Utthita Parsvokanasana

This is one posture I really like, many of my students don’t share my enthusiasm for this posture and it is a hard one. What I like about it is the nice stretch along the side trunk and the stretch of your hips and leg when you really press into the outer edge of the back foot. 

To start stand in Tadasana jump or step  your feet apart, make sure you are wide enough, feet parallel, arms out at shoulder height, pull up at the knee caps and tuck the tailbone in, turn the left foot in slightly and the right foot in compleatly, heel inline with the instep. Hips and trunk facing forward, bend the right leg to 90 degree, placing the right hand at the outside of the ankle,  ( make sure the knee don’t over shoot the ankle) if chest facing the floor use a brick. Left hand on the hip, turn the trunk and raise the right arm up, keep pressing into the outer edge of the back foot, turn the arm and bring it over head, stretch into the fingertips at the same time you press the outer edge of the back foot into the floor and you’ll feel a lovely stretch along the side trunk and hip area and other places depending on where your tight areas are.

If you haven’t practice for a few days or if you have done other activities like running/horse riding etc you can really feel how the muscle stretch. In the beginning we tend to not bend the leg enough but it will be easier to hold the pose and maybe in the beginning your body isn’t open enough so you just have to work with what you have, but we tend to stay in our comfort zone, so challenge yourself go a bit deeper but not forcing, be kind to your body but not to kind…😉

Things don’t always turn out the way we want…

Today was the first International Day of Yoga, as I’m on my holiday I couldn’t teach a yoga class, but I had planned to join in with fellow Iyengar yoga practioneers and do the sequence Geeta Iyengar had designed as a tribute to Guruij B.K.S Iyengar.

But the universe had other plans, as I started to get a migraine headache in the early evening yesterday, which was getting worse and kept waking me up. Now I have to say I do get mild migraines and I usually only get them once every year or so and haven’t had one in the  last two years. I do get sensitive to light but not to bad. I had promised my sons to go crab fishing and my husband to show him the west coast. When I went to bed last night with a pounding headache I knew it was no way I’ll be doing yoga in the morning and I said to myself, maybe I can do it later on.

When I woke up again with a pounding headache I finally got up to get some headache tablets and a cold, wet face cloth to soothe my head. I thought to myself it’s no way I can do the yoga sequence I was suppose to do, and how was I going to be able to drive the whole  one hour and 20 min drive to the coast, I told my husband we’ll be going as I knew how dissapointed the lads would me, he offered to drive even though we drive on the right side in Sweden and he has never done it. After a while I did get up and my head felt a bit better. Then after another hour, I was almost back to my own self. 

We hit the road and got there, pain killers safely in my bags (don’t really like to take them, but when you get these headaches you just know they won’t go away easy ), after a walk on the boardwalk we got to the place to fish for the crabs, but couldn’t get any mussels, so me and Alvin walked back to see if we could buy some, I could feel the pounding headache slowly making itself noticeable. Finally back armed with €6-7 worth of mussels, I had to get some more tablets for my head. Which helped again, I even managed to get a few yoga asanas in so at least I joined in the celebrations of the first International Day of Yoga, even if it wasn’t what I had planned.

Driving home I could feel the pounding start again and it’s finally almost gone, so looking forward to wake up with no headache tomorrow… 

   

  

Practice during holiday time

Its very hard to keep up a practice during holiday, but even if you practice a small bit, it’s better than not doing it at all. 

I try to at least do some sun salutations, but I don’t beat myself up if I don’t do it, after all it’s the holiday but at the same time you don’t want to totally give up your practice as it will leave you stiffer and will also be harder to get back into your practice. 

The hardest thing I found is the action packed days ( when ur on holidays with kids) and the late nights, that  makes it almost impossible to get up early for your practice, I usually let my meditation practice slide a bit and have lie-ins and then I do a short practice if I’m tired and a longer one when I feel up to it. But don’t fall for the temptation of extending your holiday as it will be harder, harder. Just decide that after the holiday your getting back to a proper routine. 😃

