Maya and the Financial Crisis: What does this have to do with your sacrum?

I've been struggling to understand the origins of this financial crisis, and for as many times as my sweetie explains it to me, it still seems obscure. But the other day I finally understood, at least, why it's so obscure: the financial system was built on bad maya, the power of concealment (also called illusion, delusion, deception).

My teacher Douglas Brooks always says "you don't experience the world, you experience your experience of the world." That's maya. It's the representational experience of reality, because we can have no direct experience of reality. For many yoga traditions, this is a problem: maya stands between you and the world. From the perspective of the Rajanaka Tantra, this is your empowerment: maya is what allows you to negotiate and navigate your experience. In this way, language is a great example of maya. We use words to gain access to reality (things, thoughts, emotions), but no one would say that they are identical with the thing you're trying to express. They are representations. They point to a reality that is not the same thing as the words you're using.

We are constantly constructing the maya of our own experience. The thing is, we can create maya that is useful and empowering, in that it brings our experience into alignment with reality, or we can create maya that is delusional and disconnected from reality. To my understanding, this is what happened with the financial markets: the maya of the markets was not aligned to reality.

In Anusara Yoga, we use the Universal Principles of Alignment as a kind of maya that gives us access to a deeper reality, a deeper experience of ourselves. And this is the best kind of maya, because the principles are empowering. Quite simply, they work. Sometimes, however, we create ineffective maya around the principles.

I've noticed this in particular with Inner Spiral. This principle takes the thighbones back into the hip sockets and draws the top of the sacrum and lumbar spine in and up, creating a more lordotic curve in the lower back. It's easy to shortcut and just stick the butt out, or just arch the lower back, creating a form that looks like Inner Spiral. But that's a maya, like the one created in the financial system, that will not be empowering over time. The actions of Inner Spiral must be powered by the legs to create alignment; the curve in the low back is a result of this action.

Today we'll use the principles of alignment as an effective maya to open the lower back and create stability around the sacro-iliac joints. In a healhty S.I. joint, the sacrum should be able to slide between the ilia (pelvic bones) in movement. For example, in walking, when one knee lifts in front, the top of the sacrum will tip into the body but the pelvic bone should anchor downward. If the S.I. joint is stuck, you'll feel the hip lift with the leg/sacrum, or you'll feel the sacrum tuck under with the pelvis. Here's the cool thing: to re-align the sacro-iliac joint, all you have to do is "mimic" good alignment, and it will slide right back into place. (See the "walking in place" bullet to learn how to reset your own SI joint.)

Let's go through it:

PRINCIPLES:

• Open to Grace: Set up a good foundation, with the feet parallel and the pelvis squared off to the front.
  
• Muscle Energy: The component of Muscle Energy that hugs the legs and outer hips to the midline is the critical aspect of this principle that stabilizes the sacro-iliac joint.
  
• Inner Spiral: With Inner Spiral, the top of the sacrum and the lumbar spine draw in to the body and up. Knowing this, when I first started practicing with this principle I substituted arching the lower back for the action of Inner Spiral. This is the kind of maya that is like a house of cards, and it will collapse over time. The action of Inner Sprial must be initiated by the legs in order to be effective. Specifically, it's the inner upper thighs drawing back and widening into the resistance of Muscle Energy that moves the lower back.
• Outer Spiral: For the purposes of aligning the sacro-iliac joints, the important part of Outer Spiral is that it wraps the outer hips back and under without compromising the curve in the lower back established by Inner Spiral. This creates a dynamic alignment around the sacro-iliac joints, with the sacrum moving in and up while the pelvic bones move down.
  
• Organic Energy: When the pelvis is the focal point (standing, seated, supine poses), the expansion of Organic Energy splits at the bottom of the sacrum. This means that while the pelvic bones (most of which are below the bottom of the sacrum) move down, the sacrum moves up, again creating a dynamic alignment at the sacro-iliac joints.

PRACTICE:

• Sukhasana: Sitting cross-legged, place your hands on your inner knees. As you engage Muscle Energy in the legs and hug to the midline, your knees will lift up into your hands. Use your hands as resistance to magnify that action. As you do, you'll feel the muscles around the sacrum area tone. This is a crucial action that you'll create throughout practice to help stabilize around the SI joints.
  
