Ganesha and the Grantas

That pain in my right wrist came back again recently, and as always it led me to slow down, deepen my understanding, and learn something new in order to deal with it.

Obstacles have a way of doing that. Anytime we come up against an obstacle, in our practice or in our lives, it can be an invitation to a deeper engagement. That's not to say that the obstacles we encounter are "blessings" (a wrist injury, or any hardship, is hard to see as a blessing), but they are always opportunities. When we're stopped in our tracks by something, we have to pause, slow down, look more carefully, and find a way to engage that is going to advance our practice and our lives.

This is the gift of Ganapti (aka Ganesha, or the one with the head of an elephant). He's often called the Remover of Obstacles, but I don't see him that way. He's an elephant. (Ever hear of the elephant in the room?) He's that thing that's in your way, that threatens to crowd everything else out. In my mind, it's not like Ganesha swoops down and removes obstacles in your path; rather, his story (which is our story) reminds us that when we choose to engage that which lies in our path, we will see it not just as an obstacle but as an opportunity.

His story (at least one of them) goes like this:

One day, Ganesha asks his friend Vyasa, a great sage, to tell him the story of the Mahabharata. Vyasa agrees, but says that if he's going to tell it Ganesha must write it down. Ganesha agrees, but then raises the challenge by saying that he'll write it down only if Vyasa can keep him interested. And Vyasa again raises the challenge, agreeing but saying that Ganesha must understand every word. And so Ganesha breaks off his tusk and uses it to write out the great epic of the Mahabharata.

To slow down Ganesha's process of comprehension, Vyasa throws in a host of grammatical tangles and plot twists and digressions. These are the grantas ("knots"), and if you've ever heard the Mahabharata told or attempted to read it, you know that it is indeed a knotted story. But each of these knots invites you to slow down, to look more carefully, to ask what more this might mean. They invite us to savor the story, and chewing on each teaching to reveal the sweetness that's there (it's not for nothing that Ganapati's trunk always reaches for the sweets in his hand).

In dealing with my wrist pain, I had to slow down and chew on some teachings in order to get a new revelation. My practice led me to work on the spirals of the arms, which I have often forgotten to engage because they can be so confusing and besides, I told myself, they are really refinements that aren't so important if you engage even Muscle and Organic Energy. Of course, I discovered that this was not the case. OK, understanding the spirals of the arms can seem as difficult as untangling the story of the Mahabharata, but they make all the difference.

PRINCIPLES:

• Open to Grace: Have the courage to see that whatever obstacle presents itself to you in your path, it can be an opportunity for you to create a deeper engagement. That kind of openness translates into the body as an inner expansion, including through the sides of the torso from the waistline all the way up through the sides of the throat. There's also a natural softening and release when you realize you don't have to remove the obstacle, you can only engage it.
  
• Muscle Energy: When you engage muscle energy in the arms, drawing from the tips of the fingers to the focal point, the upper arm bones will plug back (to the back plane) in the shoulder sockets. Remember that Muscle and Organic Energy are primary energy flows in the body, and so this engagement will stay constant even as you add the refinements of the spirals of the arms.
  
• Expanding Spiral: Here's where things get a little knotted, and it will require a deeper engagement and understanding to work with the spirals of the arms. The expanding spiral of the arms and shoulders creates a widening of the upper back, and so it always comes first (always make space before you contract). Most of the time this is created by rotating the arms internally. You'll feel this primarily by turning the forearms in, so that the palms face backward (the inner rotation of the upper arms would compromise the muscle energy of the arm bones into the shoulder socket). The exception to all of this is when the arms are in the overhead plane, where the expanding spiral is created by spinning the arms externally. Try it out just standing in tadasana, first with the arms by your sides, and then with the arms overhead, to feel the effects on the upper back of spiraling the arms. If this is confusing, don't worry. Stay with me; it's worth slowing down and taking the time to get this.
• Contracting Spiral: The contracting spiral of the arms and shoulders narrows the upper back, hugging the shoulder blades (in particular the bottom tips of the shoulder blades) more toward the midline, and driving the head of the humerus more deeply into the shoulder socket. In most of the planes of the arms, the contracting spiral is created by rotating the arms outward (this is particularly activated in the upper arms, as the forearms must stabilize in their inner rotation to maintain the expanding spiral). Again, there's an exception: when the arms are in the overhead plane, the forearms rotating in toward the midline will create the re-engagement through the upper back of a contracting spiral. All this is to say that, in all cases, the forearms rotate inward and the upper arms rotate outward. However, the order in which you engage these rotations depends on the plane of the arms. When the arms are overhead (like in downward-facing dog, handstand, forearm-stand, urdhva dhanurasana, etc.), the upper arms must spin out first in order to make space for the contracting spiral of the forearms spinning in. In all other planes (neutral, front, side, back), the forearms must turn in first in order to expand the upper back to make room for the contracting spiral of the upper arms spinning out. Are you with me?
• Organic Energy: Thankfully, return this basic energy flow of extending out from your core. You've done the work, and transmuted what may have seemed like a knotted process into a deepening engagement of the shoulder girdle. Now just stretch from the active focal point out through the limbs.
  

