post Yucatán vibes

H/t @katelynntully Regarding shalabasana

This posture is called karanda. it’s a “sort of duck” loves ducks Loves ducks

😂🐶

an article on the gayatri mantra and one of my favorite postures

I added a few words to the translation of this poses’s name. It could be called “standing belly on thighs calm the fuck down pose,” but it’s already a mouthful. She’s the first pose of Ashtanga’s foundational series. Look gently at your nose. Calm your nerves with the standing forward bend. Chill out. Bend your knees till you feel great.

learn more at functionalashtanga.com.

This pose is neat because it lets me use my imagination. I imagine that I am hanging from a window ledge for dear life. If I lean back and balance, I can dangle with straight arms. If I go forward and pull, I can pull with an infinite strength, so long as I meet myself *exactly* in the middle. Generally, this pose highlights where I’ve got some resistance inside keeping me from the balance. Sometimes legs, sometimes arms, sometimes belly, sometimes butt. Most often, it’s no one single thing but a concurrence of them and so the best thing to do is just try to find the middle and let things work themselves out.

Ah yes, “Try Angle” pose. Of course. The one where you try to make an angle.

Seriously: this is where you can start thinking about something called “yantras”— or sacred geometry. Its an on ramp for beauty and imagination inside of yoga practice.

Here’s how it works:

Try to visualize yourself as a collection of lines.

For example, can you visualize your bottom arm and front leg as a collection of vectors that connect and intersect?

Oh look! A triangle!

The real fun comes as you try to visualize more and more of them... at the same time. And, without looking, feel how changing one vector somewhere can change the angles elsewhere... all without losing track of your breath.

So trippy. So fun.

Come try and make an angle with me at functionalashtanga.com

best
uttana padasana
in the game.