Saturday, December 13, 2014

Surrender to Mother Earth

Sunita, Geeta's sister taught the Woman's class today. She emphasized surrendering to Mother Earth. Especially while in Trianga Mukhaikapada Paschimottanasana and Janu Sirsasana.
Her directions were:

Lift the sacral area/tailbone/low back up before bending forward. Let this area know what your are about to do and prepare this area of the body. Then, lift the navel band up. Now, you are ready to bend forward. It is just as important to go into the pose with preparation and awareness as being in the pose and coming out of the pose. Extend the sternum forward and lengthen the sides of the chest. Do not take the head lower than the dorsal. Keep the abdomen band soft and take it to the legs, touch that area to the legs. Lift the elbows up at first and extend the arms forward. Then completely surrender to Mother Earth. Surrender! Soften the entire back, do not hold the back hard. Surrender! 

Her teaching was strong and held our attention. We had to concentrate on ourselves, not what others were doing. It is so often that our minds start becoming busy. I often think about when we are going to be able to come out of the pose, or that my hamstrings are screaming. To focus on surrendering brought a softness to the mind and I felt more of a grounding effect in my legs. Then, my torso began to follow going down without using brut force. In my classes, we have been practicing breathing into the back chest, now we can start focusing on surrendering to quiet the mind while using the breath as our guide.

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