Jivamukti Part 3

So tonight on a whim, and really needing to get out in the world, I made my way up to Jivamukti and took the 5 o'clock class with Monica. In fact, I met Monica in the elevator of all places.

It was a full 2 hour class, and very crowded. I placed my mat front and center right up facing the altar and windows. We started slow and easy with chanting, then in no time she had us pushing through some high speed vinyasa flow. Strangely, a sign on the street said "Bikram Yoga" which I had not noticed in my past two visits. Well, today's session was pretty close. It had to be at least 90 in the room, and I was literally making puddles with the amount of sweat coming off my body. I was amazed and happy about it. More than in any other exercise, sweat in yoga represents the impurities exiting your body. And tasting my sweat as it beaded and dropped into my mouth, it tasted like clear water. Meaning, to me, that my system was running pretty damn clean.

We even did some wild hand balances with one foot wrapped around behind our heads. I particularly appreciated this asana since it was what brought me into yoga in the first place 30 years ago.

Monica was born in India and her formal training showed, especially in the way she said "eeeeenhahl..... eXhayle." Her joyous energy and calmness pervaded the whole session. And she KICKED us with the bridges, which I hit better than I ever had in my life.

I walked out of JM in a complete bliss state, ready to live "be here now." Which I did as soon as I hit the streets. But thats another story for another blog. :)

The *other* handstand

So, on one of the online gymnastics tutorials I've been reading, it suggests to practice handstand, instead of kicking up into the wall, instead face your face towards the wall, tuck, and walk your feet up the wall. Then, once your legs are fully extended, walk your hands back towards the wall. This was a *completely* different way than the "dyno" style (shout out to your rock-climber-boulderers out there!) handstand I'd been practicing... and with the ability to free my feet and actually press my *stomach* against the wall as the only means of support, it really felt like it helped my balance.

I am so *jonseing* to get a free form unsupported handstand going. Cmon boy! Go Go Go!

art of hand balance

It all started with Ashtanga yoga. These kids have a special move, the "jump" from downward dog into forward bend, which has become almost universal throughout vinyasa flow practice. The trick of it is to make it graceful, prolonged, and fluid. Downward dog, for those of you unfamiliar with yoga, is simply placing your body in a pyramid position, with your feet back, your ass high, and your head low, your arms straight, your hands on the floor in front of you. Spine maximum straight, and legs straight. The proper form is a perfect triangle with the ground as the base.

Forward bend is simply "stand and touch your hands to your toes."

So the transition from dog to forward can be done with a simple walking of the feet, or more gracefully, by shifting the balance to the hands, flying the feet up into the air, and softly landing the feet back down between the hands.

Practicing this, one experiences a profound shift of both weight and balance, from the feet to the hands.

Another place I found this was in an AcroYoga warm-up that Becca put us through, the "donkey kick". In this, you start in forward bend, and kick your legs up high over your head. The point is to get as forward as possible, and hold the elevated (inverted) donkey kick pose as long as possible, without falling over forward.

And then there is the reverse bridge, and contortion videos.

Finally, there is the handstand.

It becomes clear, rather soon, that in acrobatics, and yoga, the hands and feet become interchangeable grounding mechanisms. Once you gain the flexibility to bend your body over and place equal weight on the hands and feet, and once you gain the strength in your wrists, forearms and fingers to maintain balance, and once you gain the overall kinaethetic awareness and body balance in order to shift from feet to hands and vice versa, well, thats the grok of the hand balance.

Then its just a world of creative movement possibilities. :)

Tha Hang(ing) Man

I was recently dealt the Hanged Man Tarot card. This terrified me. I had always had fearful associations with this card... in a personal journey self-loathing kind of way.

I'll start this story with an aside. I recently met a girl at a Burning Man party. She had a Chinese character on the back of her neck. I asked her what it meant, and she replied "Chicken Soup with Rice". That was funny. As we got deeper into the conversation, she expanded on the meanings. She had picked it quickly from a book, under the impression it meant "princess, queen". Upon further exploration she found it also had a somewhat negative meaning, and this made it difficult for her. I felt she really had to own it, in the sense of getting all the vibe from it and recognizing it as a part of her past.

Now I'm feeling the same way about the Hanged Man. Here's the image, followed by some notes:

Grimaud, Tarot of Marseilles - France (1963, reprint of 1761 of Nicolas Convert)


Now, color me surprised, but this "Hanged Man" is clearly an acrobat. His face is calm, his leg is stagged perfectly; his foot is in a hanging loop. This is an aerialist at play! So there! :)

Handstands

I am getting very very close to the handstand.
My Tarot of the Day was the Hanged Man, which gives me thoughts about inversions.

At AcroYoga Jedi Kula Training, we did spotted handstands, and Becca, our coach, called out timings as we held it: "30 seconds, 45 seconds, 1 minute". When I applied for AcroYoga teacher training, one of the items on the questionairre was: "How long can you hold a wall handstand for?" I timed myself at just over a minute. I was sure at the time I coulda done longer, but it seemed sufficient for the application. Plus, what I *really* want is:

1) to hold a handstand in perfect balance, without support, and then my Holy Grail:

2) to push up into a handstand from a headstand

I nailed this second one a few weeks ago after Revolva and I exchanged some emails on technique. I realised that there were two key factors: a) spreading the hands *wide*, and b) just *gutting* through the first few inches of elevation. After my head was off the ground and I had broken through that psychological / strength barrier, it was easy.

Now, re-invigorated from the AcroYoga practice, and re-determined to nail my handstand, I've found a great web coach:

http://www.beastskills.com/Handstand.htm

Beast Skills. Love it! :)

Burning What

Probably the most far-reaching integration of Burning Man into the real world has been among art collectives living in industrial areas of cities, including Oakland, Calif., and Williamsburg in Brooklyn. Fellow Burners have moved into communal live-work lofts. Patrick Shearn, whose festival name is Eleven, moved into a loft in the Brewery, an arts complex in downtown Los Angeles, with a group of five friends he met at Burning Man. They named themselves Abundant Sugar.

To pay the rent, they hold dinners with circus performances and build whimsical sets for movies and Hollywood events, like a giant fake oak tree in their living area that was used as décor at the Emmy Awards last year. “Before this I was living in a two-bedroom apartment by myself in Santa Monica surrounded by jogging soccer moms and Range Rovers,” Mr. Shearn said. “I met a group at Burning Man and said to myself, ‘Why can’t I do this every day?’ ”

Surya Namaskar

best wake up stretch evah :)

Namaste