Integrating Philosophy in Yoga Teaching and Practice by Wendy Teasdill;

Author:Wendy Teasdill;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Published: 2020-06-21T00:00:00+00:00

Method

Sitting with the sitting bones on a mat or a block, raise your arms. Without touching the feet at all, place the soles of the feet together well in front of you with the knees bent. Keeping the arms raised (at shoulder-height if there is any tingling in the fingertips) and the elbows loosely bent, use groovy moves with the arms to shift your weight from sitting bone to sitting bone. This engages the lateral pelvic floor muscles and opens up the hips without stressing them, enlisting the important symbiotic qualities of strength and flexibility.

Still without touching the feet, walk your sitting bones towards the feet. Come to a comfortable Baddha Konasana with the sitting bones acting as a conduit for your weight into the earth. It will depend on the make-up of your spine whether or not you are sitting on a block, folded blanket or any other such lift. Take the palms of the hands together at the heart-space in Anjali mudra and, pressing the palms together as you inhale, feel the upward ascent of energy through your spine: this is your divinity.

Exhaling, relax the pressure of your hands, relax your jaw and shoulders, and press the soles of your feet against one another. Your knees will lift a little, engaging the inner thigh muscles. As you inhale, the knees will drop slightly.

If one knee is dropping more than the other, place a folded cushion, ball or blanket under the thigh so the knees are symmetrical. Ensure that you are upright. If you tend to lean forwards this will be an unconscious compensation for the angle of the pelvis; either work more at opening the front of the body as you inhale or sit up on a block. You can also sit against a wall in this position (on or off a block), holding a block between the wall and the shoulder-blades to draw your attention to the upward mobility of the spine.

Breathing in, aspire to the divine; breathing out, enlist your subconscious demons as protectors. This posture has nothing to do with how close to the floor the knees are, and everything to do with creating equilibrium. By working internally, we can bridge the gap between reality and idealism – and exchange the impediment of pride for the reward of equanimity.

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