Uddiyana Bandha

I’ve been working with a breathing practice related to uddiyana bandha, the abdominal lock in which you compress your abdominal muscles as far back to the spine as possible and draw the diaphragm up and under the rib cage emptying the lungs as completely as possible and retaining the breath out.
With the method I’ve been [...]

Yoga Paws

I got them today! They’re like glove and slipper mats. I ordered them for my desert trip coming up next week…. looked easier than carrying my mat on all those hikes. But I was skeptical that they’d work… Would they stay put? be durable? have enough traction? Be sweatworthy?
I only did surya namaskar in them [...]

Quick practice

Sometimes it’s all you have time for.
Sometimes it’s all you need.
Sun Salutations and pranayam, quick breath meditation. Chanting om. Enough.

backbending

They’re my new obsession. This week. Last week was hip openers, and it’s rather a natural progression. In fact, many of the more advanced hip openers involved some backwards bending, so it’s a continuum. To some extent, I’m finding a lot of the labels we as teachers use are squishy and relative… Level One versus [...]

Writing works! Yoga works!

Thank you wordpress, thank you blog, thank you bloggers, thank you readers, thank you words, thank you May Sarton’s Journals, thank you keyboard, internet and computer!
Returning to the mat I had a few more wanderings between Sun Salutation repetitions, but  (in the words of the lovely Moonmaid Rhythm, persisence, patience…. and a practice [...]

Days like molasses

I’ve gotten on the mat six times this morning and still not made it to a sun saluation.
Grief slows and disorganizes a mind and heart. Things are not where where you remember them being and nothing belongs anywhere anymore. But it all belongs. Just where?
I taught more than usual this week. It was difficult to [...]

Perfect

“When you realize how perfect it all is,
you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky.”
attributed to the Buddha
 
(thanks to zazazu)

Fortune

I am the luckiest person in the world.
In the midst of crying, in the midst of undone house chores, unwalked dogs, undone yoga all competing for my next action…
My garden: hundreds of yellow sunflowers, purple cosmos, blue bachelor buttons and magenta morning glories….
And a brilliant goldfinch gracing the cosmos, nimbly feasting on the little creatures [...]