You are currently browsing all posts tagged with 'Roots'

Yoga – the Foot …

  • February 6, 2009 at 12:52 am

The Starting Point

Today I want to talk about the starting point … the Foot … ‘to stand on our own two feet’ … something I heard as a child … it didn’t really sink in … ahh!

Tadasana

With regards to Yoga we are talking about doing that on every level … as being in Tadasana (Mountain Pose) for example enables us to have a moment of calm … and re-engage with what it might have felt like to walk for the first time … A memory that will be long gone for most everyone and what’s the purpose … Its about taking things for granted and often poor habit has formed unbeknown to us. Yoga generally brings us back into the physical body so we can check it out and see how we’re doing! And start to work on any adjustments that may be required …

Grounding

Here is something really great to try and I wouldn’t think it has a Yoga pose name … as I think its roots may well lie in the field of massage … I learned this with two teachers on separate occasions Gary Carter in Brighton and Chris Yorke at Rhodes Minnis.

  1. You start this by standing in Tadasana … and just allow yourself to come into an awareness of the body, especially the legs and feet …
  2. Once you have gained this sense …. you can sit on the ground …
  3. There isn’t a correct side to start with … whatever works for you … but for the sake of description I shall begin with the right foot …

The Method

  1. Take the right foot into the left hand by cradling the leg
  2. Take the fingers and intertwine them between the toes … as though you were intertwining your fingers with each other only this is a toes of the right foot with the fingers of the left hand
  3. Gently bend the fingers back towards the toes so the toes go back as far as they comfortably will. Close the eyes if you like … I find it aids relaxation … And hold for as long as feels comfortable
  4. Now take the fingers and toes the other way … Same again
  5. Turn the foot and hand in a clockwise rotation for around 5-10 turns as slowly as you can … the slower you turn them the deeper it works and the nicer it feels
  6. Then turn them anti-clockwise … similarly
  7. Now stand back into Tadasana … and feel the difference
  8. Do the same thing all over again on the other side

I would love to hear from anyone who tries this and what your experience of the worked foot felt like … Drop me a line …. I look forward to your comments.

Jane

Care to leave a comment?

Vanda Scaravelli – Yoga for ALL …

  • January 15, 2009 at 12:23 am

BKS Iyengar

If you’re a Yoga fan … the chances are that you have attended a class or watched a DVD where the teacher was influenced by Vanda Scaravelli. She was born in Florence in 1908 into an artistic and intellectual background and died only a few years ago, in her ’90’s with her extraordinary flexibility in tact, due to her lifelong yoga practice.

She learned Yoga, during the 1940’s when BKS Iyengar visited her mountain lodge, alongside other notables of the day like Yehudi Menuhin. She claimed in her book Awakening the Spine that she only began to learn properly when the guests left and she was able to develop her personal practice. And this observation illustrates the underlying philosophy of her yoga teaching.

The Tree Body

tree the spine nikuwka080700040 Vanda Scaravelli Yoga for ALL ...She likens the human body … upright where most other creatures are not … to a tree where the waist area approximately equates to that of a tree where it separates the trunk from the branches.

If you were to stand upright in Mountain Pose (Tadasana) you would get a sense of this. You simply place your feet hip-width apart and gently root your feet into the ground. In her book Scaravelli describes this foundation of all good yoga practice thus …

“In Tadasana the body is perfectly still. Standing on the back of the heels your weight slowing sinks down. If you stand long enough, the lower part of the body, from the waist to the heels, gravitates, you will discover that the upper part of the body becomes, light, free and straight. This starting position can correct and adjust spinal problems such as scoliosis and arthritis.

To do the pose correctly stand on the back of the heels with the spine straight, knees extended and chin in. The weight must be distributed equally on both legs,

This is the most important pose. Do it correctly and all the others will follow.”

Give it a Go

kid standing with arms in air dmbaker060600045 Vanda Scaravelli Yoga for ALL ...

if you look at this child you can see how much he’s stretching his arms upwards and away from his feet. The act of stretching takes us wholly away from grounding (the act of calm and focus).  He’s laughing and excited about life, and our aim is to have that joy, but from our centre (not control).  One method for achieving this is Yoga and the starting point of Mountain Pose (Tadasana) provides that start, as stated earlier. We often don’t realize how ungrounded we are as we go about life, mostly in habit, existing in our dreamlike conscious-state, carrying out most actions on automatic pilot.

If you like a challenge, which stillness is for most of us, then have a go at this and who knows what you might find.  This pose will start to inform you as to how much you can release and highlight the areas that may just require your attention.

And one aspect is our physical sense, as anyone who’s had a massage knows we carry most of our tension in the shoulder and neck areas, and likewise just how good it feels to free up those knots.

This is a simple and very effective pose … give it a try …

Jane

Care to leave a comment?