Parivrtta Janu Sirsasana (Revolved Head Knee Pose)

Parivrtta Janu Sirsasana – Step by Step

1. Start off by sitting in Staff Pose (Dandasana). Bend the left knee and place the sole of the foot against the inner right thigh, keeping the right leg straight.

2. Twist the trunk to the left, turning and revolving the shoulders and bending forward from the hips.

3. Stretch the right arm along the side of the extended right leg, turning the forearm and wrist upward to the ceiling and extend until the hand grasps either the inner side of the foot, or the outerside. You can place the elbow to the inside of the knee, if your stretch allows.

4. Holding the foot with both hands, lengthen the torso and revolve the torso upward, so as to look to the ceiling.

5. Hold the pose for about 20 to 30 seconds, rotating the rib cage and deepening the side stretch, making sure your breathing is calm and even all the time.

6. Inhale as you release the hands and come back to the second position, revolving the torso and shoulders back straight over the outstretched leg, keeping the back “passive”.

7. Repeat the pose on the other side, trying to stay in the stretch for the same length of time.

Using an alternative strap to grasp around the foot and deepen the pose, is a lovely way for beginners to get started.

Yogini Kaliji (Kali Ray) is an internationally renowned yogini and the founder of TriYoga. Kaliji travels extensively, having already taken TriYoga to over 37 countries worldwide, with its home-base being Santa Cruz, California. Kaliji will be landing on local Durban shores soon, presenting workshops and yoga training that invoke her knowledge, systemised methods and mastery of yoga flow into a fantastic three-day event.  

TriYoga’s flowing sequences are characterised by “rhythmic pacing”, “relaxation-in-action”, “wave-like spinal movements” and “economy of motion” that all work together to generate a greater flow of prana. The asanas are designed to “flow without thought” and incorporate different “turns” that enable the entire practice to flow seamlessly.

In anticipation of her upcoming South Africa visit, Complete Yoga directs some principal questions Kaliji’s way…

Why have you decided to come to South Africa? Is this your first visit?
Long term TriYoga teachers, Bindu & Shaun, have been teaching TriYoga here for the past 5 years. They invited me to meet those who have been practicing TriYoga. This is my first visit to South Africa and to the African continent.

What is TriYoga and on what principles was it developed?
In the tradition of ancient yoga, the origin and continuing development of TriYoga is guided by kriyavati siddhi, or kundalini-inspired yoga. I began to experience this January 5, 1980. It continues through today. From this inner guidance, TriYoga is a systematised and complete method of yoga, including asana, pranayama and over 1000 hasta (hand) mudras. TriYoga unites pranayama and mudra with dynamic and sustained asanas to create greater flow of prana. The art and science of yogaflow, the practice, has the inherent characteristics of rhythmic breath, relaxation-in-action, wavelike spinal movements and economy of motion.

The breath is central to your teaching and practice. What role does pranayama play in yoga practice and how do you teach it?
The breath is central to TriYoga practices. TriYoga Prana Vidya, the knowledge of life energy, includes the trinity of pranayama, dharana and dhyana (breathing practices, concentration techniques and meditation). Practitioners can remain with basic practices, always deepening, or continue to expand their practice systematically through seven levels.

The goal of yoga practice is the experience of meditation. How does the manifestation of meditation happen through yoga practice?
The two great aspects in creation are consciousness and energy. The primary purpose of yoga sadhana is to increase the flow of prana. As this energy increases, awareness expands. This evolves into meditation, the flow of sattvic (pure) mental energy, expanding consciousness. Like fuel is used to make a journey, prana is needed for the inner journey. Energy is refined and increased through various TriYoga techniques, including yogaflow (trinity of yogasana, pranayama, mudra), prana vidya, vegan diet, nada yoga, and karma yoga.

