretch. Breathe a lot. Then, do the other side.

3. Shoulder rolls. Roll your shoulders.

4. Check Your Blind Spot. Whenever you need to check your blind spot, turn your head a little more slowly than you normally would and take a deep breath. You'll get a little neck stretch AND you'll remember to breathe more often.

5. Half Lotus and Upright Hip Opener. I didn't find a good way to stretch my right leg while I drove. Even with cruise control on, it just doesn't seem safe to take your right leg into Lotus while driving (you never know when you might need to slam on your brakes), so I recommend these poses only for your left leg. Do the right when you stop for gas.

Ah-Ha Moment

I used to look at yogis in amazing poses and think to myself, "Wow! I could NEVER do that!" Then, I'd go home later, and try it just to be sure. In the very beginning of my practice, I would feel bad about myself for falling so short. Then, as I learned more about yoga, I learned the art of laughing at myself.

This past weekend, however, I think I reached a new level of understanding when it comes to advanced yoga poses. For the first time I was able to bend over in Prasarita Padottonasana, interlace my fingers, bring them over over my head, and actually touch the floor—all by myself!

This is one of those poses I'd seen pictures of, tried, and failed miserably at many times in the past. And I don't think my shoulders or hamstrings have opened anymore since a few months ago... I was just lucky enough to work with a teacher who showed me (through a few very awesome physical and verbal adjustments) the trick to getting my hands to the floor. You have to round your spine just a little. This is something I NEVER would've figured out on my own without the guidance of my teacher several months ago.

And that, my friends, is why we need yoga teachers. Sure, I learned how to get deeper into a pose. But, more important, was the lesson I learned about the practice months later. The advanced poses are more about developing the know-how and awareness than they are about your body's abilities. (And they really are within reach if you just have a teacher who will show you.)

I am humbled to have been able to work with such amazing teachers in my years as a yogi... My practice is a testament to their talents, not my own.

Image Source: AshtangaNews.com

My Healing Pose

As many of you know, I've been a teensy bit stressed lately. More specifically, I've been running around like a chicken with its head cut off which coincidentally tends to give me crazy tension headaches. I sit at my desk all day feeling my shoulders creep up toward my ears, my neck getting tenser by the minute, and by the end of the day my head throbs. I know part of my problem is postural. Like many desk dwellers who are stupidly glued to their screens even on their downtime, I sit with my chin jutted forward so my eyes are closer to my screen... kind of like this:

Since the tension starts in my shoulders, I always thought the yogic answer to my problem had to be backbending. But I've been almost as obsessed with backbends the last 5 years or so as I am with my computer, and it never did much for me. Lately, I've been experimenting with other poses and I'm finding that Shoulderstand (yes Shoulderstand) really helps undo all the damage I've been doing to my shoulders, neck, and head by being on my computer 15 hours a day.

Image from YogaJournal.com.

I don't know why I didn't think of it earlier! Everyone knows Shoulderstand is soothing to the nervous system—which means it's great at moving you out of the fight-or-flight state of mind. And, physically, it creates space in my cervical spine, which I compress most of the day while I look at my screen. Even when I don't have much time to have a full yoga practice, I can take just 30 breaths out of my day to practice Shoulderstand. Lately, it's been my ONLY home practice, and I couldn't be happier about it.

What's your most healing pose?

They Don't Call It Peacock Pose for Nothing

Image source


Last week, I went on a second "date" with a local yoga teacher. I like him because he teaches super difficult poses that I'd probably never venture to try on my own. Padma Mayurasana (Bound Peacock Pose) is one of those poses, and I fell in love with it because this was the first time I was ever able to lift my legs, which were twisted into Lotus, off the floor. (Never mind the fact that I had to put my chin on the floor to get the leverage to do it.) I loved my teacher's joke. "Remember, breasts are not helpful for this pose ... but they are in about 95 percent of the rest of your life, so deal." But I have breasts (a little) and I could still do it!

I beamed. I was (and am) so freaking proud of myself it borders on obscene. I feel like that every time I accomplish something I once thought was an impossible feat for me in yoga. And every time, I question myself later.

Yoga should boost your confidence, but it isn't supposed to build up your ego. Is it completely against all the principles of yoga to look around the yoga studio and feel just a little bit like a rock star when you're the only one who can do a hard pose? Or is it OK to be proud of yourself and even a little amazed at what this body can do?

How do you find the middle ground?