• Tadasana: Start with a block between your upper inner thighs, so that you can feel Muscle Energy to the midline and how the action of Inner Spiral is powered by the legs. Hug into the block, and feel that embrace all the way up through the pelvis, so the muscles around the sacrum tone. Keeping the legs strong, turn the inner thighs back (block back) until the lower back arches and the top of the sacrum draws in and up. Make sure the upper body isn't tipping forward to achieve this (that would be ineffective maya). Keep that action going, and then add Outer Spiral, wrapping the pelvic bones around and down. Note that the sacrum draws up and the pelvic bones go down. This is good alignment.
• Walking in place: This is the best maya I have yet found to re-align the sacro-iliac joints. Standing in tadasana, engage the legs and add Inner Spiral, turning the inner thighs back. Then lift one knee to just above 90 degrees (the side where the SI is out, if you know which one; otherwise, alternate between sides). As the knee bends in toward your chest, it will help you to get more Inner Spiral on that leg. Accentuate that, turning both inner upper thighs in, back and wide, until you feel the top of the sacrum tip in and up into your body. Keeping that, draw the pelvic bones firmly down (this is Outer Spiral, and Organic Energy), using your hand on your hip as needed. Then release the leg. Do this 2-3 times on the side.
• Ardha Utkatasana (Downhill skier): In utkatasana, rest your hands on your thighs, right above the knees. Use your hands to help hug the legs to the midline, without letting the knees knock in. Hold the midline until you feel the muscles around the lower back/sacrum tone. Then add Inner Spiral by turning the legs in and back and wide. (Watch that the knees don't turn in, and watch that it's not the upper back that's opening.) This will create a curve deep in the lower back. Keep that, and then draw the pelvic bones down and under as you lift and extend up out of the belly.
• Parsvakonasana (and other standing poses): I originally learned to get the thighs back in the hip sockets by leaning forward in the chest and sticking the butt out. But this stopped being effective over time. Try this instead: bring your front forearm to the front knee, and use your other hand to feel the engagement of the sacrum/lower back. Notice when you come into the pose, before adding any actions, what the shape of the lower back is. For many of us, it will be flat, espeically if the back thigh is poking forward. Now engage the legs by lifting and spreading the toes, and sweeping the feet energetically toward each other. This will create a muscle tone all the way up the legs and through the pelvis. Now add Inner Spiral. As the inner thighs turn in and back and wide, the chest won't need to push forward. Fell how the action of the legs affects your lower back. When you get Inner Spiral, the top of the sacrum and the lumbar vertebrae will draw up into the body. Then add the Outer Spiral and Organic Energy without losing the curve in the lumbar.
  
• Parivrtta parsvakonasana (and parivrtta trikonasana, ardha chandrasana and utkatasana): Twists are among the most challenging poses to stabilize the SI joint, because in the effort to deepen the twist, the pelvic bones and sacrum can move at different rates and get knocked out of alignment. Try this pose first from lunge position (with the back heel lifted). Starting in the straight ahead lunge, take your arms to the sides and squeeze the midline, as if giving someone a hug, until you feel a tone in the lower back. That will create an engagement that stabilizes the pelvic bones and sacrum in alignment. As you move into the twist, the foundation of the twist (pevlis/sacrum) should remain stabile (note that the back leg side will tend to drop). Keep the legs strong and hugging in to the midline, and then lift powerfully through the back thigh and widen the inseam of the leg, pelvis and waistline more to the back leg side. Now twist from that place, without letting the pelvis or back leg drop. Once you're deeper in the twist, draw the outer hips back and extend.
  
• Ardha makarasana: Start on your belly, with the hands placed for cobra pose, and then bend one knee in so that the shin is vertical and the foot flexed. Notice if the pelvis turns to the back leg side when you do, and if so, square it off again so that both hip points are facing straight down toward the floor. Then engage the legs and press the knees into the floor; notice how when the knees go down, the tops of the thighs lift and this will tip the top of the sacrum into the body. Keep that, but now anchor the pelvic bones back and down until you can get the pelvis more flush to the floor. Then use your arms to come up into a cobra pose in the upper body. As you move, keep both knees pressing down firmly, and both hip points facing straight ahead. Then extend organically, rooting the pelvis and legs back as you draw the sacrum and lower belly forward and out of the pelvis. This pose, too, can be good for setting the SI joints back into alignment.
  
• Ardha bekhasana: Try this thigh stretch with all of the same alignment points as is ardha makarasana. You may find that the knee on the leg you're stretching wants to lift off the floor. If it does, that means that the top of the thigh is pushing forward, flattening the lower back. You want the stretch to be more in the belly of the muscles, not near the groin area, for the safest stretch.
  
• Supta virasana: This is always a good pose for working on the SI joints, because you can see the alignment in the pelvis very clearly. When you set up in virasana, make sure that the inner thighs are flowing down and that this creates a natural curve in the lower back. You may find that one thigh is more pushed up than the other. If so, manually Inner Spiral the opposite leg to make more room for that thigh to rest back. This will also help level out the pelvis and sacrum for resting back into supta virasana. As you lie back,
  
• Janu sirsasana: As a twist, this pose can be challenging to find the optimal alignment around the sacrum. Start facing between the legs, rather than twisted over the front leg, and create a strong muscular action to the midline that you feel all the way up through the pelvis. The back leg (bent leg) side will need more Inner Spiral, to get the top of the sacrum to draw in and up as you twist to the front. The front leg side will need more Outer Spiral, rooting the pelvic bones back and into the earth. Together, the sacrum will be held in a dynamic alignment.
  
• Ardha matsyendrasana: Again, create good alignment for this pose even before going into the twist. To stabilize the sacrum, hug the legs and hips to the midline, using one arm crossed around the front knee to help create that action. Then turn the inner thighs in and down, until the top of the sacrum lifts in and up and the lumbar has its natural curve. Then anchor the pelvic bones down, especially on the front leg side, without flattening the lower back. Keeping all of that, twist from the back side toward the front. The pelvic bones should not move at all (although the front hip will try to draw back, keep it anchored).
  
