Anandaville

Ardha Chandrasana: Attachment or Merely Preference?

Mr. Iyengar does Ardha Chandrasana (Half Moon Pose) pose with the balancing hand flat and the top arm engaged but resting on the side body. I have always done it as the model in the photo, hand on fingertip, top arm extending up.

In my practice today, I kept playing with each variation, thinking about how I felt in the pose. I could tell I was more grounded with my hand flat and for someone who has a hard time grounding, that says alot. At the same time, I kept preferring my old way. It got me thinking is it attachment or is it preference? Am I attached to the old way and I need to release the resistance? Or is it okay to prefer the way I do it?

I am currently making many changes in my life. I am preparing to take on a lot of teacher training next year at both the beginning and advanced level. I need to prepare my body, mind and soul for leading. Plus, I am a firm believer in doing myself what I expect others (the trainees and my staff) to do and I expect quite a bit from those who are studying with me or working for me.

Therefore, I have seriously upped my practice and what I need to do to maintain my consciousness. I have also encountered serious mental resistance to these changes. Attachment? Or is it preference? I have an evening off tonight. My husband took our children to a birthday party. I have five glorious, unexpected hours to myself. I don't take "lazy" time very often.  In fact, learning to stop, relax, and surrender has been a lesson I have been learning for my entire life (probably even lifetimes...:-) ) Maybe tonight is the night to not do my practice...

If you need resolution to this post, let's say this, we need to balance each moment and stay conscious to our motivations behind what we are doing.  I think I need a night off.  I am off to a bath...

ardhagretchenhomewidel
Originally uploaded by ommango

Kapotasana - Pose 1 - Startin' with a big one! (Pose 1 and 2)

I figure, what the heck, start big!  No, this is not me in the photo -- but it will be! I have been slowly getting closer to the final version of this pose this year.

My greatest challenge for this pose is my psoas (a large hip flexor muscle that runs from the lower spine, through the pelvis, to attach to the upper, inner thigh.)  I have the tightest psoas of any student I have ever met -- really.  Because of my tight psoas, my pelvis actually tips forward, making large backbends quite challenging!  Kapotasana has been on my "dream list" for years.  Now that I have got a year in my forties under my belt -- it is time for more!

In the book, BKS Iyengar shares two ways of entering the pose:  Pressing up from a lying position in Supta Virasana and from the top down, lowering down from Ustrasana (Camel Pose).  The second entry is much more advanced.

I am working on both ways.  I have spent the last 6 months or so, consciously releasing my psoas.  (Here is more on how to do that.)  So now I can lay comfortably in Supta Virasasana without a lift under me and I have begun "playing" with pushing up.  I can get to my head!  I have also been working on deepening Ustrasana so I can get lower.  It is amazing how "stuck" I have been in these poses for years -- doing the same position time and time again.  I finally feel I am moving past the stuck point!

Oh, and, yes, this counts for two poses.  #176 in Light on Yoga is a variation of Kapotasana.

Kapotasana
Originally uploaded by bananajagal

 

Starting Again - 2010!

I am inspired...I just signed on to do 7 teacher training programs next year (both 200- and 500-hour) and I feel I am all yoga, all the time -- in a fabulous way!  I want to deepen my practice over the next year in preparation for the 500-hours which begin in the fall.  I am ready to tackle this book again so here I am!  Join me for the year and keep me company.  Let me know if you are doing it and we'll compare notes as we go!  (Oh, and it only seems fair that I start over and redo the oses I DID get to last year -- don't you think?)