Earth Day Shots

Standing Bow Pulling Pose

I adore Standing Bow. It has always been my favourite, yet I struggle with it in class all the time. I can kick high and my spine is starting to bend more and I actually discovered recently what it really means to have your shoulder on your chin. But holding it for a minute, one of the hardest things I can imagine doing. It looks mighty pretty, though, in a purple dress.

King Pigeon Pose

When I first saw this asana I thought it was the most beautiful pose I'd ever seen. I used to practice it in my living room and could never get past where I struggled to grab my foot. When I got invited to my first advanced class, it was my main question, how do you grab your foot??? It's a tricky grab but once you can visualize it, it makes it a little easier. I worked on this pose quite a bit when I was training for the competition and could never get even close to moving my arm up above my head. It was when I took a little break and backed off from my practice that it came. I find Pigeon to be one of my most challenging backward bends.

Toe Stand

This asana, is the perfect image of balance, strength and flexibility. And I can only manage to complete it when I have a camera on me. In class I lose my balance fairly easily but I say it's because I'm pooped from the standing series. I did, however, discover some new butt muscles the other day, which has allowed me to practice with my balance. I've found that if I focus on the butt cheek and hip of the leg is crossed and tighten them, this lifts my hip up so that it is inline with my other hip and allows me to stay inline.

Yoga and Fungi

As many of my friends know, I am not only a yoga nerd but a bit of a nature geek.  I love learning the new names of trees, flowers, insects, and if I can learn the Latin name, that is even better.  I love the power of nature.  Have you ever walked along a new piece of pavement that has only been laid 6 months ago and it already has grass poking through minuscule cracks?  That is magic to me.

I often think that we, as humans, seem to think of ourselves as separate from nature.  That we no longer have natural instincts, that we aren't nourished by the Earth, that we aren't a part of the Earth.  We manipulate our environment to suit our needs.  We create these intense cleaning chemicals, build infrastructures from materials that need to be processed extensively, exercise our bodies on strange machines.

In class we are told by our teachers that yoga is natural, that this is how our are bodies were meant to move, that through our practice we are rebuilding our natural foundation of strength and flexibility, both, mentally and physically.

This article in Time magazine, Industrial-Strenth Fungus, (courtesy of Criminal Wisdom) makes me think that there are other people who believe that we are capable of living in harmony with the Earth.  That using a very simple life form that grows everywhere could be more beneficial than digging large holes in the ground.  It's a possibility, it's interesting to think about.  Maybe these guys are on to something. 

Could you imagine a house contructed from fungus bricks!?