Falling: a different kind of yoga
shaking things loose
“The leaves are all falling, and they’re falling like they’re falling in love with the ground.”
-Andrea Gibson
“I waver, hold myself
from my center as best I can
and teach myself, again,
to fall in love with the risk
of taking flight— even
if it means falling,
just a little bit
every day.
But who ever said
I was not allowed to fall
except for myself?
How else will I learn what
I am made of?”
-Corie Feiner, A Poem for Warrior III
Falling is inevitable…and fun, too!
When was the last time you did a balance pose during yoga practice and felt that ridiculous internal pressure to not fall out of it? No one is grading us during yoga class and we’re not performing for anyone either, but somehow we get this idea that we gotta hold the pose just right until the teacher moves on to the next pose. A thousand doubts might arise: am I doing this right? Can I hold this much longer without modifying? Why can’t I feel more steady?
I recently got back into teaching kids yoga and it’s been refreshing. You know what is so great about teaching young kids? At a young age, they aren’t overly anxious about doing the poses just right (older kids might be more self-conscious); they just do them, and bonus if they’re having fun. They actually love to fall out of poses; I’ve seen kids dramatically pretend to fall and laugh hysterically about it. What if we could fall, even fall on purpose, and find such humor and fun in it? What if we could, just for a moment, stop taking ourselves so seriously and work with gravity instead of against it?
This is not to say that we shouldn’t value precision, stillness, and alignment in yoga. There’s a place for those elements of yoga, but inevitably we wobble and get out of alignment or fall out of a pose, so in those cases, what do we do?
Be present
Part of staying poised and balanced is staying present. We are less likely to fall out of a pose if we can sense into those little microadjustements we make in postures like Vrksasana (Tree Pose) and Natarajasana (Dancer Pose). Have you ever noticed that when you stand on one leg and balance, the weight on the standing foot is constantly shifting while our bodies automatically adjust to those shifts? Try it!
Breathe
As you tried a few balance poses, did you notice your breath? Were you breathing? If you’re not sure, try it again!
My tip: use the exhalation to connect with the Earth. Sometimes I say, “Feel your feet on the ground,” or “Notice which parts of your foot press more into the floor, or how the weight shifts on that foot,” but here I am using the word Earth because I feel it reminds us that we can imagine, with each exhalation, sending roots down into the Earth. For me, this is such a grounding image and that conscious breath plus visualization bring me so much steadiness in balance poses.
When you breathe out, let your face and jaw relax, your shoulders fall, and your knees bend and bring a greater sense of weight into your feet.
Bend your knees
Just as the breath keeps us from getting rigid, so does bending our knees. Some people don’t like to bend their knees because they assume it makes them look less graceful or perfect or aligned in the posture, but as I always say, yoga is more about how you feel, not how you look! It doesn’t have to be a huge bend in the knees. Just imagine that standing leg is a sort of spring that gives you some resilience as your wobble:)
Arms out, elbows bent
I’m sure you know this already, but putting the arms up or out can help with balance. Imagine a tightrope walker, arms out to the sides, wavering occasionally. Most people do this instinctually, but because I’m an anatomy nerd, I’ll share a little article with you on why this helps.
Occasionally, I see a toddler that walks with their arms straight up! It’s super cute, but seems like a lot of work, right? My own daughter took her first steps with her arms straight up and it made me wonder if that was an instinctual balancing aid. It was almost like she imagined she was reaching up to hold our hands to support her. Maybe she was? Either way, picturing that you are holding something for support can actually be helpful. And the arms up does give you some momentum away from the ground.
If you do happen to fall, it’s good to bend both the knees and the elbows. Here’s an article that explains very clearly and simply how to fall as softly as possible. I know, it’s an AARP article and maybe you’re not elderly but perhaps you do carry a child or baby, or heavy bags of groceries…everyone could use a little lesson on conscious falling.
Ok, let’s actually fall on purpose
If you know my approach to yoga, you know I like to bend ‘the rules.’ I step outside of tradition a lot, but it’s really in service of Modern Yoga Mamas because we have particular needs that are not always addressed by classical yoga. Ashley Zuberi writes, “As I entered into my journey of motherhood, I felt completely severed from my yoga practice, perhaps because Hatha yoga practices weren’t designed for postpartum women and mothers of young children.” Check out the full article here where she touches upon how the physical part of yoga was made for and by men.
Back to my point: I bend the rules because they are too rigid, at least as far as traditional alignments in yoga postures go. I like to encourage you to wobble, to move a little out of alignment now and then as long as it feels good in your body, and to let yourself fall out of a pose if you need to. Is falling part of yoga? Not traditionally, but is learning to fall gracefully a useful skill for yoga mamas? It is! It’s a great skill for anyone. Here are some yoga-ish ways to fall (which I will demo in the video below):
One way to bring what I might call ‘conscious falling’ into your practice is to close your eyes in a balancing pose. If you can do this in an attitude of play and curiosity, it can be a very powerful way to bring some novelty into your practice. If you have little ones, they might even want to try it with you! If closing your eyes is outside of your comfort zone, though, try shifting your gaze or moving your neck and head to look around. This is a fun way to keep yourself challenged in a pose that you might already be ‘good at.’ I learned it from Brea Johnson of Heart and Bones Yoga Studio. “Don’t let yourself get good at this,” is her playful suggestion.
Another way to add an element of falling is to keep your feet grounded while bringing some fluidity into the upper body. Think of those inflatable tube men you see by car dealerships. You know, those ones that the kids get excited about every time you drive by. It’s the same motion my son does when I’m trying to put his shirt on, lol. Yeah, fun….
For this, I recommend a wide stance so you don’t actually end up falling completely flat. Another way to do this is Breath of Joy, which reminds me a little of what powerful downward action you’d embody while chopping wood. I’ll save that one for next week’s post:)
Finally, because I love capoeira and I desperately miss it, I just want to pay homage to this stunning Brazilian martial art. In this dancey, playful martial art, there is an evasive move called esquiva. Basically, it’s used to get out of the way of a kick without blocking the kick.
Check out this video to see the various types.
And now for a little video love from me, taking a moment to bring a little fun into your yoga practice and to help you to wiggle out of rigidity. Let’s play with gravity this Fall!
I hope you enjoyed this! Let me know what you think.
If you know anyone else who might like this post and/or video, please share the love:)
This is wonderful! Thank you for the permission to fall!