You probably heard that the body is NOT stiff... the "mind" is stiff...
Pattabhi Jois said that, and he was right... And that can be proven by this lovely little hack.
If when sited, as you attempt a forward bend, you cannot touch your toes, you can have a partner (in this case James, thanks J) touch your feet while you grab THEIR hands...
See the photo below where James helps me in two different versions. (If you can't see the photo click "display images" on your Gmail)
On the left photo he is hovering over me and the palms of his hands are touching my feet while I grab his wrists.
On the right photo he is in front of me (less intimate form) and his fingers are touching my feet while I hold on to his thumbs.
THE HACK:
The mind cannot distinguish what is it that is touching the feet... It cannot tell that it's not my own hands that are doing it... Even as I clearly see with my eyes that it is James doing the touching.
Mind blowing ha?
And so the mind gets trained into thinking that it has the "type of body that can touch its toes or feet in a sited forward bend"...
Of course that is always keeping alignment in check and all the rest... Watch the video below for the full talk on forward bending, and thanks to Priscilla for asking me to go deeper into this mind blowing hack.
[If you cannot see the video here is the link]
For those of you in the New York area remember that I am teaching five more classes exploring the primary series of Ashtanga Yoga at Sky Baby Yoga in Cold Spring NY. These are the dates:
Saturday, October 4, 2013 - 9:15 Am - 10:30 AM
Saturday, October 11, 2014 - 9:15 Am - 10:30 AM
Saturday, October 18, 2014 - 9:15 Am - 10:30 AM
Saturday, October 25, 2014 - 9:15 Am - 10:30 AM
Pattabhi Jois said that, and he was right... And that can be proven by this lovely little hack.
If when sited, as you attempt a forward bend, you cannot touch your toes, you can have a partner (in this case James, thanks J) touch your feet while you grab THEIR hands...
See the photo below where James helps me in two different versions. (If you can't see the photo click "display images" on your Gmail)
On the left photo he is hovering over me and the palms of his hands are touching my feet while I grab his wrists.
On the right photo he is in front of me (less intimate form) and his fingers are touching my feet while I hold on to his thumbs.
THE HACK:
The mind cannot distinguish what is it that is touching the feet... It cannot tell that it's not my own hands that are doing it... Even as I clearly see with my eyes that it is James doing the touching.
Mind blowing ha?
And so the mind gets trained into thinking that it has the "type of body that can touch its toes or feet in a sited forward bend"...
And as the mind gets flexible... so does the body
Of course that is always keeping alignment in check and all the rest... Watch the video below for the full talk on forward bending, and thanks to Priscilla for asking me to go deeper into this mind blowing hack.
[If you cannot see the video here is the link]
For those of you in the New York area remember that I am teaching five more classes exploring the primary series of Ashtanga Yoga at Sky Baby Yoga in Cold Spring NY. These are the dates:
Saturday, October 4, 2013 - 9:15 Am - 10:30 AM
Saturday, October 11, 2014 - 9:15 Am - 10:30 AM
Saturday, October 18, 2014 - 9:15 Am - 10:30 AM
Saturday, October 25, 2014 - 9:15 Am - 10:30 AM
Thanks for this tip, I will try it.
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