Posture blog three ~ moving the awareness up through knees, hips and pelvis.
You’ll notice how much time and attention we spend in yoga noticing the places the body is touching the earth and allowing ourselves to feel grounded in those places.
This benefits your body (a lot) and your thinking mind (an awful lot!)
For the body we relax muscles, release tension, slow the heart beat, lower blood pressure and decrease nervous system activation.
For the mind the practice teaches us to:
focus attention (sensations where the body touches down)
let go (of physical tension or holding and of unhelpful thinking patterns)
disengage attention (from the natural wandering mind)
start over (releasing with each exhale)
begin again (noticing afresh with each inhale)
patience (staying with the practice and not day dreaming, planning or reminiscing)
perseverance (noticing boredom or resistance and letting it be there but not dwelling on it)
gratitude (for whatever comes up to be grateful for, warm blanket, nice music, a loved one in your life, a coffee after with a pal)
These are all qualities of mindfulness. Isn’t it so interesting that what we aspire to for the mind is a mirror of what is wholesome for the body and vice versa.
In this blog we take that exploring from the soles of the feet up as we stand tall and explore posture in the region of the legs and pelvis. In blog two we explored the precise placement of the feet. Feeling that earthy, deep, even connection across all four corners of the feet, see can you slightly lift the instep and continue with that uplifted energy all the way up to the pelvic floor. Slightly lift the pelvic floor as you slightly draw back the lower belly, the place you would have a zip on your jeans. From there we lengthen the spine and rise up through the crown of the head to the sky overhead. Tall and graceful but not rigid. Checking the knees we have the two kneecaps facing directly forward like two headlamps on a car. Often we can have, sometimes unbeknownst to us!, knocked knees or wonky knees (me!) We can learn to easily use the muscles below and above the knee cap to correct this wonky-ness. There is no age limit on making subtle shifts in the physical body that support you in moving through your life with greater ease and grace. There is no age limit on making subtle shifts in the thinking patterns of the mind that support you in moving through your life with greater ease and grace.
From the feet to the knees, taking our awareness up to the pelvis we have now reached the top of the legs, the base of the spine. We have an uplifted feeling in pelvic floor and lower tummy area, upright but not uptight. In next week’s blog we’ll take the awareness up from this strong foundation up through the graceful curves of the spine and the complexity of the muscles that support the torso. To reflect on what we have learnt so far through feet, knees and base of pelvis I’m delighted to share the wisdom and precision of Jason Crandell, Yoga Teacher.
"By cultivating strength without rigidity, and relaxation without collapse, in your yoga poses, you are learning to creating a balanced imprint on your nervous system. You are learning to remain awake, and yet calm, regardless of the external circumstances.”
We will continue to explore this in all upcoming classes, morning classes in Ballyroan are on new courses, with spaces. Evening classes in The Park have spaces. Mutton Lane workshops have very limited space, please book early.