Arm Balances:

I've said it a billion times but If I were to hold a yoga workshop where we bring our nemesis poses to class and work on them until we make peace with them, I could almost guarantee that it would be 2.5 hours of arm balances. If you're someone who is not on speaking terms with a lot of arm balances, don't worry, you're not alone.

As with any type of asana, when we understand the underlying principles of the pose it becomes not only approachable but fun--yes, even arm balances. Also, when we remember that we are practicing principles in the form of the poses and not trying to simply perform poses, we lose our attachment to trying to mold the body into a particular form and become satisfied with understanding and accomplishing the principle. There is a version of arm balances for everybody. Even though we may not be attached to the form of the pose, when we are able to master a principle, it's fun to see how the body responds by accomplishing poses that perhaps we didn't think were possible.

Arm balances build strength and confidence, both in body and character. They cultivate our ability to hold ourselves in a way that different than normal. To practice arm balances, we use our deep inner-strength, our core.

The following are some of the principles weuse to practice arm balances:

Grounding
Establishing our ground is essential for every pose. For arm balances, we ground using our arms or hands. Therefore, we generally ground the hands shoulder-distance apart from each other. Connect to the floor with as much surface of the palm as possible by spreading the fingers wide then gripping with the fingertips to establish the muscular support for negotiating balance and decompressing the wrists. Wrist pain is often a deal-breaker for many practitioners. Strength in the forearms and gripping with the hands is one way to stay out of the wrists in arm balances. In class we will practice other ways to avoid injuring the wrists.

Legs, Hip Flexors, and Abdominals (Uddiyana Bandha)
To perform arm balances, not only must we ground in a way that doesn't use our legs butwe must also hold our legs off the floor. The muscles responsible for keeping the legs hugged into the body and/or our legs holding our arms are our hip flexors (the muscles in the groins), the adductors (muscles that pull the legs together) and the abdominals. Uddiyana Bandha (oo-dee-yana bahn-dah) is one of the three special muscular locks we use in yoga. It is the essence of our core strength and helps direct the flow of energy in our body. There are a few ways to perform Uddiyana Bandha. In arm balances we will practice this lock by drawing the lower abdominals up and in while maintaining our breath. In class we will cultivate awareness of the legs, hip flexors and Uddiyana Bandha as learn how to apply them to arm balances.

Breath
Breath is perhaps the most important principle in our asana practice. Especially when we are practicing challenging poses such as arm balances, sometimes we instinctively hold our breath and grunt our way through the pose. Holding our breath starves our muscles of oxygen and it's no wonder we find ourselves unable to do the pose. If we establish the pattern of deep breathing known as ujjayi (oo-jie-ee), in and out through the nostrils, using the muscles in the back of the throat to slightly constrict and elongate the breath, creating a whisper, we calm the nervous system at the same time that we provide copious fuel for our muscle fibers. This breath is key to all poses including arm balances.

Sense of Humor
As with all of these poses, we don't become any more enlightened by the ability to perform arm balances. Instead, enlightenment is what we learn is along the path as we practice these poses and practice life. The asana is simply practical application to the lesson, again practicing principles in the form of asana. So a healthy sense of humor is essential because it's not about the pose--it's about my attitude in the pose. Do I strain, grunt, and groan my way through it? Do I perform the pose easily and look around self-righteously at all the other losers who are grunting and groaning their way through the pose? Do I not even try for fear that I'll fail? It's all just a practice, just a game. Have fun with it. Do what is possible understanding that you are somewhere along a winding path of progression. If you don't master the pose today, you may still master the anatomical or mental or spiritual principles behind the pose. And who knows you might surprise yourself and someday master the pose, too.

See you in class.

Photo by Dan Morris

What does it mean to be mindful? I'm sure we could all describe it in a different way. Some might say focused, conscious, alert, aware. How would you describe mindful? I believe that being mindful is the goal of yoga, it's what we practice, and all the other stuff like peacefulness, health, clarity, wellness, those are all byproducts of mindfulness.

Once we become practiced at mindfulness, we'll find ourselves applying it to all the other things we do in life: work, our relationships, how we spend our free time, even how we do those things we don't love doing like taking out the trash. And let's not mistake being mindful for perfect or blissed-out or even happy. It's just mindful. To have an emotion, for example, and to be perfectly mindful, is to allow yourself the capacity to be completely aware of it, completely involved. And that goes for anything. To really appreciate time with our kids, practicing yoga, the enjoyment of a meal, or enjoying whatever we like to do, we need to be mindful, lest that fun or those flavors pass by unnoticed.

But maybe because of this mindfulness, we'll have experiences and see that what we are isn't defined by them, that what we truly are is bigger than that emotion, that time with our kids, or that yoga posture. And it's by being mindful we can actually use the experience of an emotion or yoga pose or whatever to witness our true identity, which is mindfulness itself. The emotion or whatever is simply the brushstroke on the canvas of mindfulness. Don't mistake the brushstroke as the painting. If it weren't for the canvas, there could be no brushstroke.

So as we are in yoga practice this week, let's practice understanding our True Nature by practicing mindfulness. I also invite you to practice being mindful as you leave your house to go about your day or drive to work. Notice everything: the feeling of the steering wheel (or handlebars), the feeling of the road beneath you, the flow of traffic, the song on the radio.

See you in class.

Scott