For more information on the TriYoga Workshops taking place in Durban May 25 – 27, visit http://classifieds.completeyoga.co.za/ads/triyoga-workshops/ or call Shaun Lovell on 071 526 2057 or email triyogaafrica@blissmonkie.com. For more information on TriYoga, visit www.triyoga.com

Paramahansa Yogananda speaks of enlightened yogi masters achieving a state of levitation during their yoga and meditation practice in his book, Autobiography of a Yogi. At a yoga studio in Northriding, you can see students doing exactly that: levitating in the air while quietly holding traditional yoga poses 

These students, however, are supported by a special hammock or “sling” hanging from the ceiling, made of tissu, the super-strong nylon fabric used by Cirque du Soleil acrobats. Unnata Aerial Yoga, a new form of yoga developed by circus aerial acrobat Michelle Dortignac in the USA, has come to South Africa, and is being taught by Carly Bowden and Julie Swart, who travelled to New York to train and qualify under Dortignac. Unnata is the Sanskrit word for “elevated,” meaning both elevated in spirit and physically elevated.

Aerial Yoga is a fun, challenging, dynamic yoga practice incorporating traditional yogic philosophy and teachings, as well as aspects of Pilates, Aerial Arts and Strength Training. It is specifically designed to increase strength, mobility and flexibility. Aerial yoga classes consist of floor work and aerial exercises, stretches and relaxation. The class focuses around the low-lying soft fabric sling suspended from the ceiling to hip height.

Aerial Yoga makes use of the fabric sling to distribute the body’s weight between the floor and the sling, allowing a variety of strength-building, flexibility and core strength movements and poses. The sling assists in particular with challenging yoga poses, supporting the body’s weight during those poses, allowing the body to lengthen as it holds a pose. It allows the practitioner to focus on alignment, and uses gravity to deepen the stretch.

The sling supports the body during inverted poses, allowing the spine to lengthen as it bends, resulting in reduced spinal compression during the pose. This decompression of the spine and joints leaves the body feeling stretched and taller. The sling allows deep stretching without the impact that gravity can often inflict.

Recently, I attended an Aerial Yoga class taught by Julie Swart, and I now have a whole new respect for the idea of “elevated consciousness.” Luckily, her classes are designed for most levels of fitness, with modifications offered for different levels of strength and flexibility. Doing yoga poses hanging from or being supported by the cloth hammock allowed me to deepen the pose more than I could have on a mat and added a rigorous element of stretch and strengthening that surprised my muscles and gave me a new mind-body awareness. For example, in a few short steps, we were in Baddha Konasana (Butterfly Pose), but suspended in the air. The aerial version of this pose offered an intense stretch into the inner thigh muscles and a profound opening of the hips. In addition, the feet are pressed together so intensely from the binding of the fabric around the ankles that I’m certain there must be some pressure point benefits as well!Floating quietly in this pose with hands in prayer position, I perceived the “effortless effort” of yoga more profoundly than ever before.

We then continued with a series of Warrior poses, with the front leg elevated and supported by the hammock, forcing me to put all my weight onto my back legs, again intensifying the strengthening and stretch. Even Downward Dog has an aerial version, bending over the hammock, which is situated under the hips, giving you a sense of hanging and suspension, as well as the pushing and stretching of the leg and back muscles. The pose that intrigued me the most, however, was the Headstand. By hanging straight with your legs wrapped securely around the fabric sling, one can attain an advanced inverted pose without neck and spinal compression. Students appear like large bats hanging ever so quietly and peacefully in their day slumber! Gravity is reversed and a profound elongation and lengthening of the spine occurs, allowing spinal fluid to fill and lubricate the discs between vertebrae. Students feel taller, and possibly may be slightly taller after doing this pose.

I was able to do most of the poses in the class despite not being super-fit or a trained acrobat, for that matter.  However, I did have to really listen to my body, as some of the poses are very intense. Julie Swart is a former pole-dancing champion, so her strength and flexibility are quite impressive. She was very good about offering various levels of challenge when it came to certain poses. There are, however, some medical conditions that will restrict some yogis from doing the intense inversions of Aerial Yoga. These include high or low blood pressure, glaucoma, pregnancy, neck injuries, heart conditions, epilepsy or eye problems.

