February Love

I am not sure why, beside the obvious Valentines day 'holiday', but February seems to have taken on the role of the month of Love Awareness. The thematic of love seems to permeate our conversations, and certainly yoga classes, with many back bend themed classes appearing as 'heart openers' in this month. And though I do agree that backbends open the heart, there is a lot more at play in the practice of backbends than opening the heart. Similarly with love, the depth of the experience is heart centred, but then so much deeper with unfolding experience.

My teaching practice is my own best teacher, and this weekend, I had the opportunity to work with my favorite ever yoga student/teacher (we shift roles so fluidly between the two) who also happens to be my mother. I went to a few backbend focused classes, which I always find inspiring in my own body. What remains ever clearer to me is that if focused on opening the heart only, or bending the back only, a backbending practice will be short lived, either leading to limitations and discomfort or injury. In order for that practice there are other integral elements to the journey.

The first is grounding. The heart of course holds fear as well as love, fear which can be observed in one of two ways. The first are fears of the unknown, the unfamiliar, fears of letting the body or spirit journey into places it has not been. The second are fears that are signals from the body saying 'I am not strong enough,' 'I do not have my weight organized in the right way,' 'I do not have the resources to move into this safely.' etc. Backbends can bring up both of these fears. The natural fear of what we cannot see, what is behind us is a fear of the unfamiliar. On the other hand the fear of depth is often present because there is not the base level strength in the body to support the body moving into the backspace. Both of those fears can be worked through through grounding, activation of the feet, legs, thighs as the foundation for maintaining the body, the earthing that allows opening to happen safely and confidently.

The second is space. When one thinks only of moving backwards into backbends, generally it turns more into a crunch, with the lower back creasing and the upper back and shoulders going along for the ride, and then with the neck crunching back. The ego can feel quite satisfied by this situation, because the eyes send the signal that the backbend is deep, given that they are straining to extend away from the chest, chin, throat. This is where backbends lose their longevity. The fundamental principle to making the backbend safe is the space in the spine which allows the vertabrae to move along each other, rather than folding which pinches them against each other. As tailbone/sacrum and cervical spine/occiput move away from each other linearly first, the entire spine has the space to extend, from which the deep arc the full back 'bend' (which is not really a bend at all but an extension of the front surface/central facet of the spine) is possible. Deep back bends do appear as bends, with the tailbone and crown moving toward each other. The space allows the heart, which correlates to that internal/posterior side of the spine to open.

The third is growth. Following from the aspect of space, as we hold in the minds eye the feeling of extension and growth we create the space in the front body that the back body need not collapse on itself. We grow into extension as a great tree, as much as we grow up we grow down. But more than that, growth implies dierctionality and intention. So with the space we have created and the rootedness of the body, we can start to pull and lengthen even more deeply. Especially in the abdomen, as we collect and lengthen the ribs away from the pelvis, the linear elasticity of the flesh of the belly is activated. with the intention of growth, the transverse abdominals and psoas retain support, while the external surfaces stretch.

The last aspect of the moment is surrender. Oh my soul give me the light. My light.
This is an amazing surrender, because it requires us to trust our light, or radiance. if we hold within and lock down, in the ribs or throat or neck, the backbend becomes unattainable. We must face the fear of our own light, our own radiance and these oft protected places, the heart, the throat, the fronts of the hips open to incredible lengths.

But February is not about a backbend but about love, and my little life is doing some amazing teaching about the nature of love in this last year. Funny, or perhaps telling, that every aspect I see in the backbends is the same qualities needed in love.

Grounding. Space. Growth. Surrender.

As above, so below. Yoga on the mat, yoga off the mat.
What a gift it is to be alive.
Hari Om Tat Sat.
Om Shanti.