Life, yoga and other adventures

Click here for my general blog, Life, yoga and other adventures

Wednesday 20 June 2018

'I'm like a bird'

It was a challenge at the gym today. The car park was heaving, because there was a conference on next door; the online booking system is still showing classes are full when they're not; and the air conditioning wasn't working. It was a sticky start in many ways.

Because the room was so hot, we agreed to keep the doors open. One door opens on to the corridor leading to the changing rooms and the swimming pool, so there was a constant stream of folk going past our session. Many were talking loudly into their phones and quite a few stopped to have a look at us with our tails in the air.

The other door opens on to a reception area, where people were chatting and clinking coffee cups, and loud music was playing. We acknowledged the distraction, but tried to keep our focus inwards, like good yogis. I smiled on the outside. Highlight of the session came when we were moving into  Eagle posture, just as Lynyrd Skynrd's 'Freebird' came on.

Honestly, you couldn't make it up.

Sunday 10 June 2018

Taking flight

There was a lovely mis-hearing in class this weekend, when a student thought she'd been asked to make 'evil arms'. The request was actually for Eagle arms.

Mind you, Garudasana can be a tricky blighter and is definitely not one you could pick up from a book - for example, in Asana, Pranayama Mudra Bandha by Swami Satyananda Saraswait, the go-to text for many teachers and from where I've taken the accompanying image, the instructions are:

Bend the elbows and bring them in front of the chest. Twist the forearms around each other with the left elbow remaining below. Place the palms together to resemble an eagle's beak. 

Got that?! Students blessed with an ample bosom might fall at the first instruction. I maintain you could simply bring the backs of the hands together and still reap the benefits in terms of awareness and focus. Find a good teacher to talk you through the finer points. It's not worth tying yourself in knots over it.