My favourite part of the class was the relaxation at the end, when we spread out our hammocks and laid quietly inside them, cocooned and cradled, just floating and rocking gently.

When asked about how Aerial Yoga is being received in South Africa, Carly Bowden reports that classes are fully booked on weekends, which so far is the only time they are offered. Her goal is to offer more classes in more areas, and to begin to train more teachers in Aerial Yoga. She and Julie Swart are running their first teachers training programme starting at the end of May. They do require, however, a yoga teachers training certificate in order to enroll. The training runs over 10 weekends.

It seems that Aerial Yoga is here to stay, and is growing.It is a great complement to one’s traditional yoga practice as it allows a yoga practitioner to attain some of the poses that are out or reach in a floor practice. There are very few of us who can hold a handstand for minutes at a time, even fewer who can achieve challenging poses such as the Scorpion, but with the aid of the hammock, these now become accessible to any level of fitness and flexibility. As founder, Michelle Dortignac, describes it, ”I always relate hammock work to a vitamin supplement: I wouldn’t want to live off it, but it really helps push you further, faster.” I was impressed with how Aerial Yoga aims to stay true to the traditional yogic principles and teachings of harmonising the right and left sides of the body and bringing the physical and energetic bodies into union with the mind. It is a great way to explore your yoga practice further.

By Debbie Banda

For more information on Aerial Yoga, contact Carly Bowden at carly@aerialyoga.co.za, or go to www.aerialyoga.co.za.

Camel Pose is a gentle backbend asana and is important as it prepares the body (and mind) for more difficult backbends. It is best to enter this pose from either Child pose or Hero pose. Camel Pose opens the chest, working deep into the Heart Chakra, stretches the shoulders and abdomen and provides increased flexibility to the lower back.

Camel Pose is further very stimulating for the nervous system. It improves flexibility of the neck and spine, relieves backache and helps degenerative spinal problems such as kyphoscoliotic deformities and cervical spondylosis. By stretching the abdominal organs, Camel Pose helps constipation, and it also stretches the throat and thyroid and parathyroid
glands.

Ustrasana – Step by Step

1. Come up onto your knees. Take padding under your knees if they are sensitive. Place your hands onto your hips and lift the torso from the base of the spine and pelvis so as to open the chest. Tuck your tailbone under and lengthen the thighs, lifting the collarbone higher and arch your back.

2. Reach your hands back one at a time to grasp your heels, slowly dropping back and reaching for the heels. Eventually, the palms can be placed on the soles of the feet. Roll the shoulders further back and lift the ribs, arching deep into the back while pressing the hips forward. Drop the head and neck back, without straining, and lift the chin. Stay in this pose anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute.

3. Tighten your knees and inhale deeply as you release the hands and bring the body gently back up to the knees, lifting the pelvis with the strength of the thigh and buttock muscles. Rest back down into either Child or Hero Pose.

Model Penny Anstey
Photograph Brett Rubin

Complete Yoga had the wonderful opportunity to get up close and personal with Ana Forrest, the legend behind the phenomenon that is Forrest Yoga, while on her workshop and book signing tour in South Africa late last year.  More remarkable than the fierce, physical and breakthrough healing yoga practices that Ana trains and teaches, is the indomitable strength and spirit of her personal story and her passion for doing the work that she undoubtedly was born to do.

Here’s what Ana had to say…

CY: Welcome to South Africa… you have arrived at last! Why Africa Ana, why are you here and why now? What have your first impressions been so far?
A: My first impressions have been very mixed. I am feeling the land and, yes, it feels very responsive. I came here because Africa has been calling me and it’s only been this year that I was able to make it… but I am delighted to be here. I have always felt that there is work I can do here and so I have come to plant seeds in this place. When I am working where I know I can help, there is this magnetic pulling and I feel it here. There is something really important for me to learn here – I just don’t know what it is yet! All I know is I’m thrilled to be with the “wild ones”.

