Saturday, December 29, 2001


an excellent day on the yoga front!

had some time on this very cold day for some afternoon yoga. so i pulled on the black cashmere sweater mr. right gave me recently, and headed out the door to yoga mandali. this small, intimate studio two blocks from anusara yoga haven, devoted to the teachings of john friend.

and who should i find substitute teaching there this afternoon but my old friend jessa zinn, who i hadn't seen since the recent tragic events! she taught an excellent and inspiring vinyasa class, with a lot of focus on proper hip and leg alignment. it's all good. i highly recommend this studio -- but get there early, the space is minute! still there were only 5 people in the class so everyone got lots of beneficial personal attention and gentle adjustments. jessa is a fun teacher, but a great discourager of sloppy yoga.

she had some interesting alignment tips in trikonasana, a simple standing pose. usually this is taught so that you aim to keep the points of the hip bones level and your entire body in two parallel lines. sometimes this is expressed as "pretend you are between two panes of glass."

frankly, i always found this sort of "cut off" my legs from my torso so that all the weight of my torso would wind up in my back. and i felt annoyed that i could never manage to do even such an easy pose well. jessa's adjustment -- to move the femurs back and stick your rear out a little -- however solved that problem; while i might not have rotated as far around in the chest, my back didn't bother me and my legs felt light and connected. i also could get my hand to the floor for the first time.

as i said, it's all good! yoga mandali: go there.

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