When I think about expanding to the edge of my limits, I think about my earliest days in this practice.  Before I understood the depth of Yoga practice, it was all about the stretch for me. I would push my body at all costs, reaching for the “perfection” that only a hyper mobile body and youth can bring.  And, invariably I learned a lot of painful lessons, and fell short of learning the one’s with any real meaning.  Sure, I had the “yoga” high that so many do after pushing beyond my physical and sometimes mental boundaries, but I didn’t have the strength or foundation to maintain that expansive feeling off my mat. Now, after a fair share of time coupled with many humbling experiences, I approach asana differently. I give equal amounts of focus and attention to the foundation and the strength need to make expansion sustainable just as I do in a really deep stretch. I believe that when practiced with full awareness, Upavista Konasana (Seated Angle) can teach us how to reach to the very edge of our limits through strength and groundedness, so that the feeling of expansion can reach well beyond our mats and into our lives.

I read a line in a book once that has stuck with me for years, “God gather’s his sheep before dark.”  It wasn’t in a Christian text, but in a yogic one.; the words of a guru to a struggling student.  You will never be left behind in the dark because the sun will always rise even in the blackest night.  Purvottonasana (inclined plane pose) is an asana that opens us to that inner light.  The light of the divine, the light of God, the light within.

What defines you? How do we limit ourselves to a definition of the way things should be, or judgments of the way things are? We find so often that our mat is a mirror, a place to reflect how we experience the practice of living. Asana is a great tool of discovery and reflection. When we are pushed to the edge of what is comfortable in our bodies, we have a human tendency to define our experience. Good or bad, hard or easy, intense or gentle, these dichotomies by definition limit us. In yoga, we seek to move beyond definition to a place where we can experience the good and the bad, the difficult and the easeful simultaneously. After all, yoga essentially means “union,” right? In Pavritta Janu Sirsasana (revolved head to knee pose), we stretch ourselves to the limit of how we define ourselves physically. At the same time, we work to maintain a powerful connection to our root and core. As we practice this pose, we often find that the limits we had placed on ourselves dissolve, and we are able to move beyond physical and mental definitions.

Traditionally birds like the crane and the crow were thought to be messengers from the gods. When the first Dalai Lama was born, it was said that he was visited by black crows. And through the ability to fly, these birds transcend the heaviness of a mortal existence and live in the expanse between this finite world and the next. Cranes are symbols of loyalty and communication, and in many traditions are thought to bridge the gap between the earth and the heavens.

Whether you know Bakasana as the crane or the crow, its effect is one of transcendence. Rising above our perceived limitations and taking off in flight. Bakasana is a pose that requires strength and focus and the ability to trust. The initial approach to this asana is often one of trepidation. Just like a baby bird that has all of the tools for flight, but doubts their strength and ability, Bakasana can often bring up doubts and fears. “What if I fall flat on my face? What if I’m not strong enough to hold myself?”

Sometimes our lives get twisted. We feel tied up in knots, constricted, bound up. Unsure of which way to go, we often collapse into our effort and lose our ground. It’s in these moments constriction where we often fall off balance. We succumb to what is distorting our vision, and we forget that we are always right here in this moment, supported by the ground beneath us and surrounded by infinite potential and the ability to grow.

Ustrasana (Camel pose) is a very beneficial pose because it brings us out of our daily habitual posture of rounding the back and hunching over and brings us into a posture of opening the front body as well as elongating the spine. For this reason, it can be a very difficult posture, and it is a challenge to do without overarching in the low back, which causes compression and pain in the lower spine.

For many, Janu Sirsasana (head to knee pose) is an uncomfortable place to explore. With deep sensation in the hamstrings, base of the spine, and sometimes neck and shoulders, many people would rather hang from a 3-story building by their toenails than spend any amount of time in this forward fold. As my teacher says, though, it is usually those postures that rub us the wrong way that we need to explore the most. When the fear, frustration, and anger rear their heads in Janu Sirsasana, be comforted by the fact that the pose is working just as it was divinely designed.

Walking into an yoga class can sometimes feel like you’ve stepped into another world. The language of asana is often different than the language of everyday life with phrases like “opening our hearts,” “staying with our breath,” and “being in the moment.” In the context of a yoga asana practice, our ability to truly feel these words of guidance sometimes gets lost in the rhetoric of the experience. We are not always able to “feel” what we are told to feel in a specific asana, which can be frustrating and discouraging. But when the feelings that we seek are “opening our hearts” and “awareness of the breath,” Matsyasana or Fish Pose is an indispensable resource.