CY: You travel the world a lot. Is there Forrest Yoga in many countries in the world as a result?
A: Yes, I try to make it to as many countries and places as I am able to. My vision and spirit pledge is to “mend the hoop of the people around the world”. How I do this is by training teachers and giving them very specific techniques, so they too know how to pass the energy. They learn how to do hands-on healing, learn how to use the yoga poses to treat people’s injuries, how to help people with their sadness or their unbalanced emotions. Forrest yoga is not a mystery – if you do it, it works. These gifts that I teach I have honed from my soul. I want to keep giving the good medicine to people long after I am gone.

CY: You mentioned “mending the hoop of the people” in your book, Fierce Medicine too – what does it mean?
A: My spirit pledge is a very important part of my work. Not too long ago there was a Native American medicine man that was watching the people of his tribe destroying themselves. He said, “the hoop of the people has been broken”. We have come into insane times and “mending the hoop of the people” is about finding a new way of building hoops, where people can learn to live together in a good way without torturing, killing and harming each other.

CY: You have been practising yoga now for over 40 years. Do you feel the consciousness of the world has changed since then with respect to its approach to yoga?
A: Yes, I have been in this field close to 40 years and I’ve seen huge changes. There are some people who get so annoyed and say “oh yoga’s gone so commercial”, but I think it’s good – more people are hearing about yoga, people aren’t so scared of it. There is no conflict with religion anymore, which was the prevalent thing back in the day. It’s no conflict to commune with your body and find out what is true. We don’t need another religious organisation – we need the tools that will help us connect to our own spirit and to our own spirituality. Whether it’s from doing a sitting practice or a Native American practice or an African practice or going to a church, I don’t think it matters but if you’re doing these things and not making a connection, then there is something wrong. There is a sickness, a kind of spiritual bereftness and emptiness that so many of us have that leads us onto really terrible places. It’s like people are trying to fill a gaping hole where their spirit should be living. The first time a lot of people start thinking about their spirit is when they are dying and that’s a little late! We need to learn how to live with our spirit intact.

CY: Do you find a lot of people who come to yoga are searching for happiness?
A: I certainly came to yoga searching for something bigger than myself. Happiness wasn’t what I initially was going after. It just didn’t occur to me until, much later, someone asked me “what about joy?” and that began a whole different investigation for me into what I call pleasure, joy, contentment and delight. We need to “feed ourselves” that as part of our daily diet. That’s part of what I write about in Fierce Medicine - making yoga a part of the daily diet for the evolving soul.

CY: Why and how did you create Forrest Yoga?
A:  Part of the reason why I created Forrest yoga is that I found traditional yoga practices were not helping me, they did something and there was value, but it didn’t touch the deep level anguish and misery that I was living in. Part of the beauty of turning my life around was that I created a yoga system – a system for anyone who wants to go on a quest, who wants to evolve and gain their vision for life. We need to choose to learn from what we are given, especially the difficult stuff.

CY: How is Forrest Yoga distinguishable from other types of yoga?
A: I have brought in the different tools that have made a difference in my life: therapy and ceremony tools that demand direct enquiry. I teach people how to think differently and how to feel intelligently. People think that we get all our knowledge from information, but that’s just one small part of it. Just feeling with our hands and feet is sometimes all that is required. I teach people to learn how to feel as part of their wisdom. I then teach them to bring the thinking and the feeling together and to take the conflict out of it.

CY: How does Forrest Yoga address meditation?
A: In every class I teach pranayama and setting an intention for practice. When you sit quietly in pranayama, you are building life force. When I teach people to sit, I am teaching them to do something in the sitting. I don’t bore the mind into shutting up, it doesn’t feel right for me. Learning how to fascinate the mind while doing the pose or doing the breathing, that is compelling.

CY: How would you describe the taste of yoga to people?
A: Every day is a different taste! It depends on what happened that day, I guess. The magic is that each day I do yoga I turn it into a learning experience and I will inevitably feel better after my practice. It’s amazing that we can shift and play with our energies and from there, move into a space of self-mastery. Some days I can wake up in pain and have a real shitty feeling, like so many do, but I know that when I get on the mat I can change it and that’s an amazing thing. I can reset a more true, honest place for myself instead of just being grounded “in my shit”. I can clear the smog. And sometimes I have to have a little tantrum anyways – then I say to myself, “I’ve got a few minutes to wallow in this space” and then I move on and change it.

