Week 146: How Do You Hang?

I was very lucky this week to practice a short yoga sequence after a heart racing aerobics and Zumba class. The yoga teacher, new to me, opened my eyes to a new way to practice. Who'd thought a little practice would carry such a big message?!?

We started in mountain pose and stood for about five minutes to find our position. We did the typical positioning of proper foot placement, knees over ankles, hips over knees, shoulders over hip and so forth. Yet, once we had our ideal posture, the teacher asked us to hang.

Hang?

Yes, hang our muscles and use our skeleton to hold ourselves up.

That's what the skeleton is for, isn't it?

We continued to stand and release the muscles from their work. It was very hard to let the skeleton do its job. Muscles were fighting to do the work and it took a concerted effort to keep upright just using my bones. Now of course, some muscles HAD to work but many of them did not.

What a perfect mind-body experience in yoga! My brain was working voraciously to keep my body in mountain pose, yet my skeleton could hold my body upright.

It just goes to show what looks super easy can actually be quite difficult.

I also took away a great life lesson (note: now that I am a parent I'm allowed to use that saying. It was a staple in my childhood home. Thanks Dad!). 

Where else do you fight to do the work when really if you let it go, and let who or what is supposed to do the work just do it? Let it go!

Yoga. What a great teacher you are,
LW