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Yoga Poses Blog

Hello Yogi Peeps!

It's the 22nd of July. 2010. Ive been hearing from a lot of you about abandoning the blog (it's been over a year now since I've written anything new). You may also have noticed its gradual morphing from place of reflection on truth to events list. The various events in my life over the past many months have called forth the necessity for me to step out of my cozy den of considering everything, and into the public arena of self promotion and teaching, teaching, teaching.

I miss writing, and am visualizing more time for communal self reflection in my future. However, it turns out the teaching teaching teaching (the in-person kind) is in greater demand than I previously understood, and as teaching yoga is a great passion for me, plan is I'm sticking with that, too.

Right now, it looks like I'll be transitioning to a traditional blog (wordpress perhaps, or blogspot) either temporarily or permanently, by fall. In the meantime, I need cyber and design help!!! Please contact me if you'd like to help me upgrade this mess into a working website, where students can find me and each other, and also some thoughts to ponder.

Best and soon...

Alison

Jul 27, 2010, oregon yoga retreats

oregon yoga retreats with Anusara - inspired yoga teacher Alison Alstrom

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Jul 21, 2010, The Practice

Next gathering Sunday August 1st in NE Pdx - Come work hard and Play!

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May 21, 2010, Noah Maze in Portland

Noah Maze, Certified Anusara Yoga teacher, will be visiting Portland May 21 2010

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Apr 22, 2010, Douglas Brooks in Portland

Douglas Brooks in Portland, April, 2010

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Feb 12, 2010, Om Namah Shivaya

a repost in honor of the mahashivarati holiday 2/12/10

A couple of weeks ago, in my classes, I spent several days exploring the cultivation of faith as a practice. It's one of the most life transforming gifts of yoga - the understanding that the experience of faith can not only be chosen and pursued, but actually practiced in the body.

Jan 6, 2010, Anusara Yoga-related Stuff in Portland

A list of Anusara and Anusara related events in Portland, including Douglas Brooks in April, Noah Maze in May, and more

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Dec 20, 2009, A Pose for the Winter Solstice

Have you ever noticed the place between your breaths? At the very end of your inhale, or when you're just about to breathe in again, there is a moment, maybe an infinitesimal one, of stillness. In the layered and reflective manner of all things, this moment is reflected in pulsing breath of the universe as we move though the seasons.

The winter solstice time is here, and the western hemisphere will now begin its movement toward longer days and warmer weather, and a more outward inclination on the part of the plants, the animals, and the humans that live here. If nature draws inward in the fall and winter months, and extends out again in the spring, then the solstices are the focal points. They are midpoints, or mudhyas, of the season.

When reflecting on this movement in my personal practice, I feel closest to solstice-ness in Downward facing dog. Think of the way we pause there, just for a breath or two, between the dynamic energies and sometimes opposing directions of the other asanas. In a flow based practice centered around the sun salute, down dog becomes a sort of matrix - a hub from which and into which so many other poses flow. It, too, becomes a midpoint, a mudyha.

The energetic focal point in down dog (the mudyha of the mudyha), is the heart, and it is here, at the heart, that we land on the date of winter solstice. Winter solstice, and the myriad cultural celebrations that have grown up around it, is the heart, the hearth, of the year. I imagine it as a connecting place, between the muscular actions of the cooler seasons - drawing us inward to behold the divine as she resides within, and the organic extension that is prevalent in the spring and summer months - the reaching out across the web of consciousness to celebrate the divine as she is reflected in all of the many forms around us.

I'm not sure whether the many ritual festivities of winter are meant to celebrate the fact that we are once again moving toward light, or to show us the light, the tejas, that can be found in the darkness itself. Either way, from my heart I bow to the light within all of you.

(2009 winter solstice is at December 21 at 17:49 universal time, which is 9:49am pacific standard time. This post was adapted from an earlier post. May your holidays and every days be blessed)

Oct 31, 2009, Playing dress-up with the Goddess Shakti

Halloween is one of my favorite yoga holidays.

In my early yoga practice, when my teacher showed up to class in a witch's costume on October 31st... continue reading

Sep 22, 2009, Balance Grows - Celebrating the Autumnal Equinox

Today, September 22nd, marks the official first day of Fall in the western hemisphere, and a kind of mid-point in the global pulsation of the seasons. Equinox means "equal night," and refers to the fact that twice a year, once in fall and once in spring, the day and the night are of equal length. This happens because of the earth's position in relation to the sun - as it spins on its axis at equinox time, there is no torque - there is balance.

