by Hilary Lindsay | Jan 10, 2016 | anatomy, Asana, Healthy Living, medical yoga, therapeutic yoga, Yoga, yoga class, yoga teacher, yoga teaching |
Below and also here is a link to an excellent article on plantar fasciitis. I’ve given you yoga postures to help with strength and flexibility to assist you. For strength: Tadasana or Mountain Pose Standing with feet slightly apart lift all ten toes to feel the arches rise. Press into the base of the toes. Look at them. Are the little toes coming up as well? Put toes down and maintain the lift of the arches. Lift the arches of the inner knees, the inner groins and lift the inner arches of the hip bones. Pick up the skin of the legs and feet. Pick up the abdomen. To increase awareness, raise your arms, firm the muscle to the bone and pick up the skin of the chest. Soften so there is action without strain. Feel and hold the memory with steady breaths. For flexibility: Vjrasana or Hero Pose and Modifications Kneel on blanket with knees together. Press calves back and sit on heels. Re-position by lifting hips and holding heels together to sit back again with sit bones behind heels which will press the heels forward. If the ankles can stretch more, put a rolled blanket under toes and sit again. If the ankles are tender and need support, put a rolled blanket under the ankles and sit again. If the knees are stiff have another rolled blanket behind the knees or a folded blanket under the buttocks between the feet. Binding the ankles with a strap is the final stretch for the inner ankles but not necessary. You just need manageable sensation. To stretch the outer...
by Hilary Lindsay | Dec 22, 2015 | nashville yoga, Nature, Poetry, Prose, Social Commentary, society, therapeutic yoga, Yoga, yoga community, Yoga Philosophy, Yoga psychology, yoga teaching |
She approaches me after class. Tells me she’s in law school. She and her peers are suffering from P.T.S.D. she says. From life. She’s responding to a comment I made in class. I consider it pure luck that I have a positive position on the life we share at the moment. Things need to break. The shit storm of happenstance and wrong actions that are instigating an onslaught of information on disaster is also precipitating a wellspring of solutions. That is a wellspring of love. That is the breath we choose. The human condition shifts with awareness and it changes with our reactions. I see many hopeful reactions despite the barrage of sorrowful scenarios. We are looking for ways out. We are wielding sledgehammers. We are scraping peeling paint. As radical politicians move the conversation from the usual banter, awareness grows. As spokesmen, leaders and newscasters inform people on pollution, poverty and violence against each other and the planet, quiet numbers choose to make things better in small and large ways. It’s a life of small steps. We just step faster now. Diverse paths are rapidly emerging. Some of us will be sacrificed no doubt. It was never easy to be aware. But it would be less glorious to not be. To blame nature’s weather or planets for our discomfort is shortsighted as well. Instability is nature itself. The perfect day will not last no matter how we pray for that. Welcome to your place in the world. To smash and break it until it is right for you without harming any creature is artful. Perhaps that’s why the...
by Hilary Lindsay | Nov 13, 2015 | anatomy, Asana, Healthy Living, medical yoga, nashville yoga, Physiology, therapeutic yoga, Yoga, yoga class, yoga teacher, yoga teaching |
Stand in Mountain Pose, Tadasana Feet root to the ground, tail roots to the heels, head rises from the tail, chest rises and arms draw down Shift to one leg and raise the other foot in the air, knee bent Where does your tongue go? Is it at the roof of the mouth? Is there hardness to the breath? Can you feel the pinch of the pelvic floor and the tightening of the diaphragm? This is the drawing in of the sphincter muscles that correspond to the bandhas Are you gripping? Stand down Step forward purposefully as if over your own arch and raise the other foot, knee bent Is the tongue in a different place? Is it at the bottom of the mouth? Is there softness to the breath? Can you feel the light lift of the pelvic floor and the soft expanse of the diaphragm? Is this easier? When there is too much effort, the trunk clamps down on itself and confines you. When you try to gain space in a posture done with wrong effort, that space may not be good space but compressed space. There will be a lack of prana or grace. When you include space when creating your pose, that space will be good. There will be a sense of prana or good flowing energy and grace. Asana is interpreted as good space. The bandha tone comes naturally when the muscles are directed correctly. This is a combination of sthira and sukkha which is effort and ease. Good space during effort is described by the bandhas. The bandhas...