PRACTICE:

• Tadasana: Experiment with the spirals of the arms in their five planes (neutral, side, front, back, and overhead). Notice how when the forearms rotate in, the upper back expands in all planes except in the overhead plane, where this pattern is reversed. Similarly, you'll feel how when the upper arms spin out, the upper back contracts in all planes except in the overhead plane. Remember that in all of this, the spirals of the arms are refinements that come within the larger context of Opening to Grace, and Muscle and Organic Energy, so as you play with them, keep the lift in the side bodies and the engagement of the humerus back into the shoulder socket.
  
• Surya namaskar: Add the spirals of the arms as refinements in surya namaskar. Pay close attention in the transition from plank pose to caturanga: once you've engaged through the arms, bend your elbows slightly wide to the side as you rotate your forearms in. Your index knuckles will get heavier from this action. Keep them rooted into the floor as you externally rotate the upper arms and move into caturanga. In cobra pose, start with a fullness on the inside and a softness on the outside, then engage through the arms. As in caturanga, bend the elbows slightly out to the sides (without losing the engagement of the upper arms to the back plane!) to initiate the expanding spiral through the forearms, then keeping the index knuckles rooted, spin the upper arms out and stretch the pose.
• Test the spirals of your arms: To see which arm tends to spin more externally and which tends to spin more internally, try this: Bring your arms out in front of you palms face up, as if carrying a tray. Turn your right palm down keeping your left palm up. Then turn both hands the other way, left palm down and right palm up. Do this several times and notice if there's resistance in the muscles of the forearm when you move toward the external rotation (toward palm up). If so, that arm is more internally rotated. In an informal survey of Nerds, it was unanimously the case that the side where the forearm was more rotated inward (ie, resisted turning the palm face up) was the one that had more trouble in the wrist, elbow and shoulder.
  