CY: What is your personal yoga routine like?
A: It depends on my travel. My routine when I am teaching workshops is that every class is two and a half hours and my teaching team and I gather and we do the first class together ourselves. We set our intention so that our energy is full and so that we have a lot to give. Teaching by myself would be a burnout and it’s really easy to sacrifice my own practice for my mission and it’s one of the greatest challenges I’ve had to overcome. As I’ve become more in love with what I am doing, the lesson has been not to become “a sacrificial whore” for it. A lot of our teaching in our culture tells us that to sacrifice is a good thing but I think that is insane… literally. There is powerful way to give without being sacrificial. Feed yourself first and feed yourself during. When I teach people, I also teach them how to grow their energy in the process of teaching and not to spill it all out. You need to practice in a way that feeds you.

CY: Many people are familiar with the difficulties of your past. Have you healed from and transcended it and does it still define you?
A: I don’t use the word “transcending” as it implies that you’ve buried pain and built a platform on top of it. Yes, I have healed a tremendous amount but whenever I am faced with new challenges, my old stuff inevitably crops up. The part of ourselves that holds fearfulness is the part that we need to embrace.

CY: Do you teach people a lot about facing their fears?
A: I do, but more than that, I like to say, “don’t just face your fear… hunt it, go after it!” There are times when I still have nightmares from my past. But I’m not haunted by it as it’s not a daily part of my life anymore. Instead of beating myself up over it with the mentality that I’m supposed to be healed from it, “that I’m a teacher of teachers, blah, blah, blah”, which is a lie, if it comes up, I do something about it. Sometimes I still feel the scaring in my guts from my years of bulimia. A backbend will help me heal the scaring. I know that I have to continue to do my practice very consistently if I want to stay healed. When I discovered that I had a thyroid problem, I also discovered that I wasn’t really speaking – not about what was so important to me, the things that delighted my spirit or about love. I was a drug addict, an alcoholic and my mother sold me into prostitution when I was 12 – I could somehow say that stuff, but yet I wasn’t speaking about my love. I assumed that my actions would say it. I didn’t speak to my students about how much I loved them and so that was part of my healing – speaking that which was most precious to me.

CY: Yoga is obviously your passion and life’s work. What do you still hope to accomplish?
A: Yoga is one of the main places where I learn truth. I created Forrest yoga for very specific reasons – to address the spiritual bereftness, the stress levels, the back problems, neck injuries, brain problems, spinal, hamstring, knee injuries and immune system challenges. I am not afraid to feel other peoples’ pain, or the earth’s pain. I can’t solve all the world’s problems but there is something here I can contribute to. It’s better to ask, “What part of the world problems can I contribute to?” It makes it more workable and less disheartening. I lived through torture and while I need to monitor the amount of pain I take in, if I can help just one person connect to their spirit, then I feel I’ve made a difference. Teaching yoga is what I am here to do and that means training people to evolve. We have the capacity to destroy both ourselves and others (we have been doing a good job so far) and yet we also have this ability to “quantum leap”. I have this inherent belief that we can transform and evolve. There is true beauty, mystery and magic in this world!

By Angela Myers

Ana Forrest’s book Fierce Medicine is available for purchase from Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Fierce-Medicine-Breakthrough-Practices-Ignite/dp/0061864242/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334059415&sr=1-1

Literally meaning “eight curves”, this pose was named after a sage born with deformed limbs because of his father’s curse, but which were later made straight after bathing in the Samanga River. This pose strengthens the wrists and arms and tones the abdominal muscles.

