I often exclaim that I cannot imagine NOT doing Yoga simply because of inverted poses. I feel so lucky to have discovered yoga during a time in my life when I was strong and somewhat fearless, because I jumped head first ( pun intended ) into practicing inversions and I have never looked back . I often wonder how out of balance I might feel if I did not practice inversions. But I also understand that practicing inversions can not only be scary but require a significant amount of strength. The Iyengar Method teaches us that preparation is required to practice these poses. How do you prepare for inversions?  Standing Poses, Standing Poses, Standing Poses.

Standing poses give you strength and stability to tackle all of the rest of the yoga poses, including inversions.

One standing pose that will put you right on the edge of practicing an inversion is Prasarita Padottanasana – Extended Legs Wide Apart Pose. This pose is also beneficial to practice in the summer because it can have a cooling effect. Practice this pose slowly, pausing with the spine extended and the gaze forward before bowing down and moving the crown of the head towards the floor. Take the stance a little wider than most of the other standing poses and place a block on the floor in between the feet if the head does not reach the ground. Feel the strength in the legs and press firmly into your palms to raise the shoulders up the back towards the sacrum.

After several sessions practicing this pose, begin to notice that the strength in the arms brings lightness to the feet and eventually the heels will lift and finally the toes will lift. Before long, the legs float up towards the sky and you are practicing inversions. We will offer several other techniques for practicing inverted poses in coming weeks. What are some of your favorite preparations for inversions? Below is a video iHanuman created with John Schumacher teaching Prasarita Padottanasana. Enjoy!

The Virabhadrasana Series of Yoga Asanas require challenging work in several areas of our physical body. Although Virabhadrasana is often translated as Warrior Pose in English, the meaning of the word is the name of a great warrior, Virabha, who was a fierce incarnation of Lord Shiva.

While Virabhadrasana II may be the easiest of the 3 Virabhadrasana poses, all of the poses require considerable strength in the legs. It is helpful if you can get a view of yourself in Virabhadrasana II because you will want to work on bending your front knee over the front ankle bone. This may be further down than you think without the help of a mirror. After several sessions learning how to the practice this pose without a prop, the use of a chair as a prop in this pose is phenomenal.

Using the image above as a reference, place a chair on your yoga mat and facing away from your chair, place the hamstrings  of one of your legs on the seat of the chair. Extend your back leg back away from you and without the strength required to hold up your front leg, notice the freedom of extension in your back leg. What a treat!

Additionally, enjoy the video instruction we created of Senior Iyengar Teacher, John Schumacher below.

I also enjoy comfort and inspiration from archetypal women: Goddesses, like Sarasvati – the Hindu goddess of Wisdom, Music and Creativity; Healers, like Kuan Yin (pictured above) – the Boddhisattva of Compassion; Nurturers like Mother Earth; as well as Enlightened Spiritual Women like Mother Theresa.

Many women have been taken away from their traditional roles as nurturers and healers, but we need to reconnect with our feminine nature and embrace our innate power. Even The Dalai Lama acknowledged this when he exclaimed that Western women will heal the world. How empowering!

We urge you to embrace your own femininity and nurture this energy in the other women in your life, as well. We are honored to offer you some tools to foster your journey this month.

Our featured offering is a FREE Yin Yoga Class - Assist your own exploration through Yin Yoga Poses.

Consider joining or hosting a women’s circle, iHanuman Yoga Teacher, Sara Avant Stover is hosting a Teleclass this month with Sabrina Chaw.

Our newest teacher, Candice Garrett has written a book on Prenatal Yoga.

I spent the weekend with Women’s Yoga Teacher, Bobby Clennell. Look out for a future feature with her on Breast Health and Menopause.

Women are spiritual, creative, powerful and intuitive beings. Take some time this month to explore for yourself what that is all about. Share with us some of your experiences. We would love to hear from you.

“Thank you for helping to build the bridge with iHanuman.”

Namaste,
Sara Miles Pope Agelasto
Managing Editor and Co-Founder, iHanuman.com

The Woman’s Yoga Book: Asana and Pranayama for All Phases of the Menstrual Cycle

The moment I picked my new copy of her book, I felt a deep connection. Just like the moment I met Bobby, I felt a great connection with her. Bobby spent the weekend teaching us some of the basics of Iyengar Yoga including sessions on backbends and inversions. But she also taught a session on Breast Health as well as a session on Menopause. The session on Breast Health included many poses which open across the chest in addition to poses which stretch and activate the liver.

One pose that we explored as we entered and exited other standing poses was Utthita Hasta Padasana, Extended Hands and Feet Pose. This pose can be easily overlooked, but is an important pose because it helps us to measure correctly the distance our feet should be spread apart in standing poses. When you step or hop your feet apart your ankles should be below your wrists when your arms are spread wide apart. Additionally, this pose is beneficial for the breasts as it opens up the chest. As you extend your arms and draw your shoulderblades down and in toward the breastbone, feel the openness across the chest and space in the breasts.