• Prasarita padottanasana with shoulder stretch: When the hands are clasped behind the back, it's more natural to place the hand on top that corresponds to the forearm that is more internally rotated. Let me say that another way: the hand that's on top will naturally spiral in more because of the form of the pose, and so it will be more natural to place that hand on top. Notice if that's what you do when you clasp hands. Now bring the opposite hand on top. I've found that if you practice these clasps with the more externally rotated arm on top, it will help balance out the musculature through the arms and shoulders over time. Do the shoulder stretch this way. When you activate the spirals of the arms, to get the forearms to turn in more bend your elbows and widen them, pressing the index knuckles toward each other, then spin the upper arms out.
• Virabhadrasana 2, Trikonasana, Vasistasana: Both of these poses have the arms in the side plane. In this plane, you'll know the spirals of the arms are balanced when the eye of the elbow (the soft, inner part) is pointing in the same direction as the crown of your head (i.e. straight up in Vira 2). I find it hard to get that degree of spin without some resistance so try holding your forearm in with one hand while you externally rotate the upper arm.
• Parsvakonasana: This is an overhead plane pose, so it's a little trickier. One way to feel the spirals is to back out of the top arm so that the arm is pointing straight ahead (front plane) instead of overhead. Here, lengthen the side of the torso and draw in so that the upper arm moves back. Keeping that spiral the forearm in by pressing the index finger toward the floor, as if into some resistance; then rotate the upper arm out to get it more deeply integrated into the shoulder socket. With this action, now stretch the arm overhead. When the arm is in the overhead plane, you can re-activate the spirals, spinning the upper arm out first (so the palm faces back behind you) to widen the upper back, and then spinning the forearm in (so the palm faces the floor).
• Adho mukha svanasana: Again, we have the arms in the overhead plane, so the outer spiral of the upper arm must come first. But remember, before you engage the spirals, first soften and open, and then engage the arms to the back plane. For the expanding spiral, lift the inner upper arms toward the sky, and then re-anchor through the index knuckles into the earth to feel the shoulders connect more deeply on the back. Keeping those two spirals going, extend the pose.
• Adho mukha vrksasana: I found that working the spirals of the arms in handstand helped to keep my wrist clear. When you're up, just like in dog pose take the inner upper arms back, and keeping that action strong, press again through the index knuckles.
• Pinca mayurasana: This one is a great pose to play with the spirals, because you can change the foundation to emphasize one or the other. Try the pose with the palms face up (with your wrists pressing up into a block for extra stability). This emphasizes a strong external rotation of the upper arms. (If you have a practice buddy, have them press your thumb pads to the floor while you're in the pose to really feel this). If you start with your arms in this position, the external rotation of the upper arms will give a widening in the upper back once you're up (overhead plane). With that established, try flipping the palms back down or to hold the edges of the block to re-engage the shoulder girdle.
• Parsvakonasana bound: The bound poses can certainly feel tangled, but if you use the spirals of the arms you can get more space for the bind. Try it first in a prep pose, with the top hand just to the small of your back (back of your hand pressing up against your back). Here, lift through the side of the torso and then draw the upper arm back in the shoulder socket. Keep that as you work with the spirals. To get more of the expanding spiral, rotate the forearm in so that the pinky presses up against your back. Notice how you can get more length and space this way. Now spin the upper arm out to open the shoulder girdle back. Once you feel it in the prep pose, try the full bind.
• Eka pada rajakapotasana thigh stretch: If you do this pose with the back hand pressing down into the foot (fingertips forward and elbow to the sky), the spirals of the arms will help open the shoulder stretch even here. Press your index knuckle down into your foot, widening your elbow slightly to the side, then lift and open the upper arm out.
• Dhanurasana: I wasn't sure I'd ever like this pose again, as it would always pull on my wrist in an uncomfortable way. But it works! Hold your ankles with your feet flexed, and when you're up, press your index knuckles up against your ankles (that's expanding spiral) and then spin the upper arms out.
• Purvottanasana: You can try this pose with the fingertips pointing forward, to the sides, or back. My favorite is forward, because it gives me the greatest access to the expanding spiral (turning the forearms in toward the midline), which in turn gives me greatest access to the contracting spiral (lifting the inner upper arms and spinning them out), which just feels great.
• Setubandha: I figured out a new way to do this while playing with the spirals. Before going up, bend your elbows to the floor (fingertips point up, palms face in). Lift through your inner body and soften into the floor. Now root the upper arms down. Keeping that, turn the palms to face forward, as if pressing up against some resistance. The upper back will widen and you'll have greater access to opening the upper arms in external rotation. Now go up, keeping the palms face forward.
  
• Urdhva Dhanurasana: This was the pose that was the pose that was always hardest with the wrist injury, and it was where I really healed my wrist. Start by pressing to the top of your head and pause there to engage all of the principles. Plug the arm bones back through muscle energy before working on the spirals. When on top of your head, the arms are in the front plane, so spin the forearms in first, bringing the elbows slightly wide to access this more. Then keeping heavy through the index knuckles, rotate the upper arms out and go up. Once in the pose, the spirals are reversed. So to re-engage, draw the inner upper arms back, then keeping them moving back, re-anchor through the index knuckles. Oh this feels good.
• Sarvangasana: This pose requires a lot of power and opening in the upper back to get all of the vertebrae off the floor, and the spirals of the arms really help. Go to plow pose first, then clasp hands behind your back (place the hand on top that tends to outer spiral more, as we did in the earlier shoulder stretches). Bend your elbows into the floor, bringing your clasped hands up away from the floor. Once you have strong muscle energy, with the upper arms down, turn the forearms in (index knuckles toward each other) and the open the upper arms out. Notice how that helps to draw the bottom tips of the shoulder blades more to the midline. Curl your head back and then placing your hands on your back stretch up into the pose. If you find that any of your vertebrae are on the floor, go back to the clasped hand variation to re-engage the spirals and lift off.
  

