Forgiveness.... lower body loops of Anusara Yoga

Tuesday's Anusara Yoga class at metric Yoga
Theme: forgiveness

We all make mistakes, cause wreckage and have a history. Let go of blame, guilt and shame and open that space up to LOVE and UNDERSTANDING. Forgive! Forgive!

It has been said that “to forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.” When we hold onto resentment, whether we realize it or not, it becomes a deep pain within us. That pain can manifest itself in different ways that can negatively impact our lives. Whatever you are holding onto tightly, let it go, and forgive! Forgive! Forgive! Forgive! Yourself and others. Don’t let hate be the story of your life. Choose to forgive.

The first paragraph of Shantaram, by Gregory David Roberts, teaches us to discern between hate and forgiveness, no matter what the circumstance. “It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while i was chained to a wall and being tortured. I realized somehow through the screaming in my mind that even in that shackled, bloody helplessness I was still free, free to hate the men who were torturing me, or to forgive them. It doesn’t sound like much, I know, but in the flinch and bite of the chain, when it’s all you’ve got, that freedom is a universe of possibility. And the choice you make, between hating and forgiving, can become the story of your life.” Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram
Ancedote: Martin Luther King day
Apex: hanumanasana
Heart quality: forgiveness

More quotes:
- "I forgive, heal and release everything that consciously or unconsciously could delay or block the complete evolution of my being." Mario Liani
-“Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain but it takes character and self control to be understanding and forgiving.” Dale Carnegie
-"We must developand maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies." Martin Luther King, Jr
Principle of emphasis: lower body loops. Ankle loop (creates arches, sets foundation for rest of body) ankle loop (times calf, prevents higher extension) thigh loop (governs health of low back, creates lumbar curve) pelvic loop (tones low belly, stabilizes and maintained lumbar curve, grounds energy)
1. Ankle Loop – Starts at the base of the shin bone just above the ankle. It moves down the back of the heel, forward along the bottom of the foot, then back up through the center of the arch to the front of the shin.
2. Shin Loop – Starts at the back of the shinbone just above the ankle. It moves up the back of the calf muscle to the top of the shins just below the knee, forward through the top of the shin, then down the front of the shin back to the base of the shin.
3. Thigh Loop – Starts at the top of the thighbone in the core of the pelvis (pelvic focal point). It moves down the back of the thigh to the top of the calf muscles, forward through the top of the shin, and then up the front of the leg through the lower abdomen back to the Focal Point.
4. Pelvic Loop – Starts in the core of the abdomen in line with the middle of the lower spine and a place just below the navel. It moves down from the middle of the lumbar to the buttocks in line with the bottom of the sacrum, forward through the floor of the pelvis (pelvic focal point) to the top of the pubic bone, then up the lower abdomen to just below the navel. The Pelvic Loop has the same direction of rotation as the Thigh Loop. However, they have opposite effects on alignment of the body. The Thigh Loop moves the top of the thighs back. While the Pelvic Loop moves the top of the thighs forward in opposition.


Sequence:
Warm up
Sun salutation one legged from down dog- Lunge- urdhva dandasana- tadasana 4x
Basic
Tadasana lower body loops demo
Tadasana- half moon stretch
High runner lunge twist - scandasana
Parsvotonasana- manual AL- standing splits- handstand hops TL
Uttanasana AL SL TL (bend legs- work loops- keep actions- straighten legs)   3x
Harder
prasarita padotonasana  (bend legs- work loops- keep actions- straighten legs) - Trikonasana  (bend legs- work loops- keep actions- straighten legs) - half moon (bend legs- work loops- keep actions- straighten legs)
 High runners lunge - urdhva dandasana- warrior 3- standing splits - handstand hops TL
Pigeon- add quad stretch
Apex
Half hanuman - hanumanasana
Cool down
Bridge
Bridge wall feet out TL PL windshield wiper
Seated Dandasana
Pachimotonasana
Partner supta loops partner stands on yogis upper thighs to root thighs back (thigh loop) yogi bends elbows and presses elbows into ground to lift heart (shoulder loop)
Supta loops
Shavasana
Meditation

The Practice

Last night I taught “The Practice” at the Yoga Center. The practice is normally 3 hours and is different than a class and a workshop in that it is not led; it is a practice where the student and the teacher all practice together. The teacher gives less ques and calls out the poses. I really enjoying going to the practice because I find it really effective, by the end of three hours I can get myself into some really incredible poses and I leave feeling great and feel like I learned so much about asana, philosophy, and about myself. I have always loved being a student of the practice and it is very exciting to have taught one. The practice at the yoga center was only 2 hours, but two hours of fullness and heart! There were 9 students, at the beginning of class one of the students an older man said he would have to leave an hour early. I said that was just fine (in my head I thought maybe he was disappointed that I was subbing and was trying to get out of it). The whole class the students were laughing, we even told some jokes. The end of the class came and the man never left after I said “I thought you needed to leave early” and he responded saying “he was having too much fun”. How awesome!


Theme: having courage to face our demons. I told a very quick summary of the Ramayana, about how Ram a human reincarnation of Vishnu was able to defeat Ravana a ten headed demon whom Brahma had granted immortality from everything except from human. In the end Ram kills Ravana by stabbing his navel. This story inspired us to fight on demons off our matt and our mat with all our human strength. I also read a wonderful quote by Abdi Assadi “You must have the courage to see into what is dark in your being in order to know what needs to be transformed.”