It is remarkable to consider the brilliance and complexity of a universe in constant motion, evolving and dissolving, shifting, changing, growing, morphing, pulsing. And strangely, it is at these moments of harmony - at the equinoxes, and also at the solstices (where the day and night are at their most unequal) that the energy of this motion is most evident to us.

Balance grows. Try it for yourself - strike a pose today, a simple, still point pose, like tree or mountain, and practice the principles of effort and surrender with exquisite focus. Or, do your entire practice with the same approach. See if you can find the places where the energy inside you builds amidst the stillness, or the equanimity of your action.

Sep 6, 2009, An Oldie But a Goodie...

Strengthen - Developing Self Awareness

Conversations about developing self awareness are usually focused on non physical aspects of the self - the mind, the emotions, the personality, and so on. But many people, myself included, have accessed profound revelations of self awareness through the body.

The body is the self, too. In tantric philosophy, the body is perceived like all things in the universe - as a manifestation of divine intelligence. Like a memory, a sound, a drop of water or a mountain, the body is understood to be pure consciousness vibrating at the exact right frequency to elicit its specific density, and to create its individual form and fabric. Seen in this way, it's clear that our muscles are no less our true selves than our deepest dreams and desires.

Embodiment is a gift. Developing self awareness is one way we show appreciation for that gift. continue reading

Aug 21, 2009, Cobra Pose

On Vulnerability, Courage and Self-Creation

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Jul 24, 2009, From The Archive

This seems pertinent today. How valuable to look back and learn from your own words... I hope others can also find it useful.

Sep 18, 2008, Deep Forward Bends

And psoas stretches. That's what I'm doing today. In their public lives, they are uttanasana, pigeon, anjeneyasana, uphavista konasana, hanumanasana. In their secret lives they are reconnecting with self, with deep inner self, after so much crazy outward facing activity in connection to the workshop, the wedding, etc.. Outward-Facing Me pose followed by Inward-Facing Me pose. Naturally.

The muscles of the deep inner hips can be the first to contract under stress. Emotions are held in our hips, they say, but I also think of the inner hip muscles, especially psoaz, as the freakout muscles. For me, when there's a lot going on, even if it's a lot good, the freakout muscles contract. The groins themselves get tight, pulling the thighs forward and narrowing first the pelvic floor, and then the lower back. This will inhibit the apana, or grounding energy, and you get that feeling of being all wound up, or pulled up. Did you ever hear the expression, "Don't get your panties in a bunch?"

The thing about living in the universe is that we can't control it. And anything unexpected, so anything, can be stressful. In response to this stress we usually either contract, or freak out, or we totally let go, disengage, space out, lose touch.

I don't know a lot about Ayurvedic medicine, but I believe this is known as a vata imbalance. Vata is the most unstable of the energies, in that it will be the first to go out of balance when anything changes - your location, as in traveling, or the weather, the seasons, your schedule, circumstances, anything.

That's why in the yoga practice we always go back to the bow. Humbly bowing before what we can't control is the medicine for feeling out of sorts with the universe, the feeling that comes from too much trying to manage the unmanageable. As embodied beings, we instinctively want to do, to create, to shape our lives. And this is as it should be. But it is good to know when enough is enough.

In my forward bends today I make the intention to give the reins back to nature, bowing to the place within me where the universe dwells. And when it's time, she'll no doubt hand them back to me, in keeping with the pulsation of all things.

But I hope it's not right away, 'cause I could kinda use a break...

May 30, 2009, Happy Birthday Teacher, Friend

Today marks the 50th birthday of Anusara Yoga's founder, Mr. John Friend.

All over the Global Anusara Community there will be 50 Sun Salutes, and poses held for 50 breaths, and 50 repetitions of the om Namah Sivaya Mantra. And 50 times as much gratitude, dissolving into giddy laughter 50 times as often.

Why not join in? At a class, in your home practice, let's honor this great teacher who has uplifted the hearts changed the lives of so many.

We'll be celebrating at The Practice tomorrow at CMC in Portland. Join us?

