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Pose for the week

12
Nov
2014

Revolved Triangle melds two different dynamic energies: rooting down into the earth with the legs, and sending energy, or prana, up through the extended arm. The pose is a classic representation of what Patanjali, in the Yoga Sutra, describes as the union of sthira and sukha—effort and ease, hard and soft, expanding and contracting, ascending and descending, and solar and lunar.
Joining opposing forces is a handy skill to cultivate and practice: Life frequently demands finding balance between two conflicting desires—for instance, finding love and maintaining independence, or building a career while being a devoted parent—and engaging both, to ever-changing degrees, simultaneously.
You might think Parivrtta Trikonasana (Revolved Triangle Pose) is all about twisting, but as soon as you reach for the floor, you realize it is also a delicate balancing posture that will feel completely steady and comfortable—if you know how to use your legs and core muscles for support. When alignment is correct, the posture can create strength and flexibility in the hamstrings and establish balance both physically and energetically. It can generate a steadiness of mind and a sense of complete freedom. As you take one hand to the earth (or a block), and reach the other to the sky, you find stability and are able to stand your ground while surrendering to both the present moment and the mystery of tomorrow.

In Revolved Triangle, the spine runs parallel to the floor and the descending arm runs perpendicular. With the front leg, these three lines of the body form a right-angle triangle—a stable, structurally sound shape. This means there is no lateral flexion, or side bending, in this pose. If you are tight in the hamstrings and therefore the hips, and if you’re feeling pressured by your own ego (or even a teacher), you can easily lose your balance and critical extension in your spine as you try to place your bottom hand on the floor and twist open into the full expression of the pose. You’ll end up folding forward from the back instead of the hips, losing core stability and grounding in the legs, and even squeezing the front edges of the vertebral discs that are meant to divide the vertebrae. Repetitive compressed folding and twisting, without a lifted chest and an extended spine, can result in back injuries over time that take months, if not years, to recover from.

To practice the pose safely, you need to be aware of your hamstrings’ flexibility and adjust with props and a modified stance so that too-tight (or too-loose) muscles don’t stop your spine from staying parallel to the floor. Tight hamstrings are common, from running, biking, and sitting at a desk all day, but you could also have the opposite problem: Students with long legs and flexible hamstrings consistently take a stance that is too short for their height, so when they dive down into the pose, their heads hang way below their hips, eliminating all right angles and core stability from Revolved Triangle.

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Poem for the week Dylan Thomas Poem in October

30
Oct
2014

POEM IN OCTOBER

It was my thirtieth year to heaven
Woke to my hearing from harbour and neighbour wood
And the mussel pooled and the heron
Priested shore
The morning beckon
With water praying and call of seagull and rook
And the knock of sailing boats on the webbed wall
Myself to set foot
That second
In the still sleeping town and set forth.

My birthday began with the water-
Birds and the birds of the winged trees flying my name
Above the farms and the white horses
And I rose
In a rainy autumn
And walked abroad in shower of all my days
High tide and the heron dived when I took the road
Over the border
And the gates
Of the town closed as the town awoke.

A springful of larks in a rolling
Cloud and the roadside bushes brimming with whistling
Blackbirds and the sun of October
Summery
On the hill’s shoulder,
Here were fond climates and sweet singers suddenly
Come in the morning where I wandered and listened
To the rain wringing
Wind blow cold
In the wood faraway under me.

Pale rain over the dwindling harbour
And over the sea wet church the size of a snail
With its horns through mist and the castle
Brown as owls
But all the gardens
Of spring and summer were blooming in the tall tales
Beyond the border and under the lark full cloud.
There could I marvel
My birthday
Away but the weather turned around.

It turned away from the blithe country
And down the other air and the blue altered sky
Streamed again a wonder of summer
With apples
Pears and red currants
And I saw in the turning so clearly a child’s
Forgotten mornings when he walked with his mother
Through the parables
Of sunlight
And the legends of the green chapels

And the twice told fields of infancy
That his tears burned my cheeks and his heart moved in mine.
These were the woods the river and the sea
Where a boy
In the listening
Summertime of the dead whispered the truth of his joy
To the trees and the stones and the fish in the tide.
And the mystery
Sang alive
Still in the water and singing birds.

And there could I marvel my birthday
Away but the weather turned around. And the true
Joy of the long dead child sang burning
In the sun.
It was my thirtieth
Year to heaven stood there then in the summer noon
Though the town below lay leaved with October blood.
O may my heart’s truth
Still be sung
On this high hill in a year’s turning.

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Pose for the week

30
Oct
2014

(go-moo-KAHS-anna)
go = cow (Sanskrit go is a distant relative of the English word “cow”)
mukha = face

Step by Step

Sit in Dandasana (Staff Pose), then bend your knees and put your feet on the floor. Slide your left foot under the right knee to the outside of the right hip. Then cross your right leg over the left, stacking the right knee on top of the left, and bring the right foot to the outside of the left hip. Try to bring the heels equidistant from the hips: with the right leg on top you’ll have to tug the right heel in closer to the left hip. Sit evenly on the sitting bones.

Inhale and stretch your right arm straight out to the right, parallel to the floor. Rotate your arm inwardly; the thumb will turn first toward the floor, then point toward the wall behind you, with the palm facing the ceiling. This movement will roll your right shoulder slightly up and forward, and round your upper back. With a full exhalation, sweep the arm behind your torso and tuck the forearm in the hollow of your lower back, parallel to your waist, with the right elbow against the right side of your torso. Roll the shoulder back and down, then work the forearm up your back until it is parallel to your spine. The back of your hand will be between your shoulder blades. See that your right elbow doesn’t slip away from the right side of your torso.

Now inhale and stretch your left arm straight forward, pointing toward the opposite wall, parallel to the floor. Turn the palm up and, with another inhalation, stretch the arm straight up toward the ceiling, palm turned back. Lift actively through your left arm, then with an exhalation, bend the elbow and reach down for the right hand. If possible, hook the right and left fingers.

Lift the left elbow toward the ceiling and, from the back armpit, descend the right elbow toward the floor. Firm your shoulder blades against your back ribs and lift your chest. Try to keep the left arm right beside the left side of your head.

Stay in this pose about 1 minute. Release the arms, uncross the legs, and repeat with the arms and legs reversed for the same length of time. Remember that whichever leg is on top, the same-side arm is lower.

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