See You Later Twenties

Snail

Today is the last day of my twenties.  I am assured that the thirties, aside from hangovers, are much improved.  When I started blogging a couple of years ago it was actually under the title of “Quarterlife Crunch”.  As it payed homage to the journeys of a post-college 20 something in the otties (egads!).  I changed it pretty quickly to my Down Dog Blog, once I realized that my life did in fact have more focus than I thought.

Entering a new decade of life I am taking stock of the last one.  As a constant declutterer I am often all too eager to chuck it out and move on.  I think an important part of decluttering is actually taking a look at what we are letting go of . What we leave behind is as important as what we take with us.  And in one sense I suppose that what we leave behind is the legacy, the impact, the imprint.  But I really mean what we shed and let go of. The world is to be embraced. We can’t hide from the world. But as we let go of what does not serve us the world become s a truer reflection of its best self, because ultimately it is a reflection of us.

I accidentally stepped on a snail the other day and heard the devastating crunch of its shell body.  Peter assured me it would live on as a slug.  I feel slightly bad for changing the course of the life of a snail into that of a slug.  It was unintentional, but it had an impact non the less.  Isn’t that just the way it goes?  All these years I have been impacting people and things in ways I probably don’t even perceive or think about.

As I leave my twenties, I am leaving behind some self-editing, self-judgement, and self-restraint.  But somehow seeking to balance that out with a refined perception of the world, so I can have more consistently thoughtful behavior.  I have an impact, for better or worse, as each one of us does, whether we choose to accept it or not. So I am left thinking today, as I sign off to my twenties…

“What will you do with your one wild and precious life?”

                                                                                                                                                             – Mary Oliver

Tutorial on Yoga’s Crow (Bakasana) and Crane

Crow is one of my favorite poses.   This pose is a foundational arm balance pose.  When you get this one, many other arm balances and even handstand start to fall in to place.

Just below is an absolutely awesome video on the physics of crow and crane pose. This video does a good job of talking about the center of mass and the bone stacking of the forearms (elbows over wrists).  Other things to keep in mind are:

Hands shoulder distance apart, fingers spread and the space between the index and middle finger aims forward.

Tailbone scoops under and there is a round to the spine.

If the kness are on the outside of the arms they need to squeeze in toward the the triceps and the arms need to press out toward the legs as well.  (opposition)

Don’t forget your bandhas!

The video below, I shot a few months ago after my blog post “yoga home practice makes progress”.  It is a  step in the goal I had set for myself, to do a handstand press, the crow to handstand transition. When coming into handstand from crow you need to find the crane position.

Crane Preparation

In crane, the arms straighten.  In order to achieve this:

Take the hips higher.

Place the knees into the armpits.

Hands as they are in crow.

Think bandhas and center of mass.

Almost there with the handstand press, hope to post a video shortly!

Remember to have fun!