If you have not gathered already, Paddy is my teacher (not in the possessive sense--she is everyone's teacher!). She is in Colombo from the 20th May to 5th June and is conducting classes around town.
Please log onto Paddy's website for her contact details http://www.paddy.yogaholidays.net/
It is also where you will find details of her classes around the world for those no longer in Sri Lanka. If you have trouble then you can always contact me.
If you have never had the pleasure of being taught by Paddy, then please take this opportunity as she may just be the best teacher in the world (no, I am not biased!).
Trikonasana is one of those poses that you learn early on in yoga. I really like how it stretches out my sides even after all these years.
Like any pose, Trikonasana can start to feel dull if you keep practicing it in the same way. It's important to continually break down habits so your body keeps learning and keeps challenged.
In this video, I leap into trikonasana like Paddy has shown me. And then I turn it into a standing balance for a bit of fun.
The trick in turning this posture into a standing balance is to learn to dance so that you transfer weight from the front foot to the back foot at just the right moment.
I have been a bit naughty and not provided a modified version of this posture in the video. If you cannot bind your arms (which is pretty hard) you can just try to keep your upper arm or shoulder pressed close to your knee instead.
Have fun and remember to keep your spine long and free.
Step 1:
Come into Trikonasana with a long spine Step 2:
Bend the front knee and bring your front shoulder towards the knee, nuzzling it in as close as possible. If the shoulder does not get there, press your upper arm against the thigh or knee. If you can bind your arms here then do so. Don't worry it you can't. Keep your spine long and free as though it is still in Trikonasana. Step 3:
Start your little dance. Transfer the weight into your front foot. You need to start leaning forward to do so. Your back foot should start to feel a little light so you can hop it close to your front foot. The back foot is perpendicular to the front foot. Step 4:
Transfer your weight into the back foot now. As you do so, shift your weight more and more to the back foot side. With any luck your front foot will just start to float off. Step 5:
As your foot starts to float off the ground, come into standing. If you like you can straighten both legs!
Relax and breathe. Turn your head away from the raised leg.
Every now and then George from Kahanda Kanda hosts a weekend yoga retreat at his beautiful hotel. Amidst the gentle greenery, surrounded by the rolling hills of the tea estate and the calls of a diverse array of wild-life, and beneath beautiful open skies we practice yoga morning and evening. In between we swim, eat, read, relax, cycle, and basically chill-out.
If this sounds like the type of weekend you have been looking for, then check out the website and book in for the yoga weekend in July. These retreats tend to fill up fast since George offers a discount rate so be quick. KK is a boutique hotel with a few rooms so you might find if you round up your nearest and dearest yoga buddies you might even have the place to yourselves!
We've really lengthened our legs and spines with Yes-You-Can-Can Legs (and even did the splits!). We've opened up our hips and they didn't die in the Hips Don't Die class. Now it is time to move up to our waists with Twistin Round The World (first made famous by Chubby Checker of course).
I have choreographed a sequence of twists and turns, and side bends and stretches, along with a bit of core strengthening thrown in. Amidst all of this twisting, turning, and bending we will really be trying to get an idea of how to lift our bodies out of our pelvis. Who knows, you might grow a few inches? (Disclaimer: height gain is not guaranteed)
It does not really matter how much yoga experience you have for this class as there are easier and more challenging versions of everything. As is usual with these classes, I have tried to find interesting alternatives to the 'normal' poses, so expect to experience a few new asanas pop up!
It all starts this Thursday and should be lots of fun. So why not come along to the women's international centre next to the Lionel Wendt at 5:45pm.
For those of you in Colombo you will no doubt know that it is pretty hard to go anywhere without a bunch (murder) of crows somewhere nearby.Many people think of crows as just scavengers and look at them a bit like rats.But here are a few crow stories that have changed my impression about crows:
·Once (upon a time) a crow came onto our rooftop terrace with a large piece of bread in its mouth.It sat on the edge of the wall at first, a bit hesitant since we were sitting having our own breakfast nearby.The previous night it had rained and there were a few puddles of water drying on the deck. Well, the bread must have been a bit hard and the crow must have been very hungry as it eventually jumped down onto the terrace and hopped over to a puddle within a few steps of us (they usually keep their distance) and dipped his bread into the puddle to soften it up then flew away!How smart is that!