• Upavista konasana: In seated forward bends, like upavista konasana, the spine will be in a rounded form but the top of the sacrum still draws in and up. Start in a stage 1 forward bend, with the spine vertical and your hands supporting you behind the hips. Engage the legs toward the midline, and then turn the inner upper thighs in and down and wide, until you feel the lift at the top of the sacrum and lower back. You must be able to keep this lift in the upright position before moving into stage 2, the forward bend. As you bring your hands in front and take the forward bend, keep the upper inner thighs pressing strongly into the floor to create good action in the sacrum even while grounding the pelvic bones down.
  

Initiation to Inversions

Students who come to Anusara Yoga from other yoga traditions often ask me "why don't you ever teach headstand and shoulderstand?" The answer is, I do teach them, but not as commonly as handstand and forearm stand, and the reason is that they are considered to be more advanced inversions that require a certain level of strength and openness in the shoulders in order for students to do them safely.

When I teach inversions, I follow a certain order of diksha. Diksha usually means "initiation", and when you get it, that means "you got it" in that it has become your experience. I use the term here to mean the way in which we initiate ourselves to progressive levels of deepening experience by making the teachings our own.

So for inversions, the most basic level of diksha is downward-facing dog. It's technically an inversion, with the head below the heart below the pelvis. And you're weight-bearing, but not fully weight-bearing, on the arms, so it's a good place to learn the shoulder alignment that will support handstand and the other inversions.

Good shoulder alignment for all inversions will mean that the head of the armbones (humerus) are rooted back into the shoulder sockets, the shoulder blades hug onto the back, and there's a balanced, lordotic curve in the neck created from the Shoulder and Skull Loops (see the principles section below for how to create this).

Creating this alignment gets progressively harder as the surface area of the foundation increases. That's because the mobility of the shoulder girdle decreases when more of it is part of the foundation. What's more, the stakes also get progressively higher, because when you're weight-bearing on the head (as in headstand and shoulderstand) the potential risks for the neck are greater (as are the potential benefits). It's a double-edged sword.

The paradox is that it's much easier to balance in poses like shoulder stand and headstand for precisely the same reason: there's more foundation, so the pose is more stable. I think this is the reason these poses are often taught before handstand and forearm stand -- they're simply easier to do, although they're much harder to do with good alignment.

To ensure a healthy alignment in the shoulders and neck, it helps to build your inversion practice from poses where the alignment is easier to create and the stakes are lower, toward those where, due to decreased mobility in the shoulder area, the alignment is more difficult and the stakes are higher.

The sequence of initiations for inversions goes like this:

• adho mukha svanasana (downward-facing dog)
• L-pose (handstand with the feet on the wall, hips at 90 degrees)
• adho mukha vrksasana (handstand)
• pinca mayurasana (forearm stand)
• sirsasana 1 (headstand, with hands clasped behind the head)
• sirsasana 2 and other arm variations
• sarvangasana (shoulder stand)
  

PRINCIPLES:

• Open to Grace: Part of this first principle is a willingness to back off, even if you've been doing shoulder stand for 10 years in your yoga practice, and really see if you have created an alignment that serves you in each progressive stage of diksha. For the shoulder alignment, a key component of Opening to Grace is making space for the inner body to expand fully, especially through the sides of the torso from the waistline all the way through the sides of the throat.
  
• Muscle Energy: When Muscle Energy is activated, the upper arm bones will root back into the shoulder sockets. This will create the greatest range of motion in the shoulder girdle. For the alignment of the neck, the throat will also move back with muscle energy (see the YogaNerd Blog posting on neck alignment); this action will line up the head and neck with the rest of the spine, and is particularly important for those students who have a forward carriage (AKA computer syndrome, where the head juts forward of the spine).
  
• Shoulder Loop: The Shoulder Loop begins at the palate and flows back, tipping the head slightly back to create a lordotic curve in the neck. The trapezius muscles engage to draw the energy down the back of the neck and toward the bottom tips of the shoulder blades, so the flow of the muscles in the neck and upper back is toward the pelvis. Lastly, as it pierces the heart center, it lifts the front of the chest and chin.
• Skull Loop balances the Shoulder Loop, by lengthening the back of the neck. It initiates in the palate, just like the Shoulder Loop, but extends up the back of the skull and down the front of the forehead, creating extension in the neck. These two loops create the optimal, lordotic curve in the neck. If you tend to have a flat neck, you'll need to emphasize the Shoulder Loop to create balance; conversely, if you tend to have a hyper-lordotic curve in your neck, you'll need to emphasize the Skull Loop to find balance.
• Organic Energy adds length and extension from the active focal point in all directions. In handstand and forearm stand, the focal point is the heart. In headstand and shoulder stand, it's the palate, which means that the skull will root down into the earth while everything else (especially the trapezius muscles and shoulder blades) lift up toward the sky, creating space in the neck.

PRACTICE:

Here's a sequence to move progressively through the inversions, paying attention to the diksha at each stage.