Stand in Tadasana (Mountain Pose), with your feet wider than usual and exhale forward into Uttanasana (Standing Forward Bend). With your knees slightly bent, push your right arm through your legs and place your hand flat onto the floor, on the outside of your right foot. Place your shoulder against the knee, working the arm right through. Place the left ankle in front of the right and cross them, leaning to the left and placing your weight on the left arm and begin to lift the feet slowly off the floor. Bend your elbows and lean your torso forward to the floor, straightening the legs further. Squeeze your arm between your thighs and twist the whole body to the left. Stay in this pose as long as possible before straightening the arms, placing the feet on the floor and coming to a standing pose again. Repeat pose to the left.

Model John Malherbe
Photography Brett Rubin

Arm balances not only strengthen the arms, but the entire body too and develop many wonderful yogic virtues such as patience, will, focus and surrender. Build up to this advanced arm balance and be inspired for continued practice…

This is an acrobatic pose that’s actually a twist, but one in which the legs go in separate ways, hence the name “Scissors Pose”. Requiring much balance and concentration, the main pressure points are your wrists, arms, and shoulders, but the thighs and abdomen also receive subsidiary pressure as well as a strong massage into the abdominal viscera.

Start in Downward-Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana) and step your right leg forward and across to bring your right foot to the outside of your left hand. Bend the left elbow and place the outside of your right thigh as high as possible against the back of your left upper arm into a twisting lunge. Slowly lean forward, bringing the weight onto your hands and begin to slowly balance. You might want to rest your head onto the floor to start to take the weight off the hands and wrists. Once you have a stable balance, stretch the right leg to the left and the left leg back, lifting your head and gazing forward. The weight should be distributed equally on your hands. Stay for as long as you can hold before bending the knees and lowering the right leg outside the left elbow and undoing the twisted posture. Sit in Balasana (Child’s Pose) and then repeat on the other side.

Model Debbie Lutrin
Photography Brett Rubin

Partner yoga is a fantastic way to share yoga with friends and loved ones. The support of a partner and the structure of the poses provide a stable place from which to explore freedom and surrender. It’s also a fun-filled way of expressing your intuitive understanding of the poses.
While practising, bring your awareness to creating synchronicity and harmony in movement by breathing with your partner. Become as one unit moving through space. Relax and once you feel comfortable and free, bring in your knowledge of precision to the asanas.
Start with simple asanas and, once you are comfortable with these, move into those that are more challenging.

Backbend Balance

Backbend Balance
This pose requires harmony, balance and coordination. It delivers a strong massage into the lower back for partner one and increased strength and flexibility in the legs for partner two.
Technique
Partner two, lie on your back, align your body and raise your legs so that your feet are above your face. Your sacrum will lift and your legs can be slightly bent. Partner one stands with feet apart just above partner two’s head facing away. Place the arch of partner two’s feet over your thoracic curve. Lean back and find stillness. Partner two holds one’s ankles and rolls their sacrum to the ground and moves their feet above their hips while straightening their arms and lifting partner one’s feet above the ground. When you lower your partner back down, do it as slowly as possible as they could easily feel disorientated.
Practice Point
Use your intuition and begin again until you can lift your partner with ease by finding perfect balance. With practice comes ease of balance and confidence. This works well to develop partner trust.

Double Spinal Twist Step 1

Double Spinal Twist Step 2

Double Spinal Twist
The double spinal twist ensures that the spine stays vertical in the twist, keeping the chest marvellously open.
Technique
Sit facing each other legs crossed, knees touching. Both partners raise left hands up into the air and then bring the arm down the left side of your partner’s body. Your right hands should be in the lower back. Bring your right hand to hold your partner’s left hand. Hold the pose as long as you are both comfortable.
Practice Point
Synchronise your breathing and on an exhalation move into the twist using the structure of the pose to lever yourself into a deeper twist.

Forward Bend Fish

Forward Bend Fish
This pose really helps to move more deeply into a forward bend for partner one and is a light, comfy back bend for partner two.
Technique
Partner one sits in Dandasana (sitting with legs extended in front). Partner two begins in a squatting position making contact with the back. Synchronise your breathing and on an exhalation, partner one will move forward from the hips into a forward bend. Partner two maintains the contact in the back and follows partner one into the pose. Once partner one has reached their limit, partner two can extend their legs outwards.
Practice Point
If you are aware of where your partner’s forward bend needs correction, try to improve their posture with your backbend.

