The Other Leg

I love yoga for its consideration of the whole body. I tend to favor concentrating on “working” one body part at a time. Stretching my hamstrings or strengthening my core. Yoga challenges me to broaden my scope and be mindful of the holistic view. 

This came to mind today when doing Half Moon (Ardha Chandrasana). The tendency is to focus on the standing foot and hand which are on the floor and helping you to balance. Such is the concentration on these two points of contact that you can look around the room and see many with the other foot sagging limply and the opposing arm wavering at half-mast. But in the true expression of this pose, both feet are engaged, both arms are charged.

 I tend to be quite flexible in my back and one would think that backbends are easy for me. Yet my teacher is constantly correcting me to tighten my core and pull in my lower ribs. This makes Wheel (Urdhva Dhanurasana) quite challenging in a completely different way. I’ve often grumbled that one of my instructors makes a simple Crescent Moon (Anjaneyasana) rather agonizing. It’s not enough to bend the front knee, but there are the squared hips, rooted tailbone, shoulders and core to consider. And let’s not forget that back leg.