I’ve blogged about yoga at one site or another for a good five years, but there’s one thing I’ve never done: post pictures of myself doing yoga. Why, you may ask? Well, honestly — it’s one thing to talk about yoga being accessible for all sizes; it’s quite another to feel good about people staring at your body. This of course results in not being able to post information about specific asanas, which limits the usefulness of this blog.
So here I am…. in all of my short, plump, curly haired, ethnic featured glory. Looking at the photo, I’m torn between noting that I don’t look all that bad and bemoaning the fact that I’m not tall, blonde, and sporting a “dancer’s physique” — although, really, what does that phrase even mean? If there’s not a “perfect yoga body,” shouldn’t the same be true of dance?
Okay, people — this is exactly why I do yoga. Yes, I love asana, but I get so much more out of yoga philosophy. My yoga mat is a little laboratory for me; here I can see where my mind goes in certain situations, knowing that how I work on the mat is how I work off of it. According to Patanjali, yoga citta vritti nirodha – yoga stills the fluctuations of the mind. I don’t want to lose large blocks of my life to body image dysfunction or food obsession. I want to, as Ram Dass puts it, ‘be here now’ rather than missing what’s in front of me because my mind is far away. It bears constant repeating that the sages of yore used yoga to prepare the body for meditation; while I seem to prefer moving or chanting to seated meditation, I still use the practice to live a better life.
You probably recognize the pose in the photo, as “Legs Up the Wall”, or Viparita Karani, is one of the simplest inversions and very popular in class settings. I appreciate this pose because it gives all the advantages of inversions — improved blood flow, intense relaxation — without the dangers inherent in Headstand (Sirsana) and Shoulderstand (Sarvangasana) — it’s all too easy to move suddenly and do bad things to your neck and cervical spine. In addition, Viparita Karani is also one of the few inversions suitable for a woman during menstruation. It’s a wonderful way to work the legs, and because it’s a restorative pose, the body stretches itself, without personal effort. If you don’t have a wall handy, try “legs up the chair or couch”; you can also lift your hips a la Setu Bandha Sarvangasana, or Bridge Pose, place a block under your sacrum, and lift your legs into the air (this of course makes the pose more active, as your leg muscles hold up that part of the body.)
In the future, I hope to start addressing particular poses so as to make the sequences I post more accessible. Truly, however, I’m also interested in hearing from you, my readers, about particular topics to cover. Are you interested in reading about scientific studies of the value of yoga practice? Or more about yoga philosophy? I’ve been trying to cover a little bit of everything, but if there’s a specific area under the yoga umbrella that interests you, please leave a comment for me. I appreciate you taking the time to read my thoughts and musings, and I’d like to make this blog as useful as possible. Won’t you check in below, and let me know your thoughts?
Yoga Cielo Stellato 