Apr 24, 2009, New Moon Again

It waxes, it gets full, it wanes, and is new again. What a beautiful expression of the eternal pulsation of the universe our moon is.

When the moon is new we begin a phase of building. So much of building is in the thoughts we think and reactions we have to our everyday lives. Do you want the glass half full? Cultivate that attitude with particular attentiveness now.

You can also make specific intentions during the new moon times around qualities and circumstances you want to bring into your life. It's a good time for strengthening poses - long holds in the warriors and simple one legged balances. Use your breath to infuse your very cells with your intentions, constructing your future self by your own design. Go slowly and with care, as buildings that lack a solid foundation are liable to fall.

My apologies for the typos and grammatical errors in the last post. I was tired. They have been corrected, at least I hope so. Please feel free to point those out to me at any time. Or - send me your thoughts on yoga to post here yourself, or your questions to be answered. Go to the ask/tell page and have at it.

For more on moon based astrology, I like Carol Barbeau's website, Illuminations.

Apr 21, 2009, How is Practicing Mandalasana Like Doing Your Taxes?

The first thing you'll probably want to know is "what is Mandalasana?" To clarify, I've added a link to a video of Chrisandra Fox doing the pose at the bottom of this post.

Well.

I am sorry to have been away so long, but I have been working hard, and formulating new frontiers for the Website project. I have also been, yes, doing taxes, and enjoying the beautiful spring we're having here in Portland.

As to my question about mandalasana and taxes? I posed it to some friends, and together we came up with this: when doing both mandalasana and your taxes, You start by bowing in respect to something that connects all of us. Then, you stay grounded, and keep your head on straight even when the world feels like it's spinning. You stay open to possibility and pour your heart into your endeavor. Then, if everything lines up just right, you get a big return!

I would like to invite you to share your thoughts on yoga here at any time. The website project is on its way to becoming more of a collective enterprise, and less of my solitary one. It will take some doing, so have patience, or become a contributor! Go to the page that says ask, tell.

And here is that link I promised

Mar 27, 2009, Savasana in Practice

A few months ago I wrote a post about savasana (also called corpse pose), inspired by a reader who had searched the internet using the term "yoga earth rain pose" and found their way here.

This morning I added to that page some additional information about the benifits of savasana, what it is, and how to practice it.

This link should take you to the new stuff. Savor the deliciousness.

Mar 20, 2009, Happy Spring -

Please take at least a moment today to wonder at the magnificent balancing act that is mother nature. We are what we appreciate.

You might think of the equinox as a midline - or midpoint - the space between the breaths, where becoming and dissolving meet, and pause to notice one another, and for a moment there is stillness.

New to the website project are some words I wove together on living (happily) with shoulders for the Concordia News. A sort of intro to Living in the Human Body 101. Maybe you can share it with a friend.

Blessings

Mar 12, 2009, More on Mantra

inspired by so much sweet response to the last post - some more words on mantra medition, including a bit on what it is, how I use it, and how you might, too. - Alison

...

Simply put, mantra meditation, also known as japa meditation, or simply ajapa, is the use of a word or phrase repeated over and over to oneself as a dharana - a focal point for the meditation practice. Japa meditation is usually done out loud, though in a very quiet voice, almost a whisper, and mantra meditation, or ajapa japa, is done silently.

This is an ancient practice, and its mastery is probably far beyond my grasp. And yet, anyone can meditate. I've been doing it all my life. And I find that conscious repetition of meaningful sound can bring tremendous peace and insight.

Mar 9, 2009, Om Namah Shivaya

We learn actions in the yoga poses that build spaciousness right into our physical structures, and we cultivate awareness of the breath moving within that spaciousness, and what we see is a reliable, consistent pattern - there is emptiness, and then there is fullness. It is simply so. Dark is followed by light, fear by comfort, over and over again. We learn to rest in knowing that this rhythm doesn't cease, even when the poses are challenging. Then we have this knowing to return to when challenges come up in our life off the mat. It's a powerful skill to have.

So I had been talking about this cultivation of faith, and about developing the skill to trust that life is moving along as it should even when it hurts or seems all wrong. And then, with stunning timing I received news of a tragedy that has taken the life of a bright and beautiful young woman who was my student and friend.