• Surya namaskar: warm up the shoulder girdle, paying special attention to keeping the armbones plugged in to the shoulder sockets
• Lunge pose with cactus arms: In a high lunge, bend your elbows to the sides, palms facing forward. Once you have established the first two principles, lift your chin and press your head back, drawing the shoulder blades down your back and lifting your chest. Keep the energetic flow of the shoulder blades moving down your back as you stretch your arms overhead.
• Parsvakonasana, trikonasana, virabhadrasana 1: In these standing poses, to build the strength of the Shoulder Loop, practice at first with you top hand (or both hands, in Vira 1) behind your head to provide active resistance for Shoulder Loop. You'll be able to feel the bottom tips of the shoulder blades curling into the heart.
• Prasarita padottansana with hands clasped behind back: This pose is a great, non-weight-bearing place to learn the actions of Muscle Energy and Shoulder Loop against the flow of gravity. Go through each of the 5 principles here, making sure that the shoulder blades lift toward the pelvis even as you stretch the arms overhead.
• Adho mukha svanasana: To know that you're ready for handstand, check in in downward-facing dog to ensure that you're able to keep the armbones rooting back (that would be up, in this pose) with the upper back soft (the shoulder blades pressing into the heart center).
• L-shaped handstand: Set up on hands and knees with your hands a leg's distance away from the wall, feet at the wall (NOTE: this will feel like a short stance if you've measured one leg's distance, but this is how it is). With the arms strong and the upper back soft, extend energy down into your hands as you walk your feet up the wall. Just go to 90 degrees with the hips. Because you're not fully weight-bearing on the arms, this pose is a great place to learn the actions of the shoulders for more advanced inversions. The shoulder blades should lift up the back toward the heart center.
• Handstand: Now try kicking up!
• Forearm stand prep (aka dolphin pose): I love this form of the pose, with the hands clasped and the outer forearms pressing into the floor. It's a little easier than the classical form (with palms flat, shoulder distance apart), but it has less foundation (no palms) and so is easier to align. Keep your head lifted as you go up. This will really build the strength of the shoulder girdle for headstand.
  
• Prasarita padottansana 2 ways: First, go back to the form of the pose with the hands clasped behind your back. You should be able to keep the arm bones back and the shoulder blades lifting here before attempting headstand (it's the same actions in headstand). As a preparation for sirsasana 2, take your fingertips to the floor, with the elbows bent and engage Muscle Energy from the hands all the way up to the focal point (pelvis). The armbones should move to the back plane (here, that's forward, toward the wall in front of you) and the shoulder blades should lift up the back. You'll feel the trapezius muscles flowing up, rather than bunching around your neck. This is a crucial place to learn alignment before attempting sirsasana 2.
• Sirsasana 1: In the set up, clasp your hands and set up your elbows shoulder distance apart. Line it up so that your wrists are not bent either in or out (straight line from the hands all the way to the elbows). The placement of your head will depend on the curve of your neck, but you'll want to set up in way that the neck can have a natural, lordotic curve. As you place the head further back (toward the crown or even the back of the skull) that will decrease the curve; as you place the head further forward, toward the forehead, that will increase the curve. So if you have a flat neck, your head will probably be touching the ground closer to your forehead. Place the radius and ulna (the two bones of the forearms) so that they stack vertically, and press the outer forearms (from the outer wrists all the way up through the elbows) into the floor to engage even Muscle Energy through the arms. As you go up into the pose, keep that alignment; it's common to roll toward the back of the head in the transition, so keep the actions of the arms and the lift in the shoulder blades strong. You will be weight-bearing on your head and arms, so yes, your head will press firmly down into the floor. That part of Organic Energy will give you a simultaneous lift up out of the palate focal point through the feet.
• Post-headstand alignment: Immediately after sirsasana, rather than moving to child’s pose, where the neck is released in a forward position that can pull on the cervical spine, transition to a pose where you can hold the neck in a neutral alignment. One good option is to go straight to downward-facing dog, keeping the back of the neck engaged and curved by lifting the ears in line with the upper arms. (Another option is to set up good alignment in vajrasana, wtih hands clasped behind your head to provide active resistance for aligning the neck) Give yourself several breaths in either pose before moving on.
• Sirsasana 2 (and other arm variations): These are more advanced, as they are more weight-bearing on the head and neck. The paradox is that, as the foundation starts to peel away, you will have greater mobility in the shoulder girdle, but it becomes harder to balance and the stakes (the health of your neck) increase. Make sure you can do prasarita padottansana with the fingertips on the floor as described above before attempting sirsasana 2. Set up with a natural, lordotic curve in the neck, and KEEP THAT as you go up by creating strong actions of Muscle Energy and Shoulder Loop. The arm bones must stay plugged into the shoulder sockets and the shoulder blades must continue to lift up the back for this to be healthy on your neck. You can advance to other variations (sirsasana 3, niralamba sirsasana) safely only as you keep these actions.
• Backbends: all of the backbends are great preparations for shoulder stand (and headstand, for that matter) because of the emphasis on the shoulder loop. To build the strength and openness needed for shoulder stand, do several backbends with a focus on curling the head back and shoulder blades into the heart. I recommend setubandha (which is very much like shoulder stand), urdhva dhanurasana and dwi pada viparita dandasana.
• Sarvangasana: This pose requires an enormous amount of power in the Shoulder Loop to keep a curve in the back of the neck and all of the vertebrae lifted off the floor. To make the pose easier to perform – and easier to hold for an extended period of time – try using one or more folded blankets (with a mat folded on top, for traction) under the upper arms for this pose. The head will tip back to the floor, emphasizing a lordotic curve in the neck and helping to lift the vertebrae off the floor. No vertebrae should touch the floor (or your mat, or your blanket) while you're in this pose. As soon as you feel a vertebra touch down, it's time to come down out of the pose and re-set.
• Post-sarvangasana: Matsyasana (fish pose) is often taught as a counter-pose to shoulder stand, as it creates an exaggerated curve in the neck while weight-bearing. However, if shoulder stand is performed with good alignment (like any pose in yoga), the neck will not be flattened or strained, and there will be no need for a counter-pose. Rather, it's nice to just go back to a neutral place. I like laying supine, with the chin lifted for natural curve, and the arms to the sides in cactus position, for easy integration of the shoulders.