People who have never practiced yoga before often ask me to teach them a yoga pose. The Iyengar student in me cannot help but start by teaching Tadasana. People are often astounded by how much integrity and poise there is when conscious attention is brought to the simple act standing. They are amazed at how much attention can be brought to the four corners of the feet, the inner line of the legs, the lift of the knee caps and the release of the tailbone. Once we build the foundation. we move to the upper body and take a deep inhale to engage the abdomen, lift the sternum and lift and roll the shoulders back. After a few deep breaths, folks are usually smiling and inevitably ask for more. And the more I usually offer is the simple act of raising the arms over the head in Urdhva Hastasana, Upward Arms pose.

We extend through our finger tips, palms facing the body and on an inhale, draw the arms first to shoulder height and ensure that the shoulder blades are drawn into the body, which helps to lift the chest. Exhale here and then on an inhale draw the arms over the head, palms facing each other. After a few breaths here, people are surprised by how invigorated they feel. Finally, we turn the palms towards the back of the body to feel the rotation of the outer upper arms inwards. Keeping this rotation of the outer upper arms carefully turn the palms back towards the center line of the body. Again after a few more breaths we slowly lower the arms back down by the sides of the body on an exhale.

These simple actions are often enough to convince people of the benefits of the yoga and I can direct them to an upcoming yoga class or download in our store. For a beautiful demonstration of Urdhva Hastasana, watch Senior Iyengar Yoga Teacher John Schumacher, teaching from his home studio in Bethesda.

Often times I tend to think of the vernal equinox as the new year. With all of the hustle and bustle of the holidays, it never feels like the right time for resolutions. But after a couple of weeks or months of cold hibernating weather, I often find the time to really reflect on the previous year and determine what has served me and what has not. Sometimes we host a fire ceremony where we write down that which no longer serve us on paper and burn these items with the intention of losing them for the new year.

As I begin to come out of hibernation, somewhere in the middle of march, my mind tends to shift and it is as if there is more space for new ideas and new growth. It is an expansive time of year. And this is what Chinese Philosophy has written over the years. The Spring is the season of the wood element where everything is expanding and pushing through the earth, staking its claim for its season of growth. In order to do this, one must be firmly rooted on the earth, feet firmly planted on the ground.

One of my favorite things to do is walk barefoot on the earth and as soon as it is warm enough I remove my shoes and feel the earth beneath my feet. It is empowering and energizing. My recommendation is to practice Tadasana as often as you can this spring outside. Tadasana is a pose you can practice anytime anywhere.

Return to your beginner’s mind and enjoy this video of John Schumacher, teaching Tadasana or Mountain Pose from his home studio in Maryland.

Sara Miles Pope Agelasto is a RYT and the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of iHanuman.com. Visit her iHanuman Teacher Page to learn more.

In looking for some inspiration for writing this newsletter, I did not have to do much more than walk outside. It is amazing how beautiful and wonderful the world is, especially in the springtime after a long cold winter. It was not that long ago when people depended on new shoots and leaves of spring as the first fresh food since at least the Winter Solstice. IMAGINE if you HAD TO wait until the middle of March to eat fresh greens!

I personally try to eat foods that are local and in season, but it always blows my mind how much we depend on new technologies like refrigeration which is VERY new in the whole universal scheme of things. I attended a workshop this past weekend where the speaker said that in the last 100 years we have gone from eating 10-15% processed foods to 90-100% in many instances!  And yet, we take for granted that we are presented with exactly the foods we need at exactly the right time. It is as if by some magnificent design!

This month, we remain connected to our roots with an “Introduction to the History and Philosophy of Yoga” with Kate Hallahan. We also have contributions from a New iHanuman Yoga Teacher, Rachel Wallmuller, as well as regular contributors Erich Schiffmann, sharing pictures from India in the early 70’s of Krishnamacharya and Desikachar and Bo Lozoff sharing his wisdom on spiritual practices.

This Winter we presented some information on some of our favorite backbends. This Spring stay tuned for posts on our favorite strengthening poses. Check out our Journal of Posts.

Stay tuned for more features, teachers, podcasts and downloads.

“Thank you for helping to build the bridge with iHanuman.”

Namaste,
Sara Miles Pope Agelasto
Managing Editor and Co-Founder, iHanuman.com

Once you feel confident that there is no pain in the knees, place your hands behind you, fingertips in towards your sacrum and lean back into your hands, lifting the chest. Feel the openness in the chest and the fluidity in the spine. This may be as far as you go today as you feel the stretch along the front of the hips. If you are comfortable in the pose, you may decide to bend your elbows and place your forearms on the ground, again pause in this position. It is likely that you feel the backbend in your lower back at this point. Be sure to continue to press into the forearms and lift the center of the chest as well as extend the coccyx towards the knees. This will elongate the spine and alleviate the intensity of the pose in the lower back.

At this point, take some cues from this lovely video from Roberta of Essential Yoga below. Place a yoga block underneath your shoulder blades as well as one underneath your head. Or place two to three narrowly folded blankets behind your back OR if you are very flexible and confident that there is no pain in your knees or your lower back you can lower yourself all the way to the ground as demonstrated in the video.

And once you have mastered this pose, you can ask a friend to help you move deeper into the pose by placing pressure or weight onto your thighs. To come out of the pose, keep the same actions of extending through the tops of the thighs to the knees, lengthen the tailbone towards the knees, press into the forearms and lift your chest towards the sky. Enjoy!