She had sent me some beautiful emails about her experiences in my yoga classes and workshops - insightful, intelligent, provocative. And I was writing to ask her if she would be interested in collaborating with me on some kind of writing project. When my email was returned I did a search, and uncovered the shocking news.

I will tell you that it stopped me in my tracks. It unraveled me, turning every incidental task of my day into an overwhelming obstacle. I couldn't write about it. I could hardly practice.

But I did, practice. And I taught, too, and eventually, it helped. continue reading

Feb 27, 2009, Inner Spiral, Outer Spiral

Inner and outer spiral are the third and fourth principles of Anusara Yoga®, which is the method I practice. There are five in all, called the Universal Principles of Alignment™, and not surprisingly, they can be applied to every pose we practice on the mat, and also to the myriad identities of the poses that show up in our day to day lives.

The two spirals are currents of energy, and also actions that we perform to line up with, or affirm those currents of energy. They are always meant to be performed in balance, but as the universe is nothing but pulsation, one or the other often will appear dominant, or require more focus and attention at a given time. In relation to the website project, I have been facing largely inward these past couple of weeks, taking in learning and information from the events and energies, and rhythms and happenings of my days.

In the spirit of balance, here is an offering in the form of question from a student about the action we call outer spiral, written last May, followed by my response to her.

namaste,

Alison

Feb 11, 2009, Happy Hanuman Day

Or at least that's how I've decided to think of it. Today is the 11th, and eleven is the number associated with Hanuman. And it's Wednesday, which may or may not be officially associated with Hanuman, but has been referenced in connection to Hanuman, in the sense that Hanuman shares traits with Mercury, and Wednesday is the Day associated with Mercury.

Hanuman is also called Anjeneya, or son of Anjena, and in addition to hanumanasana (the yoga splits), anjeneyasana is the pose to practice to celebrate the strength of humility that Hanuman exemplifies.

Read about the pose dedicated to Anjeneya,

Read about the Hanuman and Mercury in a previous post

Feb 8, 2009, The Full moon, Yoga for Beginners, and Desiree Rumbaugh in Portland

Happy full moon eve. As the moon reaches the place in our sky where it can be fully illuminated by the sun, we can all use a reminder to take a good look at the fullness of our lives. This moon phase can help us perceive things with a broader perspective, and to prepare for the cycle of releasing that will follow as the moon wanes back toward new.

What in your life are you ready to let go of? What thought patterns, habitual actions in your body and life need shedding to make way for what's to come?

Asana and all physical activities should be practiced with with little extra mindfulness today and tomorrow, as the full moon raises the dynamic energy of change and also the possiblitlty for accident and injury.

Practice with your mind on poorna, or fullness, the perfection of the moment as it is, to help keep your striving in check.

I have been working on a page for beginner yogis, which is timely, because full moons are a the perfect time for all of us to walk though our lives as if we are seeing everything for the first time. This heightens awareness, and intentionality.

And really, it's never a bad idea to review.

For Portlanders and Anusra Yoga® enthusiasts, I have also prepared an online registration form for Desiree Rumbaugh's upcoming visit on the weekend of April 24th and 25th.

Enjoy.

Yoga Poses For Beginners

Desiree Rumbaugh in Portland

Mindfulness Practice

Feb 1, 2009, A Gentle Awakening

Just sos you know, this email came with permission to be reprinted. Without such permission I always address questions privately, or here in the blog, but in an anonymous way.

"I am personally in love with waking up the spine to Cat/Cow. I know the core needs to stay active in dropping the heart, but without ex-injury in the neck or back, is it safe to go as far as curling the head back to meet the tail way above the heart? How do I watch for over stretching?

enjoying ur blog, many thanks,

jeremy"

Jeremy,

Thank you for writing. It's exciting for me to engage with other lovers of yoga this way.

As for your practice of cat cow, I can't give you advice per se, as I have no way of seeing you, or your pose. For help finding guidance that is tailored to your specific needs, here is a link to a listing of Anusara® and Anusara-inspired teachers worldwide.

I can offer some thoughts, though.

I would say it's pretty clear from your letter that you have a very flexible spine, and the first concern I would have is, in fact, the over stretching that you mentioned. I did a little research on the subject of hypermobility, and put down my thoughts on a dedicated page, here. I am encouraged that you mentioned in your letter the need to maintain engagement in the core. But, as a person who tended very much in the direction of over flexibility in my early practice, I can assure you that for we bendy types, enough engagement is almost always more than we think.

