Let two chairs be your umbrella on a rainy, rainy day
When you come back up, even a dark, gray day looks brighter.Here on the wet West Coast, where winter closes in with endless clouds, rain, and steadily diminishing daylight, we take seasonal depression seriously. I have a “happy light” glowing on my desk as I write this. So there’s nothing I’d like to recommend more […]
Learn to do a full back bend, one step at a time
“The body is the bow, asana is the arrow, the soul is the target” – B.K.S. IyengarIn my first dance class, I clung to my mother’s knee, three years old and already deeply suspicious of group activities. Then Miss Goddard announced “London Bridges” – the full back bend that Iyengar yogis call “upward bow.” I […]
A 30-minute shoulder stand practice to reverse late afternoon slump
What’s the best time of day to do shoulder stand? The pat answer is that disciplined yogis always do their practice first thing in the morning, so the best time is toward the end of morning practice. The practical answer is: whenever you can. Perhaps you have to leave for work too early to make […]
The mulling is over, the commitment is on.
Does one day’s shoulder stand link to the next, making them stronger, day by day? I hope so.On Tuesday, September 6, I did my first of 90 days of shoulder stand. It was not an auspicious start. On Monday I had the tail end of a few days of runny nose and one day of […]
Sadhana: the practice for day four
Today was the third day of summer Sadhana, and the first time we’ve come back to repeat a practice, albeit with some changes. In fact, it was amazing to see what a difference it makes to add a few standing poses and Supta Padangusthasana 1 and 2 to the practice. By the time we started […]
Sadhana: the practice for day three
Tuesday, day two, was shoulder stand variations and forward bends. It was interesting to see which standing poses were echoed in the variations. For some reason I had never seen quite so clearly before how Eka Pada Sarvangasana (shoulder stand with one leg descending) relates to Parsvottanasana (intense side stretch pose) – with a concave […]