Day Six

Day Six

Focus: Virabhadrasana II, Warrior 3

Reading: Chapter Six of One Simple Thing

Mouth: The Yoga Bible (pages 62 & 63)

Anatomy: The Yoga Anatomy Coloring Book, Pose by Pose (pages 46 & 47)

Instructions:

Day Six! Let's balance.

  1. Read Chapter Six of One Simple Thing.

  2. Then, color page 46-7 of The Yoga Anatomy Coloring Book Pose by Pose. Practice the pose after coloring.

  3. Finally, read aloud the cueing for this pose from pages 62 & 63 of The Yoga Bible. Focus on trying to keep your hips level and energy going through your fingertips to your heel, crossingover your mid-line.


Bonus: Place a block across your hips while you are in this pose and look in a mirror. See if you can try to use the block as indicator of whether your hips are level.

Extra credit: Try to transition from this pose to Warror I smoothly by shifting your weight back and placing your foot carefully on the ground behind you.

My Journal Entry from Day Six:

From One Simple Thing:

"The only narrative that leads to freedom that we can tell ourselves is one of no story. If during the day we can spend some time watching every story that comes up in our minds and not identify with the story, the mind will get very quiet" (page 101).

"So don't think of pleasure as good and aversion as bad; think of them both as attachments to ways in which we define a false sense of our individuality and solidify our narrative" (page 103).

"The essential point of experience, according to the Yoga Sutras, is to remind us that we are aware" (page 105).

So much to think about today. As a writer I believe deeply that the narrative that we tell ourselves becomes our truth; there is no reality beyond that narrative. But, this chapter is asking me to think in a different way. To see experience as a reminder of the deeper truth of my awareness of myself, the world, the interconnectedness.

From today's yoga class:

  • Key Words: Chakras

  • Today's class was a vinyasa class at a local gym with an instructor named Mindy. She really didn't cue very much alignment, but called out a lot of poses. She discussed the different chakras that were associated with each pose and how they were linked to relationships and the need for foregiveness. Even though this theme was very spiritual, the practice felt very perfunctory to me without any focus on alignment.