Main universal principle of alignment focus: inner/expanding spiral and outer/contracting spiral.

(I wanted to talk about how these principles can be applies to more than just our body, how our inner spiral is us looking into the dark, having the courage to look at our life and our habits and see what is not serving us. The inner spiral is Ram searching the earth for Ravana. It is the expanding spiral so it is looking at a lot of information, kind of like zooming out to look at a map so you can see a lot of land. And then the contracting spiral is like us “zooming in” to one point that needs to be transformed. The contracting spiral is Ram killing Ravana. I ended up not talking about this though because I didn’t think would uplift the students in the room)

The Practice:
High runner lunge
Half Hanumanasana
Vasisthasana
ardha chandrasana stretch
AMS-> jump butt to wall
Surya A 5x
Vira 2-> rev. vira
Mod parsvak-> vira 2-> rev. vira
Parsvak-> rev. vira
Ardha chandrasana-> vira 2->clasp->fold to inside of leg
Parsvak bound
anjaneyasana forearms down-> ½hanumanasana
titibasana prep
parsvotanasana w/ block (ankle loop**love this)
Variation of malasana + visvamitrasana
navasana
Mod. Eka Pada Koundiyanasana II 2x
Balance knee up isometric work-> figure 4
AMV at wall (working on pull one leg leg toward belly, and extending out through both heels)
AMV in middle of room (great success)
Eka Pada Rajakapotasana
Hanumanasana
Compass pose-> astavakrasana
mod. Visvamitrasana
Visvamitrasana
eka pada koundiyanasana II-> astavakrasana-> eka pada kouniyanasana II
Fishy bridge
Janusirsasana
Sputa femur bone back
Shavasana

Ankle loop and Skull loop

Recently I have been playing with the loops. The “loops” are a series of specific, interconnected trajectories of energy in our bodies. Just like the universal principles of alignment, we want to be practicing all seven loops in every pose we do. By being aware of these interconnected loops in the body we can start to notice how we hold our body while practicing yoga asana or the way we habitually hold our body in life. With this awareness we can use the loops so we my create more health, stability, longevity and freedom in the body. Although it is important to focus on all seven loops, recently I have been focusing on the ankle loop (base of the shin bone back) and skull loop (pallet of the mouth back and up).

Ankle loop is very important because if you don’t have the base of your shin bones anchored back toward your heel, you will be ungrounded and you will mess up the foundation thereby throwing all other loops out of balance. Here is a brief summary of how not having a good ankle loop you will throw off the six other loops above it.

If the base of your shin bone is not back (ankle loop) you will set off a dominoes effect of imbalance all the way up toward you head…The top of your shin bones will probably be pushed back (opposite of shin loop=hyperextension at knee)..The top of the femur bone will be pushed forward (opposite of thigh loop = hurting hip muscles, psoas, iliofemoral ligament and causes low back pain and Sacroiliac joint pain)….The pelvis will rotate forward sticking the belly out (opposite of pelvis loop= removes the low dorsal curve in the back pushing sacrum down and out causing compression in low back)….The bottom ribs will push forward (opposite of kidney loop= compressing the kidneys)…the shoulders round forward as if you were protecting the heart in battle (opposite of shoulder loop= causing lots of shoulder and neck problems)…lastly the pallet of the mouth will move forward (opposite of skull loop= compresses the neck + shoulders forward and chin forward is just plan painful). You can see by just rooting the base of the shin bones back toward the heel you can help create a lovely dominoes effect up the loops.

I have enjoyed focusing on ankle loop and skull loop at the same time because the skull loop is like the cherry on top. Skull loop starts in the upper palate and flows back to the base of the occiput, where it then lifts up the back of the skull, creating lengthen in the neck. Whenever I add a good skull loop to a pose I feel confident and radiant. Adding skull loop also helps maintain shoulder loop, keeping the shoulders integrated behind the heart.

Try this for a moment. Sit up or stand up and look forward as you draw the tips of the shoulders toward the back of the heart, really “plug in”. Notice how this feels in the shoulders and in the heart (shoulders probably feel integrated, heart probably feels open). Now drop you chin toward your chest, this is the opposite of skull loop (I like to do the completely wrong action sometimes so I know what the results feel like). After dropping your chin toward your chest, did you feel the shoulders slightly lose the integration and the heart slightly sinks? Even if you use really good muscular energy when you take your chin toward your chest you will lessen your shoulder loop. Try this now, plug in and then pull the pallet slightly back and up and lift the ears up. Do you feel how the shoulders stay rooted, the heart stays lifted, and maybe you can experience more inner body bright?

I really like focusing on ankle and skull loop together because it reminds me to stay grounded and reminds me to create space confidently. I said this earlier but it is important to practice all seven loops all the time. Even when I am focusing on ankle loop and skull loop doesn’t mean I stop doing shin loop, pelvis loop, kidney loop, and shoulder loop. Here are some fun poses I have been working with: handstand, headstand, forearm balance, side crow, titibasana, trikonanasan, urdhva danurasana, chaturanga, half moon, parvrita Parsvakonasana, Parsvakonasana, arm balances, Setu Bandha Sarvangasana, side plank with extended leg….

Hope you have a nice day