We’ve had various kinds of celebrations for Spring over the years. But I have always hoped to have a gathering for May Day—or what the Celts call Beltane—in celebration of the good earth. In my dreamy gathering we could stand on some patch of soft ground and use our bodies to say ‘thank you’ to Mama and to give her some honor.

So far, this hasn’t come to pass. I tried once, and my children totally derailed me, moving the evening from a night of Om-ing barefoot in the grass, to a night of painting toenails for the upcoming sandal season. Apparently, when you are 4 and 6 it’s way more fun to welcome the Spring with flip-flops and pink polish than to follow your breath while holding a backbend.

Now that I’m here in Denmark and far away from all my friends of the feminine divine, this little dream isn’t likely to come to past anytime soon. But this morning while I was hanging out in Shavasana, it came into my monkey mind that I could get one step closer to this dream by writing the series down. (You know, instead of just holding it in my head and hoping someone will invite me to teach yoga.)

An hour later when I sat down to write my BlogHer editorial about Earth Day, I realized that if I posted said yoga series perhaps, in some small way, we might all be connected just by doing the same practice—even if it is in different times and different places. We are all standing on this same round earth, this big blue marble, right? We might as well call it a party.

So here is my short series of Yoga Poses for Mama, from me, the wannabe priestess, to you my sister friends. May they connect your spirit to the creative, nurturing energy of sand and soil, sea and sky, meadow and mountain. Namaste!
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Disclaimer: I have practiced yoga for several years under a number of yogis, but I am not a trained yoga instructor. It’s always best to practice yoga with an experienced yogi before trying the poses on your own. Please do not attempt these poses without at least some previous yoga experience. Do these excercises at your own risk, heeding your inner wisdom about what your body can handle.

Yoga Poses for Mama

Beginning
Find a patch of earth you can stand on barefoot without hurting your toes. Make sure you are wearing clothes you can move comfortably in. Layer on a light sweater so you can adjust to your body’s fluctuating temperature without losing focus during your practice.

Remove your shoes to remind yourself this is holy ground. Say it aloud, letting your voice breathe it into reality, “This is holy ground.”

Mountain Pose
Let’s begin in Mountain Pose. Stand with your feet hip distance apart. Align your spine, letting it expand towards the sky. Let your arms hang gently at your sides. Rock you pelvis gently back and forth until you find a comfortable neutral position with your tailbones hanging down to the earth.

To find your even balance lean forward as far as you can without falling over and feel how the front of your legs, your shin and your upper thighs work to stabilize you. Now shift your weight to the back as far as you can and notice how the work shifts to the back of your legs, to your calves and buttocks. Now find the place in between those two efforts where you can stand easily without effort. You weight will be distributed between the balls of your feet and your heels. Draw your head over the center of this space and feel your jaw relax.

Drop your shoulders away from your ears, letting your shoulder blades slide down your back and into the center of your torso. Let your neck be long and unstrained. Float your head.

While you stand in Mountain Pose, feel your feet rooted to the energy of the earth. The crown of your head lifts lightly towards the sky. On an inhale draw the energy of the air into your nose, your throat your chest. On an exhale let that energy rush down through your center, your pelvis, your legs and into the earth. On each exhale visualize the blue energy of the air flowing through your throat, cascading down through your spinal column and out to the very edges of each of your limbs. On the exhale visualize the red energy of the earth moving up through your feet, your legs, your spine, and up out of your head.

Repeat this breathing pattern in Mountain Poses for three to five breaths, and listen to these words:

“Hope is with you when you believe
The earth is not a dream but living flesh,
That sight, touch, and hearing do not lie,
That all things you have ever seen here
Are like a garden looked at from a gate.”

Hope is with you when you believe
The earth is not a dream but living flesh
That sight, touch, and hearing do not lie
The earth is not a dream but living flesh.

-adapted from Czelaw Milosz’s “The World”

From the rootedness of Mountain Pose, extend your arms over your head up towards the sky. If your body approves, bend slightly back into a small backbend. Let your forearms be at either side of your head aligned with your ears. Let your gaze be soft at the sky. On an inhale, look up, reach up. Exhale releasing the backbend and bringing your hands together and down, drawing the sun or the moon towards you holding its light at your heart center prayer position.

Triangle Pose
Moving on to Triangle Pose, begin by re-aligning yourself in Mountain Pose, feeling the evenness of your stance. Follow your breath. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, and on the exhale step or jump your feet wide, and extend your arms to the side, horizontal to the earth. Check your alignment. Keep your pelvis dropping down towards the earth. Don’t let tip up and back. Make sure your arms are in a straight line at shoulder height. Align your feet with your wrists. Drop your shoulders away from your ears. Bring your attention to your neck. Let your head float.

Move into Triangle Pose by turning your left foot out, your right foot in. Look left. Activate your legs, inviting the muscles of your thighs to lift your upper leg slightly towards your torso. Lift your spine, activate your stomach muscles, and shift your hips to your right extending your left arm in a straight line to your left and keeping your right arm extended. Now imagine you are holding a ship’s wheel in your hands and bend towards your left leg and touch your left hand to your shin or ankle, keeping your spine straight. Your right arm is straight and reaching up to the sky. Tuck your left hip under so that your body is aligned as though you are between two panes of glass. Don’t let you head sink down or strain up, but keep it in a straight line with your spine. Breathe.

