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. :)

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. :)