Double DownDog Step 1

Double DownDog Step 2

Double Downward Dog
This is a fun-filled rework of the traditional Downward Facing Dog or Adho Mukha Svanasana. It develops arm and shoulder strength, body alignment as well as provides a great release to the lower back.
Technique
Both partners come onto the floor on your hands and knees. Partner one is a little way in front of partner two. Set your knees directly below your hips and your hands slightly forward of your shoulders. Spread your palms out and push your knees back into the sitting bones, creating a straight line from wrists to sit bones. Straighten your legs and descend the heels down to the floor.
Practice Point
You can assist your partner into a more correct stretch by placing your feet wherever the pose needs correction. For example, with beginners shoulders often project forward so the feet can be placed there. The closer partner one is to partner two, the lighter the weight on partner one’s back. A lways remember to work both sides, to breathe deeply and slowly and to each have a turn in both positions.

Partner Handstand

Partner Handstand
This pose requires strength in the shoulders and arms. If initially you do not have the strength required, practice the Downward Dog frequently.
Technique
Stand about a metre apart from your partner. Partner one brings their hands onto the floor, shoulder width apart and fingers widely spread. Root the hands into the ground and kick up into a headstand. Partner two catches the legs as they swing up into the air and assists in getting them as vertical as possible.
Practice Point
As partner one becomes more practiced and so, more stable, partner two can slowly lighten the contact.

Text and Photographs by Barbara Abdinor
Models Susan Sloan and Brandon Abdinor

“It’s not just strength that’s required but control, balance and restraint, bringing a wonderful sense of calm and stillness”

Step 1

Parsvottanasana (Intense Side-Stretch Pose)
Step 1
Stand in Tadasana and step back on your left leg. Join the palms behind the back and draw the shoulders and elbows back. Turn the wrists and bring both palms up above the middle of the back of the chest, the fingers at level of the shoulder blades.

Step 2

Step 2
Exhale and bend the trunk forward, stopping half way to align the back and shoulders.

Step 3

Step 3
Lower the trunk forward until the head rests on the knee or right shin. Release the arms and grasp the ankles with the hands for balance.

Benefits
A lovely stretch to the spine, shoulders, wrists, hips and hamstrings. These poses calm the mind, improve posture and create a good sense of balance.

Urdhva Prasarita Eka Padasana (One Foot Extended Upwards Pose)

Step 4

Step 4
Take the hands onto the floor on either side of the right foot and place the head or chin onto the knee. Tighten both knees and raise the left leg into the air. Keep both the toes and the leg pointed upwards. Remain in pose for 20 seconds, with even breathing.

Step 5

Step 5
Lower the leg down to hip level and hold a few seconds before bringing the foot down onto the floor.

Benefits
These asanas tone the leg muscles and reduce fat around the hips.

Virabhadrasana (The Warrior Pose)

Step 6

Step 6
With the left foot firmly on the floor, drop the hips down and lower the torso over the right leg, raise the arms above the ears and bring the palms together. You should feel the extension from the hands right down the body and into the left foot. Pull tight.

Step 7

Step 7
Lift the arms and lunge deeper, throw the head up and stretch the spine from the coccyx and gaze at the joined palms. Hold the position and remain with the breath for a minute.

Step 8

Step 8
Straighten the right leg and lower the arms to shoulder height, coming back to a frontwards standing position, bringing both feet to face forwards.

Benefits
These asanas open the groin, chest, lungs and shoulders, stretching the legs and ankles. They increase stamina and are helpful in relieving backache.

Prasarita Padottanasana (Wide-Legged Forward Bend)

Step 9

Step 9
Place the hands on the waist and keep feet spread apart, toes facing forward. Tighten the knees and lower the trunk down to hip level and hold, breathing evenly.

