Deepest Winter Round 2--Existence Emerges
MYOGA SEASONS
Throughout our Deepest Winter Season we are guided by the structure and meaning of Kirtan Kriya with its 4-fold circularity. In Round 1 we tap into the overall Existence with Sa. Then we come into Individuation, Existence Emerging or Coming into Being with Ta in this 2nd Round. Round 3 takes us into the Cessation of Being with Na. And with the Wrap-Up in Round 4 we embrace the liminal space between dying down and returning into form again, the Rebirth of Ma.
Taken altogether, Sa-Ta-Na-Ma indicates that this too shall pass and, when conjoined into Sat Nam, gives us the clarion call of Kundalini Yoga, which is similar to Namasté in usage and meaning. We acknowledge the divine and sacred truth that We Are.
Accordingly, our focus in this practice with Ta - of coming into being - requires energy. We take time to know where we are in both internal and external space. Out of amorphous awareness we actualize ourSelves into forms, shapes, incarnations. To do so, our Circuit is much slower than it will be in Round 3. This makes it more challenging.
It’s easy enough to pop quickly (and often inaccurately or unconsciously) between postures, but our challenge here is in having the acceptance to own what’s what right now, the patience that this too shall pass, and the endurance to see it through.
We’re also becoming the sacred we intone. Our bodies make the sacred geometry of long lines, right angles, triangles, and circular breath, sound and orientation in space. Use mirrors if you can, whether glass, human, or both, to know from an outside perspective what you begin to know from the inner view of yourSelf making shapes in spacetime. As we turn to face off all sides, we viscerally experience the saying, "No matter where you go, there you are!"
Hopefully the slow nature of this Circuit will give you an experience of why and how I feel that vinyasa, or flow yoga, is advanced. Staying longer in a pose and really refining your embodiment of it is more skillfull than jumping in and out of things with minimal precision or awareness. Ideally you can be both slow and precise as well as quick and precise.
But let’s start with building a strong foundation before we pick up the pace in Round 3. If you’re actually implementing all that I’m indicating to embody in this Circuit, it’s likely you’ll heat up! Which is what we want in the chilly depths of deepest winter :)
To enable greater accessiblity and precision, please modify and adjust to best suit you. Use blocks and/or bring your knees down in the lunges (make it low lunge instead of high) and also in Plank.
“Surrender is the most profound form of alignment with reality - with what is actually going on inside is and around us at any given moment - and it opens us to love.”
At the start, we continue our explorations of emptiness or Shunyata from Round 1 with our pranayam practice (that link is a longer version if you want to separate it out). In order to keep the videos at manageable 30 minute time chunks, some things have been truncated, like Bahya Kumbhaka (suspension of the breath after the exhale) at the start. So please feel free to get oriented and then pause the video for another 3-5 minutes to expand your experience of emptying out. Heavens knows we could all use more of that!
What seems to be emptiness is actually what holds it all together, which we’ll explore more in the next round when we encounter the re-leasing power of cessation.
Be sure to give yourself plenty of time and warmth to integrate at the end by adding on however many additional minutes you can afford!
Our reading, as we rest to incorporate all the intensity, is from Marianne Williamson:
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?'
Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
― A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles"
The Neck Release is so lovely to have right at the start that, again, I suggest you give yourself more time if you can. Make the opportunity to enjoy the opening of those muscles that so reliably hold the head up! I love the awareness of the sitz bones being evenly placed on the ground when we have our legs like this. Most other neck openers are done sitting cross-legged, which inherently imbalances the pelvis.
Try visualizing your inhale arising from your ischial tuberosity/sitz bone on the side that your head is released. Breath all the way up from that root, or tuber!, and into the open side of the neck at the fullest part of the inhale. On the exhale, release the weight of your head even more fully, and dissolve any tension in your jaw. On your next inhale, feel the evenness of those sitz bones and also the even lengths of your side waists. Continually align your attention to see the breath moving in the body and aiding you in deepening the stretch.
Upavista (upward facing) Navasana (boat) is one of our right-angle-at-the-hips options (along with Down Dog and Dead Bug and Dandasana), so stay tuned to the dynamic nature of keeping the low back in its lordosis, all while balancing on your tripod of sitz bones and tailbone. Inquire into the roots. What’s on the ground and how is it connected? Reiterate the rising stem of each posture. Feel your sitz bones, that you just got intimate with in the Spinal Flex and Neck Stretch, and rise up through long waist, feeling for the lordosis we got a sense of in Round 1. If you’re collapsed in front, then you’re out of integrity in the back.
Let your integrity be your guide.
Only extend your legs as long as your lordosis isn’t lost in the lengthening. This is the same approach you’ll recall we take with Downward Facing Dog in Basics. It’s the same position! Same right angle hinge at the hips with the same focus on the lordosis in lumbar spine. Different relationship to the Earth and therefore different rooting down and different rising up.
We’re repeating Kundalini Lotus from Round 1 so it should feel more facile now. Everything is practice, so be patient and persistent with yourSelf! Again, claim your agency to pause at any point. If you’re keen on Breath of Fire here, a minute is the minimum to have a systemic effect, so pause the video and move towards that, or beyond as the current edit is far too short to be impactful!
Pin-up Pose! That’s what my friend Kara-Leah calls this next exercise. Like so much of what we do, it’s trickier than it seems. Doing one leg at a time enables us to ease into the intensity that so many feel in back-body opening. Check that you’re lifting your kneecaps, not locking them. Feel the four corners of both feet, but especially the foot of the long leg
Visualize long lines running up the long leg like teepee poles from the four corners of the foot up to the peak at the sitz bone in that side of your pelvis. From there use a hand to feel the curve from your tailbone up into your sacrum and into the lordosis in your low back - know what’s going on back there!
Clear your shoulder blades away from your neck and drop them back down behind the heart. Instead of strangling yourself with your shoulder blades, imagine them like small hands backing up your heart space. In your mind’s eye, see the long line in your body from tailbone to tip of head.
With all that going on, it pays to go slowly and then coordinate the breath into it, just like with Cat and Cow, but on long legs. And if you find you’re clenched in breath or jaw, try engaging Mulabandha instead for safety. Squeeze anus, sex organ and navel in and up to establish a base support as you wave your spine out into the space in front of your long legs.
Also, be mindful of lifting out of your roots and your joints instead of locking down into them.
In order to keep these practices accessible, I compromised a bit on timing when recording. So please give yourself as much time as you have, and can benefit from, when it comes to exploring the active practice, but particularly in the pranayam at the start and the integration at the end.
