Asana of the Week: Supta Padangusthasana

A

Supta Padangusthasana (Reclining Foot Big-Toe Pose) is a fantastic supine posture for lengthening the hamstrings, opening the hips, and toning the abdominals.  I am quite fond of this posture in my own practice and consider it to be one of the highlights of the Ashtanga Primary series.

To come into Supta Padangusthasana, lie flat on your back with legs together and the spine straight.  Inhale as you lift your right leg and catch your big toe with your right hand.  Exhale as you pull the leg toward you and contract your abdominals, lifting the scapula from the mat, to touch your nose or chin to shin.  Create resistance between the arm and leg to activate the posture.  Press your left heel down into the floor.  This is position A.  Stay for 5-10 breaths.

Inhale as you lay your body down and straighten the arm, keeping your grip on the toe.  Exhale as you swing the leg to the right, opening the hip, and turn your gaze to the left.  Use your left hand to press the left hip/thigh firmly to the mat.  Keep both sides of the body long and, again, create resistance by pushing the foot into the grip of the hand.  This is position B.  Hold for 5-10 breaths and feel the foot drift closer to the floor with every exhalation as the adductors of the groin and inner thigh release.

B

To exit the pose, inhale the right leg back to center.  Exhale and touch nose or chin to shin for the length of the exhalation.  Inhale to extend the arm and leg, and exhale to let the leg down.  Repeat positions A and B for the same number of breaths on the opposite side.

If flexibility does not permit you to grasp the big toe with your leg straight, bend your knee as needed or use a strap around the foot.  There is a tendency, particularly in position B, for the opposite hip to lift away from the floor.  Do your best to keep both hips on the mat.

Primary Friday: Astronomy Hour

Another week of practice has come and gone.  Primary this morning was delightful.  The days and weeks have fallen into a pleasant rhythm and I have arrived at a place of familiarity with what has become my daily practice.

Until recently, Intermediate had felt more like someone else's practice.  My teachers advised me to split and move forward a few months ago.  At the time, I balked and dragged my heels, loathe to leave Primary behind, but eventually followed through on their advice.  Since the split, I have felt like a tourist on the mat, clumsily groping my way through the sequence, wondering where and how I might find that essential sense of ease.

I think I've found it.  Though the arc of my current practice -- Intermediate through Pincha -- is awkward, as though it builds and builds only to drop abruptly before the fire really starts to burn, it has grown and billowed into an experience all my own.  I know when to stride out, when to hold back, where to push and where to soften.  Some days, I might stop and work on Eka Pada for five minutes; other days, only five breaths.  Same goes for Kapo:  sometimes, it's the main event.  Sometimes, it's just another pose.  Inhale.  Exhale.  Five times.  Move on.

As I mature, the sense of urgency that seemed to feed the fire behind my practice is fading fast.  The primary emotion is gratitude.  I am grateful for this practice.  I am grateful for this body.  I am in no hurry to consume the series for the sake of its completion.  

Rather, I am fascinated by the processes as they unfold.  I observe awakenings and openings as one gazes at the stars:  Ooh, isn't that lovely.  Look at that one sparkle!  Sensations are born, they burn brightly, and then they fade away, leaving only a soft impression on the mind and a sense of depth as yet unknown.  It is an inward journey through the cosmos of human experience.  A great mystery, meant to be explored.  How lucky we are to have such a powerful lens through which to map this infinite space.

"There is only one drishti.  That is God."  -- Sri K. Pattabhi Jois

Free is Better

I found this aging beauty outside...

... and made this amazing red pepper hummus.

As always, the trash gods provide.

It's Not Sexy. It's Yoga.

'Nuff said.

"I feel joy for no good reason."

The above was a facebook status update made by a yoga student and friend of mine.  You better believe I "liked" that status as it came rolling through my page because -- you know what?  So do I!

ENORMOUS joy.

I am enjoying my practice so much that it's spilling into my day, sending me out into the world with a silly grin on my face and a heart swollen with... well... with love, damnit!  In this stage, the practice prepares me to act from a place of love.  It is beautiful.  New patterns are emerging to replace the old.  My creative energy is wandering from the page, from the mat, into my every moment and manifesting as authentic self-expression.

I hear poetry.  I dance at random.  I am cooking with a spirit of adventure.

At times, this is dangerous and may appear to be unwise, but there is a sense of what I can describe only as trust -- unwavering confidence both in myself and in the natural order -- which has opened me to entirely new levels of both intellectual and sensory experience.

I feel tingly all over.  My mind is vast and empty, at the ready.

Incidentally, I took my heels in Kapo this morning... by myself... for the first time ever... after two days rest.  Could there be a correlation between this quiet openness and the sudden space in Kapo?  Maybe.  It's not as if I haven't been working hard at the posture on and off for months, but the ease of it was startling.  I took my time with the hang back, then dove and walked and walked and walked... and realized I was still walking when I felt the stubble on my shin.  Woah.  It felt great, and not great in that intense, gripping way.  Just nice.  Comfortable.  I savored the experience for a few extra breaths.

Tittibhasana C

On top of that, the Titti bind is back.  My torrid love affair with Tittibhasana continues.  Especially position C.  I daydream about being there, my chest cavity giving way to the pressure of my legs like a melon in a vice...  Oh, GAWD!  Do it to me!!

I know it probably sounds awful, but Tittibhasana does something incredible to my lats, pecs, and shoulder girdle that no massage has ever done.  Sometimes, as I work to straighten the legs, the pressure cracks my shoulders in this strange, wonderful way and my ribs feel like they're bowing under the weight so that my intercostals pull and stretch.  It all makes me want to let out a low, primal pleasure groan or two.

Pincha is no longer a problem.  I have weened myself from all comfort objects and rituals regarding its practice.  Not insignificantly, I have also learned how to fall out of the posture painlessly by putting the head down and rolling out if I start to flip.  That being said, it might be time to set my sights on Karandavasana.  Onward!