This past weekend I attended a workshop with my teacher Kim Schwartz from back in my teacher training days. I’ve studied with Kim several times since receiving my teaching certificate from the Temple of Kriya Yoga in 2004. Every time I study with him I learn something new and walk away awed at how much knowledge Kim has on yoga asana and the pranic model.
This weekend’s training was called Foundation and Transcendence. We spent three days organizing the physical body from the pelvis, hip joints and pelvic floor. He asked us in nearly every pose to un-tuck the sitting bones while grounding the sacrum. So rather than scooping in the pelvis to ground the sacrum, achieve an anterior tuck of the pelvis, release gripping in the abdomen which then creates natural lordosis (inward curve of the lower spine). Kim also emphasized engaging the perineum in nearly every pose so as to engage mula bhanda or the internal root lock of energy. Kim stressed that by intelligent organization and awareness within one’s own body, the poses themselves become more and more effortless. He says, “I am not aware of any lasting change that came from force.” We’ve all been there in yoga class, muscling our way through a difficult pose, eyes intent, jaw locked, and breath either held or near panting. Rather, relax into it and become more aware. In class I like to say, “Feel the muscles hugging the bones in place, then relax what you can especially in the face, jaw, and throat.” Kim cautioned over working the abdominal muscles when it isn’t necessary, and that in some poses like upward facing dog, gripping through the abdominal muscles can actually create excess flexion in the spine. So instead of achieving openness through the front spine and shoulders, we may be rounding the shoulders in and not moving through the thoracic spine enough with gripped abs. Some of this information was new to me. Some of it I’ve heard before but understood it in a different way. It’s very much like attending the same yoga class, and one day hearing and understanding something that you’ve heard your teacher say a dozen times before.
Studying the pranic model is always so fascinating and refreshing for my mind, body, and spirit. I’m taking the next few weeks and trying to integrate all that I’ve learned into my personal practice by working the poses slowly, really feeling, and making Kim’s teachings my own. I’ve posted two pictures from the training. In the first one, Kim is in lunge against the wall with the back knee off the floor. Here he taught us to internally rotate the back leg and ground the femur bone as far back as we could to deepen the stretch through the hip flexors. Then by placing the knee slowly back on the floor, the knee cap bears little to no weight. By the way, I’m intently taking notes there in the background. The second one, Kim assists a student in chaturanga by asking her to engage her legs strongly. The block between the ankles aides to maintain the work in the legs.
Claudine
