Asana outside Venkateswara Temple, Pittsburgh

I call this Parivritta Kapotasana. What do you call it?

yoga and intuition

The best yoga classes happen when I let my body and spirit instinctively get into one asana after the next. I don't consciously plan the succession of asanas, but simply let the body with its rhythmic breathing engaging the spirit, flow from one asana to the next.

I realize I am letting my intuition guide me from pose to pose, rather than dictating the poses with my rational mind. In this way, I feel more wedded to my spirit. 

My students also flow in the lulling rhythm of breath moving body and mind in a gentle dance.  Yes, that's what my yoga practice feels like--a dance. I let the mood of the hour carry me. Last night when I was teaching my class, we moved from paschimottasana to twisiting and folding in ardhapadmasana to ardhamatsyendrasana. Then from adhomukha, to plank, to bujung, to adho, to virabhadrasana, to standing split, to uttanasana, to vrikshasana, to natarajasana.

All I know is at the end of the yoga dance, I feel invigorated and balanced.

Bija Mantra depicting each Chakra

Lam ल म
Vam व् म
Ram र म
Yam य म
Ham ह म
Ohm ॐ
Ohm ॐ
These are the bija mantras naming each of the 7 chakras च क्र , beginning with muladara मू ला धा रा and ending with sahasrara स ह स्रा रा .

My sister and I sang them to the tune of Sankarabaranam Raga and held each bija mantra for 8 beats. They have such a fantastic vibration when you say it holding the tree pose --vrikshasana.

Epiphany doing yoga Outdoors

Last week I was doing yoga on my sisters wood patio. The sky was a beautiful cornflower blue as the sky tends to get in Kansas summer. The trees looked green and inviting. Clematis, irises, moon flowers, and hydrangeas were in bloom. What better place to practice yoga than this paradise in the morning hours when the world was just waking up!

As I went from Virabadrasana to Trikonasana, I looked up at the sky, my hands forming a straight line as if stretching out a ribbon vertically. At first the clouds seemed to move above the grey roof of the neighbor's house. A moment later, it was the house that was in motion. I clearly saw the house, the patio, the trees, myself, everything, the whole earth moving steadily in its orbit! When we are moving around, we never feel the earth move--the concept although scientifically proven feels abstract to us in our daily life. But in that almost upside down position, this phenomenon of the planet in motion was palpable.

One only needs to see experiences from a slant or "upside down" and they will offer revelations. Perhaps questions that plague us will finally be laid to rest or provide interesting twists or offer footholds.

Tree pose outside the inn in Spencer, Mass. one early morning in June, after a rain storm

On Breathing and Yoga

On Breathing and Yoga Today , for some reason, I found myself restless in mind and spirit. I did not have a sense of satisfaction nor ease I made a greater effort than usual to focus on my breathing, to actually be aware of my inhalation when told to inhale and my exhalation when told to exhale. I wanted to see if I could quiet down the chatter that was occurring in my head during yoga. I often find that during yoga practice or any form of exercise, my mind drifts at some point and I lose focus on the present. Focusing on the breathing and thinking are often difficult to achieve simultaneously.Perhaps we were designed that way intentionally to remind us of our truer spiritual nature and to get out of our egoic thinking.

Tiger Pose

Today we did an interesting flow: We began with prep for camel. First when we sat on our knees, we tucked the tail bone toward the earth, so the back was flat and then tilted back, first with hands on our sides, then with hands stretched in front.
Then we transitioned into table top, stretched right leg out, bent it, brought it left and caught it with the left hand and looked forward and lifted the leg up against the hand. Then bent the knee to the chest, curving the back and repeated the tiger pose again. Then we lifted the bent knee from chest upward to three-legged down dog. Repeated the same thing other side.

From this we flowed into sphinx, cobra, dhanurasana. Wide leg cobra. Wide leg balasana.

Sitting with knees bent, hands stretched forward, we moved back as if to lie down and then straightened up, tilted back and straightened again--this was like a crunch. Then we lay down, knees diamond shape, brought knees together and lifted the legs as well as the hips, exhale, and then, inhale, diamond, knees together, and exhale, lifting up.  This is another crunch. Flowed into Jatara. Then one leg up, the other stretched out, head to knee, hand in toe lock. Hip opener. Both sides.

I love the tiger pose. It is powerful, the face lifting itself off the body to let out a roar, tail skyward and alert.

Emphasis on spine today.