Next week's class will be held in the Guildroom on the Ground Floor. Sorry about the late notice - I've just been informed the Guildhall is in use.

Twists detoxify and cleanse our organs, stretch and tone our muscles, improve both strength and flexibility in our spines and encourage us to breathe deeply and slowly. All of these actions work together allow us to feel a little lighter and brighter, wringing out stress, tiredness and sluggishness to replace them with a feeling of vibrancy and vitality. Here are some ideas to help make your twists safer, easier and more beneficial:

• Root down – in sitting twists, anchor down your sitting bones to ensure that your spine remains supported during the twist. In lying twists, it is often the shoulders that remain rooted to the floor and in standing twists, the hips should be kept level and core strongly engaged.
  
• Lengthen the spine – to create space for your vertebrae to move freely, always start a twist by inhaling and lengthening through your spine from your tailbone to the crown of your head.
  
• Easy on the neck - Our necks are designed to be able to twist easily but it can be tempting to get further into a twist by straining the neck a little further to feel like we are doing “better”. A twist is for the whole spine, so start your twist in your hips imagine each part of the spine twisting an equal amount to produce a lovely, even twist through the whole length of your back. Always make sure your neck is a little bit soft and relaxed and always release your neck first when you release from a twist.
  
• Inhale to lengthen, exhale to soften – hold a twist only as long as it is comfortable and allow yourself to soften and relax further into the twist every time you breathe out. Use the breath to help keep you aligned and help you twist deeper and deeper. 
  
• Enjoy – twists refresh organs like squeezing out a sponge. When you release the twist, those organs fill back up with fresh blood, or in the case of the spine and it’s discs, fresh cerebro-spinal fluid. This can produce quite a rush, a sense of warmth or a feeling of being awake and refreshed, so try to become still and observe your body and mind awhile before twisting to the other side.
  

(adapted from Do the Twist, C.Cummins, yogamagazine.com)

This week has seen some rather interesting core strengthening work - it was good to hear more giggles than grunts as everyone found the stage that challenged them. And that core awareness and activation resulted in some beautiful cranes & half-moon poses were world's above last week's. Keep practicing with determination and a ready smile!

Hugh Poulton is a London-based yoga and mindfulness teacher recently featured in Yoga magazine. If you would like to try Hugh's 6 minute Mindfulness Meditation, follow this link: http://bit.ly/1gGK4wo

(as advertised in Yoga Magazine February 2014)

(adapted with gratitude from Yoga Journal articles by Julie Gudmestad et al)

“One gift of yoga is learning to be centred. This isn't just an interesting philosophical idea; it's a real mental and physical discipline you practice every time you do a pose. And the best poses to develop that sense of centre are, of course, balancing poses.”

Spread those toes!

When practicing standing balances in class, we usually start by thinking about our feet. When building a tower, the foundations are the most important part. So lift up and spread out those toes, imagine spreading out the ball of the foot and then plant your foot and toes back down, wide and with awareness. Notice that if you rock forwards, the toes grip the floor so they can push you back to centre. If you rock backwards, they lift up to shorten the tendons on top of the foot and up the ankle to bring you forward again. It may sound small, but spreading the toes and ball of the foot will make a big difference to the stability of any pose you do.

So, to the arms…

Once our feet are sorted, we find our balance and then and only then, begin to lift or open out our arms or legs. You probably know from experience that the higher you raise your hands (or feet), the harder it becomes to remain steady. This is because lifting our hands (or our legs) upwards or away from the body raises our centre of gravity. When your centre of gravity is high, just a few degrees of tilt can move it far enough off the plumb line (the vertical centreline of your body) to upset your balance. When it is low, there's more room for error, i.e., wobbling without falling over.

So, if you are a getting a bit wobbly, lower one or two arms or legs a little and see what a big difference a slightly lower centre of gravity can make to your stability. Alternately, try lowering your centre of gravity by bending your supporting leg. Only straighten the knee once you feel comfortable. This may be just a second, or it may be a few weeks while you build up strength in other parts of the body. Take your time and be patient.

Strong tums & bums

You could lift yourself into the most beautiful alignment, but without strong core muscles, your bones will not remain there for long. The muscles provide lift and counteract the extension of a leg out to the side, or the arms up overhead. Balancing requires strength and standing balances require that strength in the abdomen and buttocks.

When you stand on one foot, one leg (and the buttock and abdominal muscles above that leg) must work twice as hard to compensate. The instant you lift one foot off the floor, the hip on that side is no longer supported, so what is holding you up? Two muscles in the opposite side of your bottom; the gluteus medius and the gluteus minimus. These two muscles need to be strong in order to balance and we will be doing some body preps to activate and strengthen these over the next few weeks to help with our Ardha Chandrasana (Half Moon Pose).

You can feel your gluteus medius by taking your fingers to the side of your body just a bit below the waist. Press them inwards firmly and then lift the opposite leg. You will feel the gluteus medius harden, and the higher you lift, the more it contracts. The gluteus minimus lies underneath the medius, so it's harder to feel but I promise it is working hard too.

Practice Makes Perfect (and Strong Core & Legs)

The best way to strengthen these crucial muscles is—you guessed it—to practice lots and lots of one-legged standing poses! Try practicing Tree, Eagle or Half Moon poses while standing next to a wall or table. With just the tiniest bit of support, you can hold the balance significantly longer without wobbling, so you feel safer and can use and strengthen the correct muscles to perfect your alignment.

Set Your Mind to It

So far, all I’ve talked about is bones & muscles, arms & legs, manomayakosha; the physical body. Remember that Dru Yoga is all about the integration of all the koshas: body, thoughts, emotions and breath; none being more important than the other. Your attitude towards balances will effect how you feel about them and how well you can perform them. Smile, relax and take a moment to stand still. Let your mind calm down. Visualise yourself doing the perfect balance and which muscles you will need to contract or stretch to do so. If you wobble, smile, come down and slowly try again.

Standing balances will teach your body and mind to be centred and as you practice, you will begin to notice that benefit spilling over into the rest of your life; helping you to focus at work, be more present when dealing with friends and family, and able to be aware of, and consciously enjoy, what is actually happening at any given moment.