Lotus
As we move into fall, we enter what's known in ayurveda as "vata" season. Ayurveda literally means the "science of life" and it's a 5,000 year old holistic system of Indian medicine, which teaches that good health depends on maintaining a balance between the three elements or doshas: vata, pitta and kapha. Vata is the air element, pitta is the fire element and kapha is the earth element.
As the Earth begins to cool from summer and we enter into fall, the vata element is dominant and if we are not mindful with the amount of sleep we're getting, the kind of foods we're eating, even the kind of yoga practice we're doing, we can aggravate the wind element in us and feel more stressed and anxious.
Throughout the years I have been dabbling here and there with ayurveda and find it utterly fascinating and logical. I love trying to figure out what doshas people are and what doshas my kitties are. I swear my cat Butterscotch has to be kapha- he literally sleeps 20 hours a day! I have been told by several well known Ayurvedic doctors that I am kapha-pitta and it totally makes sense to me. I am a heavy sleeper, I eat a ton and when I am out of balance I tend to feel sad, not so much angry (pitta) or anxious (vata). Please check out my friend Cate Stillman's website (she is a wonderful Clinical Ayurvedic Specialist and Certified Anusara Yoga teacher) for more information or further learning (www.yogahealer.com).
Inspired by Ayurveda and what is happening with the seasons, I've been teaching with the theme of grounding ourselves. It's a wonderful quality to teach because whenever I have a theme that is mindful, I literally feel myself trying to become what I teach. I took the action of setting the femur heads deep into the socket as a metaphor for feeling grounded in the body. Also, we worked on padmasana or lotus pose, the quintessential yoga pose. Although it can be a tricky pose for us Westerners to do with our tight hips, this pose when done correctly, actually helps ground the femurs by the action of having the foot press back against the groins.
Theme: Grounding
Highlights:
*Love teaching hip openers and thoughtful poses. They are my favorite poses ever to teach. I can do them all day.
*We focused on getting the femur heads back and I kept reminding class to notice how in different poses, moving the thighbones back can be confusing in space. That is: In a high lunge, thigh loop in the back leg, means lifting the back leg up towards the sky and in the front leg means bending the front knee to a 90º angle. Or in plank pose, moving the thighs back in space means lifting the butt up towards the sky and then adding pelvic loop.
*Did ardha padmasana in handstand and many found it easier to balance than regular handstand.
*Did down dog with one leg in padmasana and then into vasisthasana, which becomes a crazy pose known as kasyapasana.
*Did restorative bridge, the one with a block in the lowest setting under the sacrum. From there, we lifted our legs up and tried half lotus or full lotus. In my own personal experience, when my S.I. joint (sacroiliac joint) goes out of alignment, this pose (lotus on top of the block) feels delicious for my back.
*Began to wind down by doing a slow surya namaskar with a block between our thighs (yummy) and a couple of students today found great release in doing cobra with a block between the thighs (Lia!). Often we forget to work our legs, especially our adductor muscles in backbends. And then what happens is the outer spiral takes over, the tail bone action takes over and we compress the lower back. A block between the thighs ensures that you are using your adductor muscles and you are not letting the gluteus muscle group overpower them.
*Finished with lotus or half lotus and then savasana.
*Love hip openers.
Something to work on:
*Class today was a little bit different. Sometimes us Anusara yoga teachers teach the same things over and over, that is: handstands, backbends, backbends, handstands. And as much fun as that is, and believe me I adore it and it makes me feel all celebratory inside, I find it important as a teacher to bring in really different poses and surprising sequencing. Many students today thanked me for class, saying that they've never done some of the poses we did. I guess what I want to remember is to keep playing around with the structure and continue to find my own voice.
Read this quote today:
"Flowers... put up no resistance to attack,
suffer evil rather than inflicting it,
imitate carnal love,
multiply without fighting, and die without complaining...
They have realized the dream of Buddha:
To desire nothing.
To tolerate everything.
To be absorbed in oneself to the depths of the unconscious will."
J. Rambosson
One last thing:
I'm leaving in a few days to study with John Friend and Ram Dass in Hawaii. In yesterday's post, I mentioned and thanked several teachers who are so graciously subbing for me. I missed one: Jennifer Gaecke. Thank you so much!
Posted by Moving Through My Vinyasa at 9/20/2009 6:35 PM 
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: ayurveda padmasana
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: ayurveda padmasana
I loved class today! I'm sorry I didn't get to say g'bye afterwards, but I have felt deliciously grounded ALL DAY because of it, no fooling. I'm a Pitta-Vata so I need all the grounding I can get!!!
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Hey Maria, sound like a beautiful class, sorry I wasn't there, but reading about is so cool in light of the synchronicity of two recent events (there is no coincidence). First, I love it when you read us poetry that relates to the theme of class, and Rambosson's poem of Flowers was gorgeous, and practicing to ground ourselves is such a foundational theme it can be part of every class. So yesterday in Hagar's wonderful class on the first day of Fall she dedicated the class to the unconditional love of the Earth and it's ultimate grounding, the ground itself which supports and nurtures us all as we plant our seeds for the future. So I was thinking about the glories of earth, started reading the new Pat Conroy novel, and on pg. 3 was the most marvelous passage that brought it all together, as the main character talks about his father: "His curiosity about the earth ennobled his every waking moment. His earth was billion-footed, with unseen worlds in every drop of water and every seedling and every blade of grass. The earth was so generous. It was the same earth that he prayed to because it was his synonym for God." Thank you Maria for always nurturing the seedlings in all of us.
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