Step 10

Step 10
Take both hands to clasp the back of both ankles and lower the top of the head to the floor. Stay in the pose for half a minute, breathing only through the nose before raising the head from the floor, bending the knees and slowly coming to a standing position again.

Benefits
These asana strengthen and stretch the inner and outer thighs and provide a deep elongation of the spine. They are both calming and restorative.

Shoulder Stand is a favourite asana for many people and may be included in one’s daily practice as a “reward” for all the hard work done earlier in the vinyasa…

In this asana, the body is inverted and supported by the shoulders and arms. All that is required is the rotation of the scapulae (shoulder blades) over the head of the humerus (upper arm bone) to allow the torso to move between the arms. That’s basically it. Yet, anyone who tries to do Sarvangasana knows that it just does not work that way. There are muscles, tendons, ligaments and fascia that have shortened and tightened around the shoulder joints and in the rest of the body. There are also injuries, misalignments and emotional blocks that prevent this simple movement. We need to restore the harmony.

So, the challenge of asana is to work with these obstacles as they are presented, in order to express the body/mind essence of Sarvangasana. How one approaches the removal of the obstacles in order to gain freedom of movement, can demonstrate how an individual approaches challenges present in their daily living.

Shoulder Stand, for many, is also seen as an easy place “to hang out”, a place to relax and regard life in general, i.e. “what are the kids doing at home?”; “should I invest on the stock market?”; “what’s for dinner?” And, with this “monkey mind”, we may execute what looks like a decent pose, yet it will obviously not penetrate the blocks and what can and needs to change.

The lower abdomen is considered the “seat of sickness”. Above the lower abdomen lies agni (fire) which burns bodily, emotional and spiritual impurities. In our standing, upright position, the fire is above and the impurities below. When one is inverted, this is reversed and gravity automatically moves this “dirt” downwards towards the fire. Correct, mindful breathing is instrumental in this reversal process, because it can burn impurities and remove them from the body more effectively.

Because of the position of the neck and head, the gaze is directed towards the heart. Sarvangasana is referred to as the “mother of asanas”. As a mother nurtures, Sarvangasana nurtures by allowing one to look into the heart and encourages the heart centre to open. This opening reminds one to approach the challenges, the edges of pain and fear, to see one’s limitations with love and compassion, and to understand that by facing oneself, the edges soften and move, both physically and mentally.

The neck is the lowest part of the torso. Much of the time it acts as a filter for the abundant flow of energy between the mind and the body. This causes it to be extremely subject to tension and stiffness. (i.e.). “Pains in the neck” are self created and can arise through the lack of flexibility in seeing other points of view. The position of the head and neck in this posture is a symbol for the surrender of our will. As the physical pressure is released from this neck lock, the body comes back into balance. It is said that as the ego lets go of its weight that, in its self-importance, it has imagined, the burden is removed.

Sarvangasana is associated with the fifth chakra, Visuddha, the Throat Chakra and symbol of purification. The throat chakra is the centre of sound, vibration and self-expression. It is the realm of consciousness that controls, creates, transmits and receives communication, both within ourselves and between each other. It is here that the synthesising of old ideas into something new takes place.

As much pleasure as this asana brings, one cannot stand forever one one’s shoulders. As you come down from Salamba Sarvangasana, Swami Rhada suggests the focus should be “what burdens can I put down”; “what burdens are no longer mine?”, so that you may walk lighter on the path of self-knowledge and self development.

Step By Step:

• Fold up a blanket and place it towards the top of your mat.
• Lie on your back.Lift your legs up slowly towards the ceiling, bringing your hands to the base of your back to support the lower back and spine.
• Lift your pelvis and bring your feet behind down behind your head (Plow pose). Your legs should be as straight as possible and your torso should be perpendicular to the floor.
• With your hands pressing into your lower back lift your knees into the air.
• Lift your legs into the air.
• Gaze at your chest, being careful not to move your head from side to side.
• You can hold the pose for 2 minutes up to half an hour.

Counter Pose:
Matyasana (Fish Pose)

By Arleen Francois