Here I have developed a slight twist on my traditional standing balance opening sequence.
What I did was play with the idea of how to come into trikonasana.
So what you see is that I go from vrksasana (tree pose). I keep my pelvis square, focus on external rotation at the hip (of raised leg), then extend that leg straight while maintaining that external rotation.
When you extend it straight and then go to put the leg down you end up with the foot diagonally in front of you rather than out to the side. That is ok.
What is does is keep your pelvis in a nice position, your lower back in a nice position, and maintain the external rotation of the reaching leg. I do a little weight shifting to get the other leg in position (and that is why the ardha chandrasana is there).
Overall, my trikonasana feels so wonderful coming in like this.
I am up at about 5000 ft in the mountains of Haputale, Sri Lanka. It's pretty spectacular.
Here I created a mountain mandala flow.
We often do this in class but facing the one direction.
But here there are beautiful views from every direction here and so I wanted to move and take them all in.
So here I repeat the same movement pattern but just turning 90 degrees each time.
It also gives you a 360 degree view of the movements so you get a better perspective.
Ok, I realise there are wardrobe malfunctions here but those who know me know my yoga wardrobe is the least of my concerns. Hopefully no one will be offended.
I particularly wanted to create this for Karen and Dave, my mountain friends in Nepal. Hope this helps with your practice.
It does not rain it pours! Two videos in about ten minutes.
This is also from our current sequence and is part of the standing practice. I have also sped it up. I quite like the flow of the movement at this speed but when you practice try at least a quarter speed. The real-time practice took about 8 minutes.
I could have equally called this practice interesting spine because it is really about spinal movement. But I also want to cue you into turning the hips and then the feet when you move from the central posture to the asymmetric ones.
A very long time between postings! Yikes. This one I promised to my students several weeks ago and is from our current practice.
I generally don't recommend practicing something without a teacher and especially not this one if you are not familiar with the hip rotation.
But for those of you who are, here it is! At last.
Remember, keep the ankles off the floor. Turn the hips and let the feet follow. Move slowly--there is no rush. If you are 'looking' for anything it is joy and not an end posture.
I practiced outside on this lovely patch of grass in the winter chill where I had fresh air, a kiss of sun on my skin, and the pleasure of a the earth beneath my feet. Why not find your own patch of grass?
I have sped up the clip so if you were to practice this it should take at least twice as long.
