Sep 28, 2010 |
The other night in yoga class, we went from standing split pose to airplane pose, which, if you have ever tried it before, is really hard to do and still keep your balance. (BTW, if you check out the link to see a standing split, I look absolutely nothing like that when I do it!)
Airplane yoga pose is not one of my favorites. You have to stand on one leg, raise the other leg behind you, and then put your arms out to your sides like airplane wings—all while staying balanced and not falling on your face. I must put my airplane nose down too far, because I can never hold this pose and have come really close to knocking over my neighbors when I start to wobble. I’m one of those airline passengers you don’t want to place your mat next to.
As I struggled to keep my balance, the instructor told us to fly away, to let our thoughts and bodies take us wherever we wanted to go on our airplane. Tahiti, Paris, a ski slope—the possibilities were endless, and I loved the idea of letting myself go on a little mini holiday right in the middle of yoga class. No reservations required, no security lines, no packing; I could get a direct flight right from my yoga mat on Yogi Airlines.
Before I knew it we had reached our destination, another yoga pose, and I had made it to my destination without losing my luggage.
I’ll be flying the friendly skies of Yogi Airlines for the rest of my life. I hope they have a frequent-flier club (and serve peanuts).
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Sep 2, 2010 |
If you’re one of those yoga aficionados that can do all the crazy poses, like headstands and bird of paradise, this blog post will either bore you or amuse you, but if you are a yoga nerd like me and still working on the basics, hopefully this blog will encourage you to keep plugging away at your yoga practice.
I have a couple of yoga instructors who always ask at the beginning of class if there is a pose we would like to work on. I really appreciate this gesture, but, inevitably, the pose that always comes up is the headstand. I’m afraid to try a headstand because I don’t think my core and upper body are strong enough yet and, to be quite honest, I have a really hard head and resting all of my body weight on it really is not appealing to me. That and hearing the thud when class members fall out of a headstand is a little unsettling.
So, I always dread the part of class when we work on the designated pose because it forces me to go out of my comfort zone. I’ll try a few basic steps of the pose but always go to something more safe, like childs pose or goddess pose, to hang out and look busy until the rest of the class is done experimenting. I always figured one day I would get up the nerve to really try it out.
Well, that day came yesterday.
My yoga instructor must have known I needed a nudge, and she gave it to me. We were practicing tripod pose, and I got myself into the basic position just to see what it would feel like when she came over and pointed out the proper way for me to place my head. I had been doing it wrong all this time, and once she got my hands and head in the right position, it felt totally natural to pick my legs up and rest them on my arms.
I got into tripod pose (pre-headstand) with the help of my yoga instructor, Deirdre Sargent, and it felt amazing! I let out a little Woohoo! because this was a big deal for me. I was one step closer to a headstand. Hell, I think I probably could have raised up my legs with a little assistance, but I wasn’t going to push it; one yoga victory for the day was enough to put a smile on my face. I even got a few high fives from other class members. I’ll keep practicing the base tripod pose; my goal is to get those legs up in the air before the month is out for tripod headstand!
Thanks, Deirdre, for giving me the push I needed and doing it in such an encouraging way! I really appreciate everything you have taught me about yoga and myself.
