Today's DelanceyPlace email was an interesting description that shows a bit about the life of the cow that you eat. Does it matter that we do this to cows? After all, they're born to be "slaves" and subservient to us, and they can't talk back, and they can't think and they have no feelings. Or do they?
My latest little bit of yoga enlightenment concerns the triangle and half moon poses, where the top arm goes straight up in the air and the bottom arm straight down to the ground. The proper positioning of the torso in these positions is to be turned in the same plane as the arms. These are the hard positions for me to do, because my body seems to be tremendously asymmetrical. On one side, I can turn my torso fairly easily. On the other side, my entire torso sort of sits there pointed at the floor, as though there's no other way to be in that position. So on that side, I find myself constantly in a dialog "lengthen and relax my waist, try rotating my hips... not rotating? ok, go back to trying to keep my waist relaxed.. etc." Lately, though, instead of that dialog, I'm thinking about the connection between my top and bottom arms. If I think about them being on a sort of pole, going right across my chest, then it seems as though that image helps to get my torso moving in the right configuration. It's especially useful in the half moon where you're just sort of dangling on one leg and losing the perspective that you have with two feet on the ground. Having that connection between my two arms gives my body a frame of reference upon which to align itself.
I so enjoy the rest of the DvD after the upward bow. It's a huge gentle hand that passes over my body after 40 minutes of drill sergeant yoga. I'm probably being a little over-dramatic, since if you watch Rodney Yee, he seems all but drill sergeant. But try doing what he's doing....
