“When the chest is opening, the mind is opening, and we feel emotionally shiny, and stability comes.”
-Vanda Scaravelli
Counterbalancing the Postures of Motherhood
In motherhood we round forward when we hold our babies and when we feed them; when we pick up toys, stand stirring a pot on the stove, or type away at our laptops; when we round forward to look at our phones, get lower to play with our kids, or clean the floor or the table. There are so many opportunities to round forward and hunch our shoulders and spines if we’re not paying attention.
But it’s not like we’ve failed every time we catch ourselves slouching: those same actions above are also opportunities to remember to bend our knees, bring our stability into our legs and feet, keep our cores strong, and open our chests (and hearts!). Yoga doesn’t have to be too strenuous, but we do have to be somewhat relentless in our efforts. We can get the most out of yoga, not by luxuriating in long, complicated sessions on the yoga mat, but on consistent, focused shifts in posture and movement.
No Bad Posture — Variety is Key
That’s not to say that rounding the spine or forward bending is bad. Actually, these positions can be very therapeutic and helpful but not when they are habitual postures we hold all day. Variety is the spice of life. Yoga is so much about counterbalancing our automatic actions and using our bodies more holistically and completely. How does this look in a simplified practice that is integrated into our daily routines? If you tend to sit a lot, incorporate some standing, kneeling, and walking. If you stand a lot, do some sitting on the floor, a cushion, or put one foot up on a step now and then. If you do strenuous workouts often, make sure to weave in some time for meditation, restorative yoga poses, or just sitting and doing nothing (even for short bursts of time — I know, finding extra time for anything can feel impossible, but I encourage you to find at least a minute or two:).
A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned the variations of Virabhadrasana (Warrior Pose) as my go-to for when I feel too stressed or wound-up to meditate. These poses seem to be mostly for the legs, but they are actually great for opening up the chest and shoulders, too. They might even make you feel emotionally shiny and stable as Ms. Scaravelli claims in her quote;)
The Nitty Gritty
In my June 29th post, I write a bit about being flexible and creative in our yoga alignments. But, people often want some specific guidance on postures, which can be so helpful! I just like to emphasize that if you wiggle out of those suggested alignments, you should be fine as long as you feel good, however you embody each posture and movement.
So, here’s a little bit of the nitty gritty on the warrior poses. If you’re familiar with Virabhadrasana, you may already know what variations feel best to you. On the other hand, if you’re newer to yoga, you might appreciate some ideas on what to pay attention to as you get into these postures.
Let’s start with two of my most common cues in all variations of Virabhadrasana: feel your feet on the ground and push down gently into them, almost as if you are about to get ready to jump. Why such a focus on the feet? First, because the way we distribute our weight on our feet can have effects all the way up through our bodies, and second, because the more grounded we are in our lower body, the easier it is to relax the upper body. Just imagine a tree with shallow roots — any strong wind might bring the whole thing down, right?
I encourage you to pause right now, get into one of the warrior pose variations, and bring your attention to your feet. Push down gently through them and see how you feel. If you don’t know how to position yourself in warrior pose, it’s not a bad idea to Google it:)
Okay, hopefully you gave yourself at least 30 seconds to explore that. Now, my next bit of advice is to play with the arms. If you read a bit about Virabhadrasana, you’ll probably get a lot of specific guidance to place the arms in exactly a certain position, but you know what? You don’t even have to keep your arms still! The main thing, in my opinion, is to keep the shoulders relaxed down away from the ears. Sometimes a long, slow exhale can help bring those shoulders down. Other times, you can try to turn the palms of your hands upward if your arms are out to the sides in Virabhadrasana 2, for example. Or, you can lower the hands in Virabhadrasana 1 so that the arms are parallel to the ground. Some days, being still can feel so confining, so you might even just have the arms down as they sway them or you roll the shoulders a few times forward and back.
You get my point — there’s no one right way to do these poses. Our bodies are fluid, our needs are ever-changing, and one of the most refined yoga practices is not doing extreme poses to impress; it’s more about paying attention enough to know what you need in each moment.
In any case, here’s a little video to take you on an exploration of the different ways we can play with Virabhadrasana (one day I’ll dust off my video camera and use that instead of my phone:) Let’s just say I’m pretty slow to make changes!):