Forward Bends in Winter

Yoga friends,

It was still pretty chilly on Saturday, nice to stay inside.
The wind was sharp, already freezing my fingers earlier
in the morning. There was a natural inclination to huddle.
It is a season for practicing forward bends.
Forward bend is called Western Bend in India because
our backs are the western side of our body. From this
position we are turning our backs to the outside, whether
from standing, sitting, kneeling, or even laying upside down.
Our focus usually out ahead of us turns inward by physically
bending our gaze in toward our thighs and midsection.
Winter is when we turn our attention back into ourselves.
Winter's climate pulls life underground, into hibernation,
and yoga postures curve forward over the front of our
bodies, withdrawing our focus from outside of ourselves
to recycle our energies inward.

Sunday morning class started forward bends, on our mats,
with our shoes on.
"Bend our knees, leading with our head, relax the torso
forward till the ribs rest on the thighs and the hands reach
the floor. Push our hips back, drop our head further and
untie our shoelaces. Slip off the shoes and socks while
rounding our back, then lengthen and twist along the spine,
to place the shoes to the side."
Letting the forward bend continue, relax our shoulderblades
and allow our bentover posture to more completely exhale
the breath from our lungs as we pull our abdomen up and
inward.
Forward bend continues with breathing in while raising the
right leg up behind us as we move into a balance on hands
and standing leg. The head is dropped down.
Deeply bending the front knee and reclaiming the contact of
torso to thigh as the right leg steps way back behind us,
stretch into a lunge...slowly lower the right knee down to the
mat.
Still folded forward as we pull the left hip back so we extend
over a straightened left leg. Breathe into the same lunge
forward again and repeat pulling back to straighten the leg,
and forth and back with the exhale, our gaze all the while
inward thruout the continuing flow, so that we observe a
balance between left hamstring and right quadracep, engaging
and letting go, back and forth until muscles are warmed so
that on the last move all the way forward we bring up the back
leg to standing and slowly roll the rounded spine to standing.

Repeat to balance the opposite side, pushing the breath out on
bending forward. Raise the left leg behind up behind us...

Focusing inward is accomplished by our physical motion, mind
connected to body.

Yoga friends,

Our body (physical, mental and energetic) is what we have to feel
the experience of life. Our energy body is, for better or worse,
truly married to our physical body. It might want to slip away into
the cosmic ether but it is stuck, tied to this bed of flesh and nails
and bone, an osmosis of life dissolved in a body of 70% water.

Last Sunday's energetic yoga class-
started with sleeping tiger pose, 5 minutes to pull the breath down
into the lower tan tien. our physical awareness of energy drawing
inward is expressed by contracting muscles and nerves.
in the same direction, we are concentrating our mental observation
in toward the lower abdomen,
Coincidentally this pose encourages the body to open along other
energetic gates in the palms, soles of the feet, the anus and top of
the head.

Moving thru a series of asanas-
Stiffness is a small stumbling block on the journey thru our physical
topography. Stretching enables our body to release used energies,
gone tired and sour. Stress is an obstacle across our mental terrain,
crossed using meditation to release negative energies.
Class ended with an energy meditation using our palms.
Yoga aims to unite mind and body by physical and mental exercise.
We unblock. We are balanced. We become aware.

"I can feel my mind and body connect to the surrounding ocean of
prana, the vast life energy carried in the air and light, and distilled
from the food we eat." (Overheard after yoga class).

"On a universal scale, our self has the reality of a drop of seawater
in the ocean." (Scrawl found written in the wet sand at low tide.)

"It's been said that the body is a physical expression of the spirit,
our own temporary vantage point of view within the cosmic mind."
Swami Paramajama, flannel clad yoga guru.

namaste, :)ohn

wed. class- 7pm.
fri. class- 7am.
sun. class- 10:30am