Our past weeks of withdrawal have caused a lot of strain. Often holding back does cause strain. Like holding the dog leash when your pet really needs to run. This forced containment has caused us to look inward. That is one of our practice techniques! We place our attention inward towards a specific area and look for the details of relief, growth and ultimately stabilization with ease.
Now a hint of possible expansion in our community is beginning to emerge. How will we evolve going forward? How can we balance the effort of contraction and expansion to get to that essential “point zero”, or controlled effort that evolves towards ease?
Many poses feel like we should develop them by contracting to go deeper into the architecture of the pose. Other poses feel like we need to expand greatly and extend our reach! Twists are usually a bit of both. This post’s sequence is comprised of mostly twists, and all about opening up the abdomen to new space or withdrawing it inward for more contained strength. Guruji spoke often spoke of yoga practice as both a personal evolution and involution.
“In asana, if the energy of the body is harmonized to a ‘point zero’ whilst in a state of tension, we reach precision. ‘Point Zero’ indicates the point of balance and harmony at which we can unlock and liberate the knotty confusion of matter and emotion. It also conveys the importance of finding the exact centre of the meeting points of vertical extension and horizontal expansion in body, breath and consciousness.” (BKS Iyengar, Light on the Yoga Sutra’s of Patanjali, p.188,189)
Hi Kerstin,
So glad you liked my sequence, can’t wait to see in class again.
Laurie
I just love twisting series as they seem to always strengthen my inversions. Some of the poses were new, fun and surprising to me: Ardha Matsyendrasasna & Parivrtta Ardha Chandrasana. I approached them carefully and with curiosity and would love to practice them again in class with you all very soon. Today, I also felt confident enough to include a brief Sirsana in my practice. That made me very happy! Thank you for this sequence, Becca.
Glad you got something out of it. I think the open poses really benefit by being contrasted with the closed ones.
I definitely noticed the sensation of added space and freedom in the abdomen in the open (non-twisting) poses. Ardha Chandrasana came nicely. I also noticed that parivrtta Eka Pada sirsasana “moved” more easily after all the opening and closing (normally I’d take that pose after just a load of twisting). Thanks Laurie! Dave