Half Moon, Hands to Feet Pose

The last two days of my 60 day challenge, day 9 and day 10, were days where I had to get behind myself and push. It is only my commitment that got me into the hot room yesterday.

Goethe on commitment:

"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation) there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way."

The universal opening resulting from commitment one experiences in a Bikram Yoga class usually happens after the first set of Half Moon Hands to Feet Pose. Usually by then my body, my mind relax and start flowing with the class, instead of resisting.

A common problem in Half Moon is when students collapse, or fail to stretch their upper body up as the bring the body down. Maintaining an upward stretch helps create a nice symmetric arc on the side of the body opposite the compression. Elbows and knees should always be locked, arms against the ears. In the picture above I could give several students corrections to the form of the postures.

They could probably comment on my black and red plaid board shorts.

The first forward bend of the series comes next:



Well, okay, most of us have to bend our knees to grab the heels. Actually, it is important to keep the upper body against the legs throughout the posture. Here on day 11 of my 60 day challenge, I have noticed that my face is touching just a bit lower on my shins. Things are starting to open a bit.

Next is our first back bend; back is going to hurt, don't be scared.



Notice above the varying depths of back bending. And the picture is of some of the most accomplished Yogis in the world demonstrating at teacher training in 2005.

Do not compare yourself with others. Just do the postures the right way, as best you can.

Try to keep your knees straight, hips forward. If you can go deep enough to see the floor, it's time to bring attention to keeping your chest up too.

So eleven days done for me, I am feeling results already. There are several Noho Yoga students joining in on 30 and 60 day challenges too. I'll start profiling them here soon.