On the next inhale reach your right hand up a little higher to the sky. Don’t crunch your shoulders towards your ears. Exhale, and on your next inhale feel the rooted energy of the earth flow through your left heal and hand, up through the line of your body to the fingertips of your right hand. On the inhale feel the renewing energy of the sky descending through the fingertips of your right hand, down your arm and through your spine to the balanced weight in your heals. Hold this pose for 2-3 more breaths. On and inhale come up, and on an exhale return to center with your arms extended to the sides, and turn your feet forward.

Now to the other side. Turn your right food out, your left foot in. Activate your legs, feel your feet rooting into the earth. On and inhale lift your spine, and on the exhale shift your hips to your left, extending your right arm in a straight line to your right. Now, holding the steering wheel again, bend towards your right leg and touch your right hand to your shin or ankle. Think about your spine, keeping it straight, while your left arm reaches for the sky. Don’t let your buttocks shift back, but tuck your right hip under feeling a stretch in the front of your right hip.

Align your head, don’t let it sag or arch. On your next inhale reach your left hand a little further up towards the sky. On the exhale ground your feet and feel your body connect to the earth. Hold this position for a couple more breaths, thinking of your left arm and hand extend thanksgiving for the sustaining energy of sky, wind, and air. With your right hand send your energy down towards the earth, expressing gratitude for the food and shelter which she provides.

On an inhale come up, and on an exhale return to center with your arms extended to your sides. Turn your feet forward and on an inhale step or jump your feet together, brining your hands together at your heart, your body’s center.

Tree Pose
For the last pose, Tree Pose, first come into Mountain Pose, feet together or hip distance apart, hands in prayer position at your heart. Your tailbone drops down to align your back and your weight is distributed evenly between the balls and heals of your feet. Drop your shoulders away from your ears, float your head. Relax your jaw; wiggle it slightly back and forth. Swallow once or twice to relax your throat. Reconnect with the aligning energies of earth and sky.

Now release your hands and shift your weight onto your left foot. Find a spot ahead of you and let your gaze be soft and on that spot to help you balance. Take your right foot and place it either against your ankle, against your shin, or against your inner thigh– whichever feels most comfortable to you. You can grab your right ankle with your right hand to help get your foot up higher on your thigh.

Press your right foot into your left thigh, and your left thigh into your right foot. Slowly extend your arms to your sides and if you want, on an inhale lift your arms up to the sky, forearms alongside your ears. On an exhale bring your palms together in prayer position. If you find your balance is more secure with your palms together at your heart, that’s fine as well. Just as the earth changes from moment to moment, so does our balance. Balance is always fluid, never stagnant. We must make small adjustments to maintain our physical balance within ourselves. So too must we make adjustments in our daily life as we continue to seek a healthful balance, a wholeness or shalom, with the earth. Hold this pose for 3-5 more breaths. On an exhale bring your arms down and out, first extending them horizontally to the earth and you release your leg, extending your foot slightly to the side. Let your arms descend down and place your feet back together.

Realign yourself in Mountain Pose with your hands in prayer position. Take a couple of breaths here. Realign your spine, float your head. Let you shoulder drop away from your ears while gently expanding your chest. Pick a spot of ahead of you to focus your gaze. Release your hands to your sides; shift your weight onto your right foot. Take your left foot and place it against your ankle, shin, or inner thigh. Again, you can use your left hand to move you left foot a little high on your thigh. Use opposing pressure from your thigh and your foot to increase your stability. When you are ready extend your arms to your sides, on an inhale lifting them up towards the sky, keeping your shoulders down and your neck relaxed. Place your palms together in prayer position. If you want to challenge yourself, shift your gaze, up towards the sky without rolling your eyes towards the back of your head, letting your head and not your eyeballs change your gaze. Keep your focus soft and your eyes unstrained, taking in the expanse of the sky. Hold the pose for a few breathes. Take one more inhale on and your exhale drop your gaze so that your head is level, bring your arms down first horizontal to the earth and then to your sides, letting your foot come down to the ground. Re-establish Mountain Pose.

Closing
In Mountain Pose with your hands in prayer position, close your eyes. Direct your gaze into your core. Let your inhale and your exhale be full and nourishing. Draw the energy of the earth up through your feet. Draw the energy of the sky down through the crown of your head. Invite that energy to concentrate at your heart-center.

Feeling the warmth of creation radiating at your heart-core, gather into your mind an awareness of the earth, of your environment and its nurturing ways. Use the stillness of this moment to set an intention: to honor the earth, to express gratitude for the earth. On an inhale lift your head to center and open your eyes. Feel the energy of spring all around you. Inhale, exhale. Let the light in you greet the light in the world today.

Namaste!

This entry was posted on Monday, April 28th, 2008 at 8:09 am and is filed under Soulcare.
Tags: Soulcare, Spring Equinox



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