First let’s explain the scribble. You can see why I can’t take a picture of myself in the pose. And while Grover has quite the yoga repertoire, tree isn’t his pose. And I’m not about to go snag an image of some serene, svelte yogi that makes us want to smoosh ourselves into the corner. So.
Last night I learned something amazing in yoga. (And yes, also, I am a cliche.) Anyway, it was during tree pose.
If you don’t know anything about yoga, first of all I only know a tiny bit more than you. Which is about to become abundantly clear.
Second, tree is a balancing pose where you stand on one leg with your arms shooting up into the sky. Like a tree. (See scribble.)
Third, I am good at this! (We like tree pose very much. If you do Shiva Nata, I bet you’re good at it, too. And if you do Shiva Nata, you’ll appreciate how nice it is to be good at something. To be allowed to be good at something! Relish it.)
So you’re standing there with one leg rooted into the ground and with the instep of your other leg resting on your thigh, arms reaching upward. And when you start to lose your balance, the natural tendency is probably to crumple forward and pull your lifted foot to the ground to steady yourself.
Which, intuitively, seems like a good idea to prevent faceplanting and such.
Except! Here was the amazing thing. I had never been to this teacher before and so what she said was new to me. (Benefit 4 trillion of having multiple teachers.) She said even though your tendency is to crumple, the best thing you can do is focus instead on growing up higher.
Pretty much as soon as she said that, I started to lose it. But I didn’t crumple. I grew. And it worked. It seriously felt like I was countering the forces of gravity. Incredible. I did it again on my other foot.
So you think you’re gonna fall. Instead of giving in and letting the fall overtake you, you stretch a little harder, reach a little higher up. Grow.
I don’t know how this translates to real life yet. That’s the damn trouble with yoga. But I’m going to figure it out.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
That is terrific. I am in the midst of crumbling right this second, so this post was a timely reminder.
Beth recently posted..The Trouble with Saints
Oh crumbliness, scram, would you?
Love it. Loveitloveitloveit. (And also, cliche, me too).
I will try this the next time I want to crumple. Thank you!
Haha, let me know how it works!
Oh, Briana, I love everything about this post! The scribble, the learning, everything! Thank you for sharing it. *off to stand in the tree pose for a while*
Josiane recently posted..Lessons from a wise little guy
Oh, Josiane, yay, thank you for saying that!
When I start to crumble, my tendency is to wave my lifted foot around in the air as if that will stabilize me. It doesn’t.
How does this translate. I want to find out. It seems very useful.
Elizabeth recently posted..i dreamed a dream about vampires
Oh your comment sparked something for me… I think if I were at home doing tree pose by myself, I’d wave my arms around like crazy to stabilize. But in class, I don’t want to call attention to my crumpling so my tendency is to surreptitiously lower my foot. Which in itself symbolizes something. And maybe that’s part of why crumpling seems more intuitive than growing — because if growing doesn’t work, the result will be, erm, boldly obvious.
Love this, Briana! I’m a great one for the metaphorical crumpling: I wonder if I can interrupt that pattern and focus on growing instead.
Léan Ní Chuilleanáin recently posted..String! It’s Important!
Oh, the great metaphorical crumple. That is a phrase that could possibly interrupt the pattern just by making me laugh!
Great post! I read it this morning right before yoga and wouldn’t you know we did tree! A good lesson in not crumpling physically OR metaphorically!