When You Feel Stuck, Take Flight

Last week I lost my voice, and I found myself feeling very stuck inside my own head with no way to really communicate with others from my sick bed. (I tried texting, I tried instant messaging, believe me, I tried everything, because I wanted to talk and feel connected.) So instead I read, and one of the books I read was The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, a memoir by Jean-Dominique Bauby of his explorations of consciousness.

Bauby had suffered a stroke that cut his spinal cord off from his brain, and this left him with no mobility in his body other than the movement of his left eyelid, a condition known as "locked-in syndrome." He describes his condition in the first few paragraphs of the book, and the possibility of such extreme isolation is terrifying. Except that he immediately turns his situation upside-down, by saying something like "...my mind takes off like a butterfly. There is so much to do."

So much to do?!? And then he goes off on these journeys through consciousness, in the infinity of memory and imagination.

What inspired me so much about his memoir was the recognition that, no matter how stuck you may feel, no matter how much the circumstances of life limit you, consciousness always offers the possibility of an empowered engagement, the possibility of expansion.

Obviously, Bauby's example is extreme. But we all feel stuck sometimes, and not just feel stuck, but can be truly limited or oppressed by circumstances beyond our control. Yoga is the invitation to engage every experience toward empowerment and expansion. As Bauby shows us, that possibility is always open to us.

When you feel stuck in your asana practice, remember there's always a way to expand the experience, and a good place to start is by expanding the inside (Open to Grace), where the possibilities are vast, and expanding into the back body, which re-affirms this inner expansion.

This week, we're going to look at how to open space for the hips and lower back by aligning and strengthening the psoas muscle, particularly by moving into the back body through the actions of Pelvic and Kidney Loops.

The psoas muscle has two parts that function as antagonists. The lower psoas (from the middle of the lumbar to the lesser trochanter), when activated, will create more lordotic curve in the lower back. The upper part of the psoas (from the origin at T12 down to the middle of the lumbar) creates more extension in the lumbar spine. When both the inner upper thighs (lesser trochanter) and the middle of the lumbar/waistline move to the back plane of the body, the psoas lines up and you'll have optimal curve in the lumbar spine.

The action of expanding to the back waistline is the initiation of both the Pelvic and Kidney Loops. The Pelvic Loop flows back and down, toward the bottom of the sacrum/tailbone juncture; the Kidney Loop flows back and up, lifting the kidney area and the back ribs toward the heart. This split of energy creates a huge expanse in the lower back, to support back bending, taking flight in arm balances, and a healthy opening of the hips.

PRINCIPLES:

• Open to Grace: The first expansion of Opening to Grace brings you into remembrance of the ways in which you are connected to more than just yourself. The fullness of the inner body that comes with Opening to Grace is important to establish and maintain as you add the other actions.
  
• Muscle Energy: Draw all of the parts of your body into connection, especially by hugging the legs and hips to the midline. This strength in the outer shins and tone on the inner thighs is the power you'll need to open up Inner Spiral.
• Inner Spiral, by taking the inner upper thighs back and apart, helps to align the lower fibers of the psoas, which attach at the lesser trochanter of the thigh bones. Inner Spiral will create an increased lordotic curve in the lumbar spine, and this should be an even curve from the top of the sacrum all the way up through the lower back. Often, however, the sacrum and L5-L4 vetebrae are less mobile, and so the curve in the back happens more at the top of the lumbar region. Keeping the fullness of the back body established with the first principle, and really activating Inner Spiral from the power of the upper thighs, will help create a more even lumbar curve.
  
• Kidney/Pelvic Loops: Both of these loops start at the middle of the lumbar (in line with a point below the navel) and flow back, so they bring you back into a connection with the back body. This is initiation is activated in part by the upper fibers of the psoas, which lengthen the lumbar spine. When they flow back, the energy splits in two directions: pelvic loop draws the waistline back and down (toward the bottom of the sacrum) and kidney loop draws the waistline back and up, lifting the back ribs and kidney area. In this way, the two loops create a vast spaciousness in the lower back that is crucial in both forward- and back-bending. In back-bending in particular, these two loops will make space in the kidney/adrenal area so they are not squeezed to intensely by the "bend" in the back (resulting in the well-known backbend headache); they also provide the support for a deepening shoulder loop in backbends.
  
• Organic Energy: When the pelvis is the focal point, the split of Organic Energy down through the tailbone, pelvis and legs, and up through the torso, head, and arms will lengthen the psoas in a healthy way. Organic Energy should extend up out of the pelvis as much through the back waistline as through the front.

