Welcome to Week 13 of the Yoga Challenge!!! Spring has officially sprung and I hope this new season brings you all good things :) Today's post is from Janet....
Early one dark, wet & rainy Sunday morning, my sisters & I dressed quietly & tiptoed out of the sleepy household to go to yoga class. It was our annual SF (Sister Fun/Friends) trip to celebrate birthdays together. Of course, we eat chocolate, craft, giggle, shop & drink merlot as well, but practicing yoga together is uniquely intimate. I love to be with people I love and doing something I revere with people I love is almost surreal in its wonderfulness. (I can hear my college writing professor editing that phrase now..yikes!)
This particular morning found us at the Columbia Athletic Club in Kirkland at Heather’s class. Heather is always an inspiring presence & teacher but there was a moment in that morning’s class that literally took my breath away. After several asanas, the room was warm & we were well into the practice. We did a progressive series that I can’t exactly recall except that it culminated in a good portion of the class suddenly floating into the most beautiful pose I have ever seen. Not everyone did it, and those that did all did it slightly differently. But in the warm, dim studio with light music wafting, I found myself surrounded by birds of paradise.
If you have not seen this pose, google it for a picture – I feel like it has to be seen to be believed. It is elegant, surprising, uplifting & deeply inspiring. I am not at a place in my practice where I can manage this pose myself, but the vision of it has been with me since that Sunday. I hold it close like a talisman & imagine myself someday joining the flock. Until that time, I’ve done a little research & learned the following:
Bird of Paradise is considered an advanced yoga pose that challenges your focus, balance, strength and flexibility. It's one of the more difficult poses to do well, since it demands so much from the body. This pose strengthens the standing leg, ankle, knee and thigh. This pose strengthens the legs, improves balance, opens the groins and hamstrings.
Some say this refers to the Huma bird, a legendary bird in Persian mythology, said to be phoenix-like, consuming itself in fire every few hundred years, only to rise anew from the ashes. It is also said to have both the male and female natures in one body, each nature having one wing and one leg.
Yoga Journal describes it as follows: “Rooted into the earth is the leg of my masculine nature: my stability, my strength, my stamina; and lifting up to the heavens was the “wing” of my feminine nature: my creativity, my flexibility, my compassion. I felt grounded like a fire consuming itself, but I also felt the flight of my other leg, rising anew from the ashes like the phoenix. And just like the Huma bird, the Bird of Paradise, I felt the sensation of being “twice born”, neutralizing the polarities of my masculinity and femininity into a balance of paradise.
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