by Hilary Lindsay | Oct 29, 2016 | Asana, Healthy Living, Limbs of yoga, medical yoga, Meditation, nashville yoga, therapeutic yoga, yoga class, yoga teacher, yoga teaching |
The two rowers rowing in ‘tandem‘, need to be well matched and synchronized to make this work. If one pulls too hard or the other not enough, the boat will go off course. You have two of each limb, this many fingers, these toes, matching hips etc. which is why you buy two shoes, two gloves, two legged pants. But they don’t work exactly the same way. They may even look different on close inspection but you don’t notice. It’s like, how long have you had that mole? I don’t know. What mole! We don’t notice the subtle differences one side to the other because they don’t matter until we are uncomfortable. The intelligent way to practice yoga when you want to refine your impressions is to work unilaterally. Divide the body down the spinal line to conquer habit and dullness. Bring your awareness to the skull as well, divided by the bridge of the nose. When you can expand your focus to hold more events at once, you will unite and conquer the same postures that can otherwise be your downfall. For example, you can spread your collarbones and stop or you can see if one or the other can move again. The one that can move again would not have had the opportunity if you had left it at the first pass. Behind, the shoulder girdle and its muscles will become uneven in effort and tone as well. This will effect the spinal muscles which will effect the pelvis. The tailbone is an interesting place to consider as well. You can’t see...
by Hilary Lindsay | Apr 19, 2015 | anatomy, Asana, nashville yoga, Yoga, yoga class, yoga teacher, yoga teaching |
In the last inquiry post I wrote that the body and mind collaborate through an unspoken language. It is a system of organization by automatic pilot that moves you in the right direction if all the signals are clear. But what happens if the signals are not clear and your organization goes offline so to speak? Will you be able to willfully remember and retrieve data so that you can manage yourself manually? Most of us have had the experience of changing computers or programs and losing automatic access to a site that had “remembered” our password for us. If we’ve forgotten or lost our password we’re now locked out. It’s important to keep the muscle memory of our secret keys. I was a dancer. My muscle memory allowed me to move with grace. It was automatic. Now I have a damaged hip and a fused lumbar spine. I cannot automatically move according to the data that worked for a healthy system. I must input unique passwords to retrieve healthy movement. Otherwise what follows the first flawed motion will take me down a bad path. It’s called compensation and it’s a useful way for the body to organize in emergencies but it’s just for emergencies. When it is used as a permanent fix, things can go badly. They went badly for me. I was intense and too impatient to heed injuries so by the time I noticed them I was already in the weeds. I’ve had to retrain muscles that would not fire. I am trying to encourage opportunity for damaged nerves to...
by Hilary Lindsay | Mar 23, 2015 | anatomy, Asana, Meditation, nashville yoga, Yoga, yoga class, Yoga psychology, yoga teaching |
You are lying down, face up on a hard floor in a public place. You have completed your yoga practice which required attention and vigilance. You trained yourself to stay alert. You are used to watching out for yourself more than watching into yourself so it was a beautiful effort. When you are asked to transition from that effort to effortless relaxation your nerves grasp and rush for a place to rest that is not immediately obvious. The mind is still scanning the horizon as is its habit. Savasana: Place a blanket with no more than an inch or so of height under the head with the edge touching the tops of the shoulders but not under the shoulders. You are connecting your head to your trunk for the sake of the nervous system which can stand down. (If your chin is jutted to the ceiling and you cannot lengthen your neck you may add height until the throat recedes below the Adams Apple. You may alternately bend your knees and rest a bolster under your thighs to soften the tight back line of the spine, pelvis or legs.) Turn the palms up and let no part of the arm touch the trunk but no farther than this necessitates. You are now un-tethered. Let the upper eyelid drop rather than squeezing the lower lid and upper lid together to close the eyes. You are more un-tethered, disconnecting one part of your skin to another. Boundaries fade and the lightness that comes may feel disorienting. You may find you need an anchor. Place something with weight on your...
by Hilary Lindsay | Mar 13, 2015 | anatomy, Asana, nashville yoga, Yoga, yoga class, yoga teacher, yoga teaching |
Study a photograph of your face cut down the middle and notice that the two sides are not identical. The naked body will reveal the same thing. Most of us are uneven. When I started teaching yoga I saw a room full of people. As I became more seasoned I saw a room full of individuals. How would I teach them all with their disparate unevenness! I explore sensation with my own body, examine the process of dealing with my own pain and pleasure and begin with the assumption that no one is even. I can only offer what I know for fact. Insight and experience give me the confidence to teach through the template of my own crooked being and all it has done to right itself toward an experience of quality. New students are usually less sensitive to imbalance and it gives them the opportunity of awareness. My most uneven students are teachers or experienced students who reap tremendous benefit from this approach. People who are fairly balanced have the opportunity to work with more precision. Here are a few explorations of potential imbalance that might lead to harm if not considered in a yoga practice. Inquiry # 2: Sitting ~ Contract your buttocks. Does one side contract faster than the other? If so, contract the slacker side first when doing symmetrical strength postures or exercises. Standing~ Bend your knees. Does one knee bend faster than the other? If so, drive the heel of the foot on the side that is slacker harder into the floor as you proceed....