PRACTICE:

• Lunge: start with your hands on your front knee (back knee lifted) and bow forward over your front leg. When you do this, you'll have greater access to Inner Spiral on the back leg (lifting the top of the back thigh strongly up to toward the sky). Keeping the back leg that lifted (this aligns the lower psoas and creates a lordotic curve in your lower back), press your hands into your front thigh to help lift the back waistline (below the navel) up. This fires and strengthens the upper psoas. Now split the energy of the two loops from the waistline down and from the waistline up to come upright. Watch that the back thighbone does not pop forward when you do (it's very easy for the butt muscles to override the power of the upper inner thighs). Lastly, stretch organically from the focal point (pelvis) down through the hips and legs and up through the torso and arms. I know, it's just a lunge, but if you get it lined up it's a great stretch for the lower psoas and strengthener for the upper fibers of the psoas.
  
• Anjaneyasana: in this pose, the pelvis will tend to tip more forward, so getting the waistline to move back is somewhat harder, but it's a good strengthener for the upper fibers of the psoas. You can use your hands on your front thigh to help get the power needed to lift the back waistline. Make sure that you keep the base of the back thigh bone (the part above the knee that's pressing into the floor) drawing forward and up, so that the thigh sets back.
  
• Downhill Skier: This is a modified form of utkatasana, with your hands on your knees instead of in the air. It's a good place to work on these actions symmetrically.
• Tadasana: Use a block between your inner thighs to help keep your awareness of the upper inner thighs drawing back. When you do inner spiral, watch that you don't pitch your torso forward. Isolate the inner upper thighs moving back, and the top of the sacrum will draw in and up along with the lumbar vertebrae. Now add the two loops, splitting the energy at the back of the waistline down and then up. Stretch your arms overhead and feel the support in the back. You can take this into a mini backbend, or even drop all the way back to urdhva dhanurasana.
• Parsvakonasana, Virabhadrasana 1, Virabhadrasana 3: All of the standing poses (these 3 are particularly good) for strengthening both the lower and upper fibers of the psoas). Make sure that the actions of the Kidney and Pelvic loops don't override the power of the thighs rooting back. In general, you'll find that the waistline on the front leg side will need to flow back at a faster rate than on the back leg side, particularly in Warrior 3.
• Handstand/Forearm stand: The inversions can be good indicators of the health of the psoas. (I learned this from Doug Keller's Yoga as Therapy book.) If the upper fibers of the psoas are weak or not engaged, the result in inversions will be the well-known "banana back." Try doing your inversions at a wall, about a shin's distance away from the wall so that when you kick up, you can place your feet on the wall with the knees bent at 90 degrees. Once there, hug your legs in and turn your inner thighs back, so you start with natural curve in the lower back and the lower fibers of the psoas are lined up. Then keeping that, draw your waistline back and split the flow of energy down (through the back ribs) and up (through the tailbone) to create length and space in your lower back. Then work to straighten the legs toward balance.
• Handstand leg lifts: OK, now if you really want to build some strength in the upper part of the psoas, try a handstand as close to the wall as you can get, bringing both heels to the wall with straight legs. Keep one heel at the wall while bringing the other in a split down to at least 90 degrees (or toes to touch the floor). To keep from toppling out of the pose, you'll have to draw the waistline back strongly and lift up through the bottom of the sacrum/tailbone area from there. Once you've done the splits, bring the leg back up (this is the hard part), and do the other side.
• Pigeon prep pose: These poses where the hip is externally rotated and flexed (pigeon front leg, baby cradle, agni stambasana, etc.) can be incredibly opening for the psoas, or they can easily pinch the psoas and hip flexors if done out of alignment. The key is to keep the inner thighs flowing back while lifting the waistline so that the front hip doesn't just collapse down onto the front thigh (jamming the hip flexors in the process). So in pigeon prep pose, try this: on the front leg side, manually turn the inner thigh in and back and wide (use your opposite hand, and you'll get the best leverage). Then, keeping that, press your other hand into the floor to help lift your waistline up and off that front thigh. Draw the front hip under as you lift the back ribs, and then extend more into the pose. When you're bowing forward in pigeon pose, make sure that the front of the pelvis and waistline does not collapse down onto the front thigh.
• Thigh stretches: I addressed this somewhat in a previous Nerd blog (5 Steps to a Deeper Thigh Stretch), but what's important to add here is that thigh stretches must include this action of drawing the waistline back to be strengthening for the upper psoas. Try a thigh stretch in pigeon pose, and notice what happens to the waistline when you bring the foot in with a strong action to root the thigh back toward the foot. In general, this will set the lower psoas into good alignment, but the bowl of the pelvis will tend to tip forward and the waistline will collapse forward. So to add the upper part, keep the foot in close and the back thighbone rooting back, and then add the actions of Pelvic and Kidney loops. When you do, the pelvis will tip upright and the waistline can flow back so far that you may be able to rest your waistline on the ball of your foot (this is the "shin pillars" variation).
• Supta virasana: One of the reasons this pose can be painful for the lower back is that it's easy for the lumbar spine to over-arch if the upper part of the psoas is weak. Try setting up the legs with the shins and feet lined up and the inner thighs flowing down (to get a natural curve in the lower back) and then just go back part way into the pose, resting your elbows on the floor. Keep your inner thighs flowing down, and then lift your pelvis up off the floor to get greater access to the Pelvic and Kidney Loop. Draw your waistline back, and lengthen the energy from the waistline out through the buttocks and knees and up through the back ribs. This will bring the spine to a more neutral curve. Then bring your pelvis back to the floor.
• Ustrasana: This is one of the best backbends to feel the opening of the lower back that comes from splitting the energy from the waistline down and up, I think because so much of the lower body is part of the foundation and that helps you to feel the rooting more. Try doing this with a block between your inner thighs to keep the awareness and action of Inner Spiral while you add the loops. (Backbends tend to push the thigh bones forward anyway, so it's very easy for these two loops to override the action of the inner thighs.) Squeeze the block and press the inner thighs back, and keeping that, fill up the back waistline. From the waistline flow down through the sacrum and up through the back ribs, so the lower back is expanded, and then come back into the pose, doing more of the backbend in the upper back. Once you're holding on to your ankles, recreate these same actions. Use the block to maintain inner spiral, and then expand the lower back from the waistline in 2 directions. You can take this into kapotasana or laghu vajrasana variations.
• Urdhva dhanurasana: In backbends, it's hard to feel the waistline flowing back, but you can really access the expansion of energy in two directions from the back waistline. (Think of backbends more as "back extensions" and you've got it.) Go into this pose in stages to really keep the expanded quality of the lower back: 1) place your hands and feet and just lift your pelvis off the floor. Here, hug the legs in and turn the inner thighs down, and then breathe into the back waistline. From the back waistline, extend energy downward (that's toward your knees and feet) so much that your knees come more forward and you get more weight in your feet. Keep anchored in the lower body and then from the waistline, lift the kidney area and back ribs toward your heart, and then curl more in the upper back. 2) Repeat once you've curled onto the top of your head. 3) Repeat again once you're in the full pose. THIS FEELS SO GOOD AND SPACIOUS IN THE LOWER BACK.
• Hip openers: All of the hip openers are great for practicing these actions. Indeed, if you feel stuck in your hips, expanding to the back body through the waistline will help you to find more freedom. As I noted in the pigeon pose description above, any hip opener (where the hip is externally rotated and in flexion) can be either great for the psoas or it can cause tweakiness. The main thing is to keep the inner thighs flowing down while making space by drawing the waistline back. Try baddhakonasana and agni stambasana, for example, to feel this.
• Janu Sirsasana (and other forward bends): The same is true for forward bends. If the waistline collapses onto the front thigh, the energy will get stuck. In janu sirsasana, bow forward and hold the foot from the inside with your opposite hand. Place your front hand on fingertips just wide of the front knee. With the front leg straight and the thigh rooting down into the floor, press strongly through your fingertips into the floor to lift the waistline up and off the front thigh. That's the upper psoas toning. Keep the lift as you draw down through the back of the pelvis and up through the back ribs. Then bow forward fully into the pose, without letting the front waistline drop down.
  