by Hilary Lindsay | Oct 11, 2015 | Asana, medical yoga, nashville yoga, therapeutic yoga, Yoga, yoga class, yoga teacher, yoga teaching |
Students of yoga benefit from a teacher’s eyes upon them. Teachers don’t usually see their students naked (just skate over that statement please) and seasoned teachers don’t need to but you can learn volumes observing your naked body in front of a mirror. Before I knew I my hip had become arthritic and before I had herniated a disc doing a backbend with a secretly too stuck hip and before I had torn the rotator cuff opposite the stuck hip pulling vines, I watched my body shift and ignored it. I wasn’t in pain. My image was just less symmetrical. When did that happen? I chose to ignore it as I am a steadfast practitioner of denial. A massage therapist noted my ribs shifted right and hips shifted left. A chiropractor’s x-ray revealed a compromised sacrum but it didn’t feel like much until I just misused myself up. Pain forced me to take action. Naked in front of the mirror I stood in Tadasana. My front line veered right. The inseam of my right inner thigh rose several inches longer than the left. My right hip was higher, my right waist shorter. My right foot turned out and dropped in the interior arch. My right collar bone was shorter. Tree pose, Extended Angle, Warrior I and II shined light. I added a rearview mirror to see my lumbar spine snake right before it disappeared in Ardha Uttanasana. (Half forward fold.) I was turned and twisted. I stood at ease to view the habits of my form and reintegrated my structure from the ground...
by Hilary Lindsay | Sep 27, 2015 | Asana, Meditation, nashville yoga, therapeutic yoga, Yoga, yoga class, Yoga Philosophy, yoga teacher, yoga teaching |
Robots hacked your home phone. You know, that old clunker nailed to wall that you keep for the last touch of we’re a family here. You keep it for your mother and you keep it for midnight emergencies next to your head in the bed. It’s got a virus called robocall. It’s the automated voice in your head that beats you down by repeating the same things over and over even though you’re not buying, even though you will never close that deal. It doesn’t respect your busy day or your need for dreamless sleep. It’s the ring of a new world, the world which agrees that it’s fine to call anyone at any hour for any reason. It’s the ring of limitless which you thought was freedom but is someone else’s freedom to imprison you. That someone else is you. You could press #1 to take yourself off the list but you don’t because you’re afraid you might miss something. You’re a hoarder. “We rarely hear the inward music But we’re all dancing to it nevertheless.” ~ Rumi You don’t notice that the words to the song or jingles contain some lyrics of your stuck life. You don’t recognize that repetitive ruminations abide because you don’t confront them. You have to pick up to take yourself off the list. You have to agree to not be called again. You have to know what is valuable and what should be thrown away. Be still. Have a seat or lie down with yourself. Robocaller is waiting and ready. It knows when you...
by Hilary Lindsay | Aug 24, 2015 | anatomy, Asana, Healthy Living, medical yoga, Meditation, nashville yoga, therapeutic yoga, Tradition, Yoga, yoga class, yoga teacher, yoga teaching |
Try these exercises for the nervous system. Smaller and slower is the key. Use some or all. This is the follow up to this post. Spread a blanket on your mat Lie on your back ~Bring knees toward chest and align shins and ankles Leave upper back on the floor and roll hips left Place legs and feet on the floor The knees can be above or below the hips as you please Eyes closed observe the inner leg from the knee to groin Is there tension? Relax the inner thighs Observe the back hinge of the jaw Is there tension? Release the jaw bone to be as soft as the inner thighs Where is the breath? Notice: It is always there Repeat to right side ~Roll onto back- knees bent and feet on floor Press and release the pressure of feet against the floor several times to pulse the lower spine Now press and release the lower spine with no help from the feet or buttocks The movements will be small and intimate Notice the breath… it is always there Is there a breath that makes this movement more organized for you? ~Press fingertips firmly from side scalp edge to the broadest part of the side skull With strong fingers and a soft neck draw skull up and chin towards chest Lower with strong fingertips and firmly drag fingers back to scalp line Press fingertips from center scalp edge to the crown of the head making two rows with the fingertips and maintain pressure as you make small circles on the top of...
