PRACTICE 2 : LEARNING TO FLY : TEACHING YOGA ASANA
NAMO GURUBYE,
NAMO BUDHAYA,
NAMO DHARMAYA,
NAMO SANGHAYA,
NAMO TRI-RATNAYA
My teaching assignment was to lead my sangha in the inner yoga practice of Moolabandha.
I decided to start the group in Prasarita Padottanasana (wide legged forward fold) as a creative entry into our practice. It was a bold move, and what I learned is bold moves are not always the best for introductory classes. Keep it simple and TEACH TO WHAT YOU KNOW - this was my lesson... But here we go.
Come into your Prasarita Padottanasana, I said.
Step your feet apart - as wide as the yoga mat. Let’s open the pelvic floor wide, I thought. Let’s include the legs. Let’s feel the legs grounded through the feet first and THEN feel the lift from the inner arches of the feet upward. Begin in the feet, work your way up the length of the inner thighs and into the pelvis. (I didn’t actually say any of these things) What I said was different, I can’t even remember.
So let me reimagine here:
I invite YOU to try it with me, as my student.
Begin by bringing your hands to your hips. Fold from this joint, hinging the upper body forward from the hips, like a door. I want you to tune into your feet and feel balance between the front and back of each foot. Shift your weight forward into your toes and begin to feel the front of your legs engage. REMEMBER You can only access an opening in the hamstings once the quadricep muscles are engaged. ENUNCIATE. Feel the hairline shifts forward, or back. FEEL the slow lift from the inner arches of the feet, feel the inner thighs stretching upward.
Now, relax your arms to the floor in a choice variation, hanging at the elbows, palms on the floor, hands stretched to each foot.
Now, bring your attention to the pelvic floor. Imagine there is a hammock down there. Imagine the sit bones separate slightly making a diamond shape with the pelvis, Pubic bone and sacrum. Feel into the perineum muscles, the space between the sit bones, left to right. Imagine as you inhale the hammock is filling full with air, like a parachute and as you exhale imagine the hammock contracting inward. PAUSE. Pause at the bottom of your exhale, and then again. Inhale to open the parachute, and exhale feel the contraction of the pelvic floor. PAUSE. After a few rounds of a good old fashioned conscious body focused breathing, I welcome you to follow the exhale and stay in the lift. This is, my friends is your MOOLABANDHA. From here, from within your exhale, allow an inhale to begin. Allow the inhale to be based in the slight contraction of the pelvic floor, feel the lifting up in the spinal column. Bring the palms of the hands to the floor under your gaze and allow that pelvic lift to encourage you to shift your weight further and further forward. Feel into the finger tips, and perhaps you will find the slightest inspiration to ground the crown of your head into the floor at a triangles distance from the palms. Follow that pelvic lift up supported by your engaged hands and rooted crown. Follow the lift further and perhaps you will feel the inspiration to allow your feet to lift off, entering slowly, into a tripod headstand.
Now take a moment after grounding those brave toes back down to the ground to appreciate what got you there. You got to experience your root lock, your moolabandha. Your moolabandha is located at the base of your torso, at the pelvic floor. IT is a gateway, ruled by ganesha, to the depths of the insides of your body. Bandha translates to mean lock. You lock the pelvic floor and create a lift as a conscious choice to support your inner organs, to deepen your expression of weight distribution, and allow yourself to fly.
Now from a different angle. Come into a comfortable sitting position. Virasana. Heros Pose. Experience your pelvic floor from here. Find your breath, and allow yourself to return to a steady breathing rhythm. With every inhale, just as before, feel the pelvic diaphragm inflate. Allow each exhale to impress you with a lift, as if you could levitate. Practice. Inhale. Exhale.
What did you notice about yourself?