Downward Facing Dog | Paper Clay Nature

A few weeks ago I threatened to start Rodney Yee’s 8-week Home Yoga Practice program from his book, Moving Towards Balance: 8-Weeks of Yoga with Rodney Yee and blog about my experience. Today, I’m making good on my threat. It’s Day One of Week One.

Today’s practice involved practicing multiple versions of some standing poses. Already, I’m kind of frustrated. After twenty-years of practice, I like doing these poses the way I like doing these poses. So, today, I met the beast of attachment head on and I did the poses the way Rodney wanted me to. I’m still going to keep doing the poses my way, but once I got over my attachment issues, I did find that doing the poses in the variety of ways that the practice suggested, I was able to find different sensation in the poses. It was really an invitation to feel the poses in a variety of different ways and this brought me into deeper awareness of sensation in my body and the alignment and use of my skeletal system.

I also discovered that I am weak. Seriously W-E-A-K. For each of the asana variations, we were instructed to hold the pose for 30-seconds. I confidently came into Warrior II only to find that my whole body wanted to give in at around five seconds. I have been holding poses for a mindful period of time, but only some poses that are a part of my regular Vajra Yoga practice. Being forced to hold other poses took me out of my strength-zone and I was surprised to find out how weak I felt when holding poses. In all fairness, I have been either pregnant or nursing a baby for the past 19-months and that is bound to exhaust a person and change strength and endurance in some ways and enhance it in others.

Finally, I should divulge that I did this practice in the center of my home’s family room with a sick five-year old sitting on the couch watching Pokemon videos and playing fruit ninja on my iPhone and my 9-month old dumping blocks out of a canvas bag near my head. While in downward facing dog, my 9-month old crawled under me and pinched my boob. Yes, you read this correctly—-she pinched my boob! But, I have to say that I felt a whole lot more open, centered and, if not really relaxed, more prepared to continue with the day than I did before practice. I mention this because so many adults feel that they can’t mke time for yoga because they keep waiting for the perfect moment, the perfect place or the time when they can have some peace and quiet. Yes, ideally you can make your practice about taking some time for yourself, but if you can’t, then just push aside the crumbs and the toys—–roll out the mat over the chaos and make it happen.

Please feel free to join me in my 8-week program with Rodney Yee. You can share your own experience by leaving comments on this blog. It’s OK if you start on a different day or we get out of sync. This is going to be fun!

Posted by Sharon Fennimore Rudyk, the fearless leader of Team Matrika. Are you in Pittsburgh, PA? Join us for a great class at Yoga Matrika in Squirrel Hill.

“This is what you should do: love the earth and the sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men…re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss what insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem.”

WALT WHITMAN

Whitman suggests here what every yogi knows–the choices we make with our mind are reflected in our bodies. This is beauty. You know when you are in the room with beauty. Thinking back on all the beauties you have been around you know that it isn’t the type of beauty that Cover Girl is selling that sticks with you. The beauty that you see in others is their poem and the memory of it is a song that vibrates through your own body poem.

As we move through various asana (yoga poses), we have an opportunity to try on different characters and ways of moving and being in the world. One minute a warrior, then next a dog—only to transform with just one breath into a pigeon and end up a cheeky little monkey. Through this experiment, we find that we can listen to the poem of our body. Sometimes, the poem rides the rhythm of the breath. Other times, it is our grunts and the sounds of our effort. Crow or cow face, there is no yogi in history that does not come up against some darkness. Sometimes, the poem of our bodies in practice is a ballad uncomfortably narrated by cellular memories we have not before dared to expose. Sometime, the poem of our bodies is like going out for dessert at midnight. Delicious.

Here is a simple way to listen to your body and get in touch with the poem of your flesh:

Lie down on your back somewhere comfortable. Before you lie down, take off your shoes and socks, watch and release your hair from any clips or bands. Place one hand over your heart and the other hand over your navel. Feel the rise of your body as you take an in breath. Feel your navel drop down towards your spine as you exhale. Do this for as long as you like. The mind will wander, but you don’t need to follow it. As soon as you notice that your attention has drifted away from feeling the breath move through the body, you just return to watching your next in breath.

When you feel ready, bring your awareness to the soles of your feet. As you inhale, feel the energy of the breath enter through your feet. Relax the space between your toes, ankles and the bones in your feet. Feel the connection of your palm to your heart and your palm to your navel center. There was once a time when you received all of your information about the world and all that sustained you through your navel. Allow this breath moving through your feet and palms to remind you of your origins, your roots.

Inhale a deep breath as you release your hands and bring your arms up over your head. STRETCH and reach through your arms and hands as you point your toes. Hug your knees in to your chest and rock from side to side.

Come up to sit for a moment. See how you feel. If your flesh was a poem now, what would it be?

Keep up with the poetry Pittsburgh yogis!

Posted by Sharon Fennimore Rudyk
Director, Yoga Matrika in Pittsburgh, PA
https://www.yogamatrika.com/

Tag: Downward Facing Dog

Day One, Week One: Attachment & Weakness

Make a Poem of your Flesh