Tailbone in, floating ribs back……

To continuing from the post about the tailbone, once you know how to correctly tuck your tailbone in (or at the same time) we have to make sure the thighs are moving back and the floating ribs (the lower part of the ribs, name comes from the fact that these ribs are just that, “floating”, or at least part of them, they don’t connect to the sternum/breastbone like the other ribs)  are moving back. In the beginning this might seem or feel like it’s contradicting itself, for me (I have very tight shoulders and tight thoracic spine) it felt like, “how can I do this it doesn’t make sense, if i move this in this will move out etc.” But as you start practicing the pieces will fall into place, but for some it might take longer, but be patient when your finally able to do all these it will be so simple. But it does take practice and perseverance!   Usually when you have an over flexible lumbar spine, the spine compensate and make your thoracic spine stiffer and you get rounded shoulders. (off course this might not be the case, but most of the time it is, but the compensation might be somewhere else). The body will always compensate stiff/flexible areas or injury’s. Ok, so how do we do this, when you tuck your tailbone in (posterior tilt of pelvis, make sure you don’t clench your buttocks), you have at the same time, bring the navel towards the spine, bring the thighs back, bring floating ribs back and at the same time lifting the chest towards the ceiling, which will bring your shoulders back (you might have to help moving your shoulder blades down depending how forward your shoulders are etc.). You also have to work your legs, kneecaps up, feet pressing into floor. If you do all this, during Urdhva Hastasana (arms over head) and Urdhva Baddhanguliyasana (hands interlocked over head) it might mean that your arms might not go alongside your ears, in fact you might have to bring your arms slightly forward in the beginning while you learn the correct alignment. If your arms won’t straighten use a belt around the elbows, this can be useful even if your arms are straight. It’s far better to learn to do this with the right alignment, than keep doing it the old way, yes, maybe your arms might go past your ears, but you won’t improve the posture. It is well worth the effort as you will bring this to all the other asanas (postures). This awareness will also improve your everyday posture so do spend time learning this!

The elusive tailbone…..

It took me a long time, a few years actually to properly learn how to tuck my tailbone in or maybe more correctly said learning to create posterior tilt of the pelvis (see pic below). Tucking the tailbone in can mean a few things, but generally speaking in yoga class  (or at least in my classes) it’s the posterior tilt of the pelvis, which means that the hips moving slightly back and the pubic bone moving forward and up towards the navel, this also flattens the curve of your lumbar spine. To learn the correct way of doing this takes practice, and it will also tone your lower abdomen, it will  really be hugely beneficial for your yoga practice, but don’t worry if you don’t get it straight away, like I said it took be a long time and a lot of practice, but saying that when I really made the effort to try harder it was well worth it. It can also take time due to the muscles are tight and it takes time to stretch the tight muscles and strengthen the weak.

This will have a huge effect if you suffer from lower backache, which usually comes from an exaggerated curve of your lumbar spine. I used to suffer a lot from lower backache, when I started yoga it more or less disappeared except for when I had to stand for long periods or when I was on my feet more or less the whole day, until the penny finally dropped and I realised, that bringing my pubic bone towards the navel and the navel towards the spine it was an instant relief. I started to practice it thru out the day and started walking like that, and the more I practiced it started to become a habit and now I very rarely get lower backache and if I do I know its due to I have “stuck my tailbone out” instead of in. Now this might not work for everyone and of course lower backache can be due to other things, this is just one of them.

To do this imagine its a zip from the pubic bone towards the navel, and then zip the pubic bone towards the navel, and imagine the navel towards the spine is like a drawstring bag, (it’s not to suck the tummy in, this is a much more gentle way) so zip up (pubic bone towards navel) and close the drawstring bag (navel towards the spine).

You can practice this anywhere and the more you do the easier it will be, and then you can use it in your yoga practice, especially in your back bends where if you have a flexible lumbar (like myself) its extra important. I kept getting a slight sore lower back in back bends, my teachers kept telling me to tuck the tailbone in and I did, and they kept saying do it more, and when I finally did (I thought I did it enough, but it wasn’t enough) it was a huge relief and now I hardly ever get sore and if i do it’s a reminder to tuck my tailbone in more.

One of those days….

Its one of those days, when I feel fed up and tired of picking up after others (kids and husband). I’m sure you know what I mean, and the endless mum, mum, where is this where is that…..a lot of the days I don’t really mind just answering where everything is and how is it that we always know, well at least 9 out of 10 times where things are…..

Our head is like one big organizer, we have to know who is doing what when, when to have the right clothes washed and dried for the right occasion to just mention a few, and again mum,mum where are my football socks, have you seen my jumper and the list goes on. Does our kids/husbands just take the easy option and ask us first before they look, or when they ask where is the “measuring cup”, I say in the cupboard beside the dishwasher, hubby opens the door look in and say where I can’t see it, my answer is as always behind something and wow there it was yet again 😉

I suppose this is just the way it is, but some days its just more tiring than others, and what is the story with men and their tea, every time they walk into the kitchen they flick the kettle on at least a few times….when drinking tea out and about, it has to be hot, hot otherwise it ruins their tea time 😉 I do admit I’m not the best person making tea which my husband has told me a few times, or rather that I don’t put my heart in it and this is probably true as I come from a nation of coffee drinkers, but in fairness he is right, I have made him tea, boiling the kettle just to be occupied with something else and then go back and make him his tea and to his disgust its lukewarm (an Irishman’s nightmare) or when I put the teabag in without giving it a good stir, even my 8 year old prefer his Dad’s tea making. I have also made tea in the teapot on two or more occasions and forgotten to put the very important teabag in the pot (again I was distracted) when we have had guests over, so my husband is right I don’t put my heart in it, but I am getting better 🙂