Asanas are just a puzzle Laurie Blakeney notes part 2

This is a continuation of the notes from the first basic class. The second hour was spent on standing poses: Vrksasana and a “vinyasa” of Utthita Parsva Konasana->Utthita Trikonasana ->Ardha Chandrasana and back in same order.

In Vrksasana we did straight away in the middle of the room. Instructions were to lift from the perineum. She did not have us in udrvha namaskar, but a hybrid of urdvha hastasana and urdvha namaskar “lifting from the wrists.” She noted that bent elbows collapse the abdomen.

In our “vinyasa” we worked in depth on “skating” the back foot into ardha chandrasana from trikonasana. Rather than clunky movements getting the leg to lift, we moved the back foot in slightly and corresponded the straighting of the the standing knee to the lift ing of the leg in one fluid movement. Then, with more sophistication, lowering the leg and bending the knee in the same fluid movement. She noted several time if the foot skates in too much it is a clunky lift and made reference to Guruji’s demo in Light on Yoga as seen below where is back foot is a health distance away just prior to the lift. We did this for about 30 minutes.

She finished with prasarita padottanasana as “headstand” and setu bandha as “shoulder stand” with a intermediate transition with the lumbar spine resting on the block and knees bent before savasana.

During the course of all this, Blakeney made a statement that “asanas are just puzzles, and like a puzzle we put them away when we are done with them.” This is subtle, but comes from a deep philosophical approach from the sutras in which asanas are a vehicle to attain awareness to the inner self. The asanas certainly highlight areas that are unknown to us, as in the hips which were the emphasis of this class. Of course the next day I felt the hip work we did even though after class it did not seem like we did that much. That is the magic of a seasoned teacher!

*Laurie Blakeney has an advanced certificate in Iyenagar Yoga and is the Director of Ann Arbor School of Yoga.

from Home Yoga Practice http://ift.tt/1VFuqq8