Mirror, Mirror

Most people are familiar with the fairytale Snow White. If not, well then, my deepest apologies for your robbed childhood. The wicked Queen gazes daily into her mirror and asks the same question, over and over: "Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?" The mirror, who I imagine must be an exhausted enchanted creature, constantly ruing his lot in life as this vain woman's mirror, always answers the same: "You, my Queen, are the fairest of them all." Until one day, as the story goes,the mirror reflects back the one thing the Queen dreads most. The answer that she has always been afraid to hear, and despite her efforts over the years to control the outcome: that there is indeed someone more fair.

We all know how the story goes (well, all of us except those few robbed childhoods I mentioned earlier)...a banished beauty, singing Dwarfs, poisoned fruit, and true love's kiss that triumphs over evil. While Snow White's tale is the focus of the story, for today's post, I'd like to zero in on the Queen. Every day she stared at her own reflection only seeing what she wanted to see. Only asking questions she wanted the answers for. If she truly wanted to see the truth, she would have asked the right question: Mirror, mirror on the wall, how can I be the fairest of them all?

The mirror then, might have had a chance to give her the answers she needed, instead of just giving back the ones she wanted to hear.  The enchanted mirror could have been a teacher of sorts, helping the Queen understand what true beauty was, and how she could always feel content in her own skin, instead of lashing out at anyone that made her feel inferior.

Every time we carve out a space for our yoga mats in our busy day, our mat is our mirror. A reflection of who we are shows up. (And you were starting to wonder how this was going to come back to yoga) Do we fear what the mirror will say? Do we try to make our mirror reflect what we want it to, or as we truly are? We can't do the work unless we are truthful with what we see. Our mats can be our teacher if we let it. If we struggle with perfectionism in our lives, it will be reflected in our practice. If we fear failure, it will be reflected, if we are negative thinkers...well, you get it.

I would encourage you at your next practice to embrace this time of reflection. Slow your breathing down. I tell my students all the time that approaching the postures is not about doing them perfectly or "textbook". It's about approaching the posture and observing how we react to it. It's an active mediation. We don't need to be in a rush to hurry and try and fix what we see, but to just begin to understand it and work with it.
Eventually the hope is that we will not only come to an understanding of our reflection, but an acceptance. And if we come to accept who faces us in the mirror, what else could possibly hold us back?

Look into your mirror
And tell me what you see
Is it really you?
Or someone you cannot be

Don’t look at someone else’s mirror
And tell them who they should be
Looking in their mirror
Will not change what your mirror sees

When you look into your mirror
Are you sure you see yourself?
As you gaze into your eyes
Are you sure your eyes aren’t reflecting someone else?

It’s not the mirror’s fault,
That it reflects someone else
How do you expect a mirror to reflect you
If you don’t know who you are yourself

~Author Unknown

Strike A Pose: Chaturanga Dandasana

This pose focusd post is inspired by my sister Caroline who recently asked me to give her a few pointers on the connective vinyasa that we use in yoga: High Push up to Chaturanga Dandasana (or Low Push up), Upward Facing Dog to Downward Facing Dog.

I believe her exact words were: "Yeah, I need some guidance here, because that whole thing feels like a pile of yoga mush."

"Yoga mush." It could be one of my favorite expressions now ever.

And as it happens, she is not alone. Chaturanga and Downward Facing Dog are probably the two poses that I get the most whining, er, I mean, questions about.

During one of our many pose workshops in Tulum, (otherwise known as after a 2 and half hour morning yoga session, we'd start to practice the postures one at a time. You know. No big.) my trainers explained that Chaturanga is probably one of the most misunderstood postures, and I myself found that I was doing it incorrectly even after a decade of practice. And while yoga is not about a checklist of doing postures in an exact way, we do work in our practice to "be in alignment." If you picture most things, they are at their strongest when they are stacked correctly. A pile of blocks is sturdier and stronger if placed directly on top of each other. A car runs better if it's properly aligned and balanced.  Our bodies are no different. Many times, be it not working with a teacher (i.e. DVDS, podcast), or maybe a teacher who doesn't adjust their students, some of these alignment adjustments go unknown and people just do the best with what they know. In any event, in most poses, alignment is key to working smarter.

A common desire in Chataranga is to treat it like a typical push up. We've done those since the 2nd grade, so in fairness, it's pretty hard wired. While upper body strength is part of the process and will develop in time, chances are there are things you can implement now that will make this posture feel more natural in your body and help you to work in the muscles and not in the rotator cuffs.

Start in high push up position and really pull the belly button up towards the spine, and pull the tailbone down. So many times I see students come to high push up and already let their spines sway downward towards the floor. Engage the core and tuck the tailbone, it makes the posture more stable and builds strength in the core.

Engage the quads. By doing so, the lower body, with all those nice and convenient bigger and stronger muscles, take some of the pressure off the upper body. See, aren't we having more fun already?

Next, really root down through the balls of your feet and make sure your palms and elbows are underneath your shoulders. Now, here's the real key: Look forward and go forward as you lower and only lower down till the triceps are level with your back; the forearms and upper ams forming a right angle. We think we need to go all the way down sending our spine below our shoulders, but we want to be level. Make sure the elbows hug the rib cage the whole way down. As the elbows flair out, we become less stable. Holding the elbows tight to the body will keep your whole frame sturdier and stronger and keep us working in the biceps and not the joints.

Like everything it just takes practice. Coming to the knees is a great modification. It allows you to really focus on the proper alignment while building the needed upper body strength. Eventually you'll experiment with taking your knees off the floor and the work will continue as it always does. Breathing, exploring, deepening or backing off. It's your practice to build upon, so have patience that your practice will evolve as you do.