Action vs. Form: How to REALLY Engage Muscle Energy

It took me a few years of wrist pain to finally figure out how to really engage Muscle Energy. It turns out that getting the arm bone back is a result of Muscle Energy, not a substitute for it. Interestingly, you actually can get your arm bone back in the shoulder socket without really doing Muscle Energy at all. Muscle Energy has to draw from the periphery (in this case the fingertips) to the core, and I had been shortcutting all along.

It was just a form, with no action.

The difference between form and action is really important, because if you seek form, that's exactly what you'll get. Nice lines, perhaps. But there's more at stake in yoga, or there can be, because you'll only get as much as you seek.

To me, all action begins with some kind of longing, and usually if you dig deep enough you find a longing to connect, whether it be to yourself or to the world around you, and to self-express. So when we talk about action in asana practice, it's fueled by an inner longing, and form will naturally follow in the way of beauty. What's at stake is that you can create something that is truly expressive of yourself, if you choose. What's at stake is the possibility of art.

In Anusara Yoga, action is a balance between Muscle Energy (which draws you in to your core) and Organic Energy (the expressive extension out of your core). Last year I heard John Friend talk about Muscle Energy as not merely moving from periphery to core (as it does), but as the core, in its longing to know itself, drawing all of the parts of the self to it. I love this image, and it fueled my practice in a new way.

Whatever image works for you, whatever infuses your action with meaning, start there. And bring your whole self to it. Muscle Energy starts from a longing inside, and the longing is so strong that it pulls all the parts to it. Then the form you take is not just a form, but the highest expression of yourself.

And on top of that, it will really help clear your wrist.

HOW TO REALLY ENGAGE MUSCLE ENERGY

Whether you think of it from outside-in or inside-out, Muscle Energy will draw all of the parts of yourself into your core. For the upper body, the most peripheral parts are the fingertips, so we start there.

Bring your hands into anjali mudra, with the palms together, and then turn the mudra upside-down so you can see the heels of your hands. If you're just gently touching the hands together, you'll see a gap between the heels of the hands. This is the carpal tunnel, and it's supposed to be there (it's called a tunnel, after all).

Now just press your hands up against each other, and notice how the tunnel can easily flatten. This is what often happens when we're weightbearing on the hands, and it can be the cause of all kinds of wrist, hand, and shoulder issues.

Still with the hands in this inverted anjali mudra, now just gently press the hands into each other so that the four corners of the hands (index knuckle, thumb pad, pinkie knuckle and outer heel of the hand) are touching, and then claw the finger pads into each other. You'll feel and probably even see a lift in the tunnel between the heels of your hands, and this is a healthy engagement. Also notice how the muscles around the underside of the wrist (where the retinaculum holds all of the connective tissue of the flexor muscles in the forearm in place) hugs to the bone. Again, this is a sign of a healthy engagement in the wrist.

When you're weightbearing on the hands, this is the kind of engagement and action you want to create: the four corners of the hands evenly pressing into the earth; the fingertips clawing so that the muscles of the underside of the forearm tone and lift; and the carpal tunnel (i.e. the heel of the hand) light.

The thing is, for many of us, the muscles on the underside of the forearm (flexors of the wrist and fingers) are weak, and so the muscles on the backside of the forearm (generally extensors) get bound up trying to compensate. When they are tight like this, they can pull on the carpal bones in the hand, getting the carpal bones locked up. More significantly, when the flexors are weak, the wrist will get jammed (and carpal tunnel syndrome is one of the results).

PRINCIPLES:

• Open to Grace includes setting the foundation of the pose, and when the hands are part of the foundation, that means the creases of the wrists (where the forearms meet the carpal bones in your hands) should line up parallel to each other. It also includes anchoring the 4 corners of the hands: the index knuckle (the knuckle where the index finger meets the palm or the first metacarpal), the thenar eminence (cool term for the heel of the thumb), the pinky knuckle (again, where it meets the palm), and the hypothenar eminence (that's the outer heel of the hand).
• Muscle Energy is the action of longing, drawing all of the parts of yourself to the core. In the hands, it starts from the fingertips and flows evenly through the arms all the way to the active focal point. (Or you could look at it inside-out, as the core of yourself calling all the parts of yourself into service.) As a result, the head of the arm bone will move back into the shoulder socket, but remember this is a result. If you prioritize this as a form, you could easily not do the action.
• Shoulder Loop brings you deeper into the heart, and you can go there once a strong Muscle Energy to the core is established. When you activate the Shoulder Loop (palate back, shoulder blades curling into the heart), the action in your hands should not really change.
• Organic Energy is the balancing action of Muscle Energy. Without Organic Energy, which flows from the focal point to the peripheral parts, we can get too bound up, and the asana fails to find its fullest expression. In the hands, Organic Energy will stretch out through the fingernails, without losing the engagement of the undersides of the arms.
  