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.

5 Principles to Grow Your Experience From Inside Out

Spring finally seems to have hit New York, at least with enough sun and fair weather to turn people's moods on the streets to gaiety and delight. I found myself in Union Square on that first warm day, surrounded by happy New Yorkers soaking it in, and it was remarkable how much the outside can affect our spirit. And then, it's not so remarkable, because as yogis, we know that what we do with our outside (our physical form) can have a significant impact on how we feel on the inside. That's one reason people come to an asana practice in the first place: you move through some poses, and by the end of it, you feel different inside. This is a great gift of asana.

But yoga invites us to something more than just transforming ourselves from outside-in. It also posits that who we are on the inside can become manifest in everything we do, in all of the forms that we take. Of course, who we are on the inside is manifest in everything we do. It couldn't be otherwise. What makes something yoga, is that we act from a place of connection ("Act standing in yoga", Krishna says to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita) to the subtle-most experience of ourselves. It's the difference between speaking or acting without reflection (and we all know when this happens, as it's usually followed by regret), and speaking or acting with a clear connection to what you want to create and offer of yourself.

I've been thinking about this using the model of the koshas, the five "sheaths" or five ways we experience ourselves as embodied beings. In my understanding, the koshas are not really separate layers, but rather different ways of accessing the same thing: our self. So when one of the koshas is affected, so are all the rest. The densest/grossest sheath is called the annamaya kosha, your "food body." It's the recognition that you literally are what you eat, you become everything you consume and ingest. It's the recognition that what you do on the outside will change your inner state. The subtle-most experience of yourself is what's called the anandamaya kosha, or your bliss body. It's the experience of yourself as pure delight, the experience that you are who you are just because.

The challenge of yoga is to grow yourself in both directions, from outside-in and inside-out, so that who you are on the outside is intimately connected (yoked) to who you are on the inside. And there's nothing like backbends to turn things inside-out, to make our heart our outer experession (think of the image of Hanuman, with his hands ripping open his heart to reveal Ram and Sita inside).

The principle of alignment that opens up the heart center is the shoulder loop, spanning from the upper palate to the bottom tips of the shoulder blades (the palate and heart focal points). But for the shoulder loop to be effective, it has to be established in yoga, in connection, especially with the head and neck.