·There is a guy who lives in an apartment a few doors down who feeds the crows bread about once or twice a week.We know when this event is happening as crows flock from all directions to sit on his balcony.I am not sure how word gets out and how a crow several hundred metres away can tell there is a man on a balcony feeding other crows bread, but there is obviously a special language shared amongst them when a free feed crops up.Anyway, it actually looks very scary as he is surrounded by crows vying for position.They perch on his balcony, his neighbour’s balcony, the nearby tree, the TV line running up the building—anywhere they can hook their feet.The thing is, rather than descend upon him like a swarm of killer bees, they all wait in a rather orderly fashion (well, as orderly as crows can be, which is much more orderly than many of the people I encounter at the train station or supermarket queues) for their share of bread.
·Did you know that Australian crows are about twice as big as the Colombo crows?They also sound different too.Australian crows seem to be more melodic (I would not go so far as to call them melodic), while as their Colombo cousins seem to have a smoker’s cough.
·One afternoon Tilak (aka doorman in the sarong, aka my husband) was standing outside of Perera & Sons with a malu paan in his hands.He looked down the road for the oncoming bus and in that split second a crow dive-bombed him and snatched the malu paan from his hands.As I am frequently telling Tilak to be a bit more mindful about his eating, he seems to have taken this as a sign that the crow was sent by me to prevent him from eating between meals.
So, there you go; a few interesting crow stories.Now, to the challenge pose of the week: Bakasana (crow pose).Here, I am going to help you practice bakasana in a few easy steps.
1.Come into a low squat with your knees together.Have the heels off the ground and put your hands on the floor in front of you and lean into them—as though you are readying yourself for a very short downward dog.Really lean your body forward over your thighs.Stay here for a while.
2.From there, take the knees apart and lean your body through your knees.Keep leaning forward into your hands.Your knees should be around your shoulders—hug them in close.
3.Take the hands off the floor but keep leaning forward.You are now about to do the karate chop manoeuvre.Take your arms in front of your shins and ‘karate chop’ them out to the side as though you were trying to karate chop your shins with your upper arms.The point is to bring the upper arms in contact with the shins and keep the upper arms moving back into the shins.As you take your upper arms back and into your shins, squeeze your knees into your shoulders (or upper arms).
4.Make bird’s claw hands and place them on the floor in front of you shoulder width apart.It is important to ‘bird’s claw’ the hands to distribute the weight throughout the hand and this will also help you balance.The elbows stay wide at the moment and the upper arms are still pressing back into the shins.
5.Keeping everything else the same, lift your tail a bit and lean forward into your hands as you do so.Come up onto your tip-toes.
6.Squeeze the elbows in towards eachother while maintaining the feeling that you are pressing your arm bones back into your shins.Squeeze the knees into the arms/shoulders.Look forward, lean forward and…find your balance.There is no ‘launching’ yourself into the pose.This is a balance and you need to find your tipping point.Maybe just take one foot off the floor at first, find your balance there, and then shift the weight a bit further forward until the other foot floats off. Basically, head tips forward and bottom floats up--just like in the picture below!
Hints and Cautions
·Be in the middle of your mat in case you fall forward.You could put a cushion a bit in front of you as well if you are worried about falling on your face.
·Bird’s claw hands are key.If you do not get some pressure under the finger tips and knuckles, all of the weight will be on your wrists and you will not be able to find your tipping point as well or as easily.
·Keep squeezing the elbows in towards each other.If they splay out to the side you will drop lower to the floor and you need to create lift so this won't be good! Too much elbow splaying will lead to a face plant for sure!
·You need to keep moving your centre of gravity forward—this means you need to practice leaning forward into and over your hands.You will not find your tipping point if you stay too far back.
·You can try just taking one foot off the ground and then trying to lean forward a little bit more.
Bakasana is challenging at first and helps you understand about how slight changes in your centre of gravity can completely change a posture.When you find just the right tipping point it will feel like you are flying.