PRACTICE:

• Hands and knees: just feel where the weight falls on your hands if you don't add any action. For most people, it will sink into the heel of the hand, flattening the carpal tunnel, and the index finger knuckle will be lighter than the other corners of the hand (if not lifted altogether). Just like you did in anjali mudra, anchor the four corners of each hand, and then draw Muscle Energy through the arms by clawing the fingertips to the floor (without lifting the ridge of knuckles where the fingers meet the palm). You will feel the muscles on the undersides of the forearms fire, and perhaps start to burn. As I said above, these muscles are generally weaker, and when you first learn to engage them, it will be intense.
• Downward facing dog: When you shift back from hands and knees to dog pose, notice what happens to the weight in your hands. Does it fall to the heels? Does the index knuckle get light? Feel what it's like to lift the armbones up toward the sky and then soften the heart. That's effective, to some extent, in aligning the shoulders, but if it's just a lift, it's not an action, it's a change in form. Now draw actively from the fingertips all the way up into the core of the heart. The weight will shift toward the fronts of your hands (fingertips and the ridge of knuckles where the fingers meet the palm), the undersides of your arms will tone and lift, and the arm bones will move to the back plane. Keep that, and then actively press the bottom tips of the shoulder blades into the heart (chest toward your thighs). As you engage more of this shoulder loop, watch that the weight in your hands doesn't shift to the heels of the hands.
• Surya namaskar: move through plank, caturanga, and cobra pose keeping this engagement.
  
• Pencils: This is a trick I learned from the wise Ellen Saltonstall. On hands and knees, place the tips of pencils in the carpal tunnel (at the heel of each hand) to remind yourself that this part should energetically lift when you're weightbearing on the hands. Then try to move through a round of surya namaskar with the pencils there. It will give you a sense of how much you can draw in and up from the hands to the core.
• Handstand: Feel in handstand where the weight falls. Get the four corners of your hands rooted, and then claw into the floor to lift more the undersides of the forearms in this pose. You can do handstand on ridgetops (up on the knuckles where the fingers meet the palm, with the heel of the hand lifted and the thumb kicked back for support) or even on fingertips to build strength and tone.
• Vasistasana
• Bakasana
• Mayurasana: in preparation for mayurasana, come onto hands and knees and turn hand out so that the fingertips point back toward your knees. Now lift the heel of the hand off the floor and claw the fingertips into the mat. As you do, bend your elbow back and watch how as you engage Muscle Energy, the retinaculum (around the wrist) will draw in. (To see the difference, just flatten the heel of the hand to the floor and see how it will tend to puff out.) Now, keeping the engagement in the hands and forearms, soften again in your upper back and then extend back out through the arm, bringing the heel of the hand toward the floor without losing the muscle tone. You can watch the retinaculum (it should stay toned and flat against the bones) to make sure you've kept good engagement. Do both arms, and then try mayurasana.
• Urdhva dhanurasana (OK, do some thigh stretches first): on your way up into the pose, stop on the top of your head and find the engagement of Muscle Energy from the hands all the way in. Notice the difference between pulling your arm bones back into the socket (form) and drawing from the fingertips all the way up into the core (here the palate, but it shifts to the pelvis when you're in the pose). The arm bones will go back, and the result will be more powerful.
• Urdhva dhanurasana #2: Go up into the pose, and then draw in from your fingertips to your pelvis so much that the heels of your hands start to get light, and the arm bones tip back toward your pelvis. Keep that much engagement in the arms, and then pump your chest through your arms (shoulder loop) to bring your chest and arms more vertical.
• Urdhva dhanurasana #3: By the way, this is how you prepare for ticktocks (jumping from wheel through handstand to downward-facing dog). The armbones have to stay back from Muscle Energy, and then the chest pumps through.
• Handstand scorpion: Why not? OK, scorpion will really open up if you can get the weight out of your wrists and more forward onto your fingertips and the ridges of the hands. Try it.