Episode 3

Uttanasana is one of my favorite resting asanas. If there is a lot of sensation in the hamstrings when coming into a forward fold, a good option is to bend the knees and take the focus into the belly- using it to lengthen and strengthen your torso and crown of the head down to the earth. In this variation, we add a twist- making this Parivrtta Uttanasana- to bring attention to finding space through the sacral and lumbar spine (lower back.) The ripple of the twist through the thoracic and cervical (mid- to upper-back) spine comes as an after thought, and the option of turning the drishti (focus or gaze) upwards facilitates this.

After finding this space through the spine, we use it to play again. Planting the whole of the hands firmly on the ground (again, bend the knees if that helps), we focus on three things: pushing deep through the finger tips, scooping the belly button towards the spine and up to the sky, and reaching the heart forward between the hands. When the bandhas are engaged, we can take the force out of the muscle and use prana and breath to float the toes into a fuller expression of Bakasana. This is playtime! Don’t take it so seriously if no legs or only one leg floats, or if there are wobbles or falls.

With breath and bandhas, we float or gently hop back to Chaturanga Dandasana and flow through our first Vinyasa. I like to imagine Vinyasas as a reset button. Washing equally through all sides of the body and breath, they are a great way to clear any stagnation or tension that may have built up in effort to get somewhere or do something.