Here are five principles that yoke the shoulders and neck in their fullest expression:

1. Open to Grace: The experience of ananda expands the inner body fully, including a lengthening all the way up through the sides of the torso and throat.
2. Muscle Energy: In the upper body, when we draw from the outside-in (periphery to core), the upper arm bones will move back plane of the body, more deeply into the shoulder sockets. A key aspect of muscle energy is to take the top of the throat back, lining up the neck/head with the spine, and toning the muscles on the back of the neck. The hyoid bone floats there, at the top of the throat, and through a series of muscles (it's involved in swallowing) connects all the way down to your belly. To line it up, think of the top of the throat moving back and up, as if it were smiling (and the notice if you smile when you do that.) When the hyoid bone is in alignment, you'll fell a natural tone and lift in the low belly as well as in the sternum. Although the muscles involved with the hyoid bone are not primary actors, the positioning of the hyoid bone can offer signifiers that the head/neck are yoked with the rest of your body.
   
3. Shoulder Loop: This refinement begins at the soft palate and flows back toward the occiput and then down the back, drawing the bottom tips of the shoulder blades forward through the heart focal point and lifting the front of the sternum and the chin. In addition to creating a lordotic curve in the neck, shoulder loop gets the trapezius muscles on the upper back to flow down (so they're not all bunched up around your neck). Even though the trapezius muscles and shoulder blades flow down the back with shoulder loop, the front of the chest and the tops of the arm bones continue to lift up and flow back. Shoulder Loop literally turns us inside-out, by bring the heart forward. Note that Shoulder Loop won't be very effective if the first two principles aren't established: we must act standing in yoga, from a place of deep connection, in order to make our outer form our truly reflect our inner-most self. If the head/neck are not in line with the spine (throat/hyoid back), and the back of the neck isn't toned, when the head tips back with shoulder loop, the back of the neck will just collapse and shorten.
4. Skull Loop also starts at the soft palate and flows back, but then moves up the back of the skull, lengthening the back of the neck. When balanced with Shoulder Loop, it will bring the curve of the neck to it's natural alignment (lordotic curve with length).
5. Organic Energy gives extension to all of this.
   

Practice with these 5 principles as focus:

Tadasana: go to a wall, with you heels and back against the wall. When you line up the upper body, the back of your skull will be up against the wall. Yes. All the way back there.

Lunges with cactus arms: I love the cactus arm variation, because it's simply easier to engage the upper arm bones to the back plane of the body with muscle energy. Once the throat is aligned (back), curl your head back and actively draw the trapezius muscles down the back and into the heart center to lift the chest.

Surya namaskar: practice keeping the neck/head in line with the spine as you move. It's interesting how when we engage the arm bones to the back plane of the body, the neck/head often poke forward, disconnecting from the core. Take the arm bones and the top of the throat back together, in order to move from a place of deep connection.

Standing poses: practice parsvakonasana, trikonasana, virabhadrasana 1, etc. starting with your hand(s) behind the base of your skull (at the occiput). Use this hand to provide active resistance for the shoulder loop, so the neck doesn't collapse back.

Handstand/Pinca mayurasana: look forward toward your fingertips while kicking up, to initiate the shoulder loop and engage the trapezius muscles up the back toward the ceiling.

Makarasana/Rajakapotasana: notice what happens as you take the head back to move toward the fullest expression of the pose. If the arm bones and neck aren't firmly established with muscle energy, the back of the neck can collapse and the upper arm bones may pop forward the deeper you try to go. Move from a place of connection.

Ekapadarajakaptoasana 1 (2, 3, 4): Again, the head/neck will tend to pull forward here. The backbend becomes some much easier if you get the head/neck in line with spine first, and then curl the head back for shoulder loop. Spinning the arm to bring it overhead comes only after all of this.

Sirsasana 2: this is a good one to feel the trapezius muscles and shoulder blades lifting up away from the palate focal point.

Setubandha: use the floor as resistance to create a deeper action of muscle energy and shoulder loop.

Urdhva dhanurasana: ever wonder why teachers tell you to look at the floor when you go up into wheel, rather than looking forward? By taking the head back (actively), it will help initiate the flow of shoulder loop, so the trapezius muscles lift up and curl the upper back more into the backbend. (Conversely, if you look forward or even up toward your chest, the trapezius muscles will tend to pull toward the neck, and misalign the shoulder blades off the back.) As you're going up into wheel, go first to the top of your head and pause there to establish the connections that you want to make. In particular, get the upper arm bones back by clawing the fingertips into the floor and drawing the muscle energy up through the arms. Then to tone the back of the neck and curl more in the upper back, drag your skull energetically back on the mat toward your feet (you'll be able to bring the chest more vertical). Then go up, looking at the floor toward your fingertips the whole way.

Sarvangasana: I know, we've been doing backbends, but these actions are great preparation for sarvangasana. Everything applies. The only thing I should add is that in this pose, none of the vertebrae should be touching the floor. Getting the trapezius muscles and shoulder blades to lift up toward your hips through shoulder loops is the way (and use blankets under your upper arms as needed to lift your pose and allow your head to tip back to the floor with more curve in the neck).

Seated poses: try out these principles in seated twists (like ardha matsyendrasana) and forward bends (like janu sirsasana). Notice if the head tends to lead the way (it often does). Just taking the top of the throat back to line up the spine, and then move from this place of connection.