Even more confusing is the strange phenomenon that causes hypermobile types to feel a constant longing to stretch.

When people are very stiff, and begin a yoga practice, they often have powerful revelatory experiences - revisiting and releasing past experiences and the emotions associated with them, as their muscles begin to let go. It is commonly believed that bodies tighten and restrict movement in response to the stresses and pain and suffering that come with human life.

It is my opinion that many naturally stretchy people hold emotions and experiences by moving around and away from them. In other words, I think natural mobility can be another way that the body, guided by the instinctive but primitive intelligence of the fight or flight response, protects us from difficult experiences and emotions, but also from our own growth and ultimate wholeness.

I have had powerful experiences of revisiting and releasing old baggage by learning to engage, and to be present with my body in the here and now. Maybe going deeper, hugging in more, and finding the true center, will finally provide the awakening that you are looking for?

namaste,

P.S For more on hugging in, you might want to check out this page, too.

Jan 27, 2009, The Focal Point in Bridge Pose

For those of you that were wondering about the focal point in bridge pose (five in one day, wow), it's the palate.

And also, here is the dictionary definition for the word "palimpsest."

palimpsest |ˈpalimpˌsest|

noun

a manuscript or piece of writing material on which the original writing has been effaced to make room for later writing but of which traces remain.

figurative

something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form.

Some words are poems all by themselves.

Jan 26, 2009, Beginner's Mind

So here I am again, sitting before a window, looking out over a Portland that is covered in snow.

I feel none of the anxiety I felt last time it snowed. I now have a positive reference point for the experience of life's snow-i-ness. We survived it. It was beautiful, and even fun.

I have been reflecting on the concept of beginner's mind. The moon is once again "new," and this recent letting go period of the moon's waning phase has been a particularly powerful one - for the cosmos, for us here on planet earth, and for me personally. In full moon times we are asked to release things we no longer need in our lives, to shed outmoded thought patterns, and ways of being that don't serve us anymore. That influence, together with mercury moving backwards (which directs us inward and toward the past) in Aquarius (which encourages us to think and act in new ways) has delivered me today to a rather profound sense of renewal and freedom.

The phrase, "Beginners Mind," is usually meant to invoke a state of being where we hold no preconceived ideas about whatever it is we are experiencing, a state of freedom from our projections. With a beginner's mind, we would be able to receive each moment with absolute curiosity and openness. Like a very young child. And honestly, I wonder if that's even possible.

I don't mean that in a cynical way. In a sense, we are essentially recycled beings - made from the stuff of our pasts. I imagine every moment as a layer upon all the layers that came before - to use a favorite word of mine, a palimpsest. That is not even to mention what we bring with us from lives spent as other bodies, and the uncountable snapshots contained within the memory files of our energetic bodies, or cell memories, or soul memories.

I don't have the answers, of course. But this path I'm on has led me toward a sense or more rather than less. To embrace the all of the universe, or multiverse, we must also embrace the all of ourselves. It isn't necessary to erase the lines of all previous experience, or even helpful.

The word renewal is itself a sort of oxymoron. New is new. New again is not really new at all.

But we can experience the moreness of mind. Like graduating to a new level, it happens when our perception of some fundamental reality - the confines of the universe, the complexities of the relationships within it, or the parameters of our own possibilities - expands.

We call it a breakthrough - the experience that what we previously understood to be "it" was just a small part of "it." Or of "I."

We can practice it with yoga. Even by just watching the breath. Feel yourself expand. Taste the flavor of it. Absorb the sensations of becoming.

Moreness mind.

It will shift you.

Jan 25, 2009, So Far So Far

Hello Yogi People.

I have been slow to post to the blog the last few weeks, but not because it hasn't been on my mind. It's more that there is so much I want to offer.

There are a couple of new pages, written mostly for organization's sake - re ordering and re structuring while mercury is retrograde - and I have been spending quite a lot of time working out the details for bringing other voices to the conversation in a formal way. Im very excited about that, and I'll keep you posted.

In the meantime I'll share with you what I have been working on. They are drafts, which is to say they are not quite as fully fleshed out as they will be, but here they are.

More stretches for the deep hips

and a site map and complete pose list, with a little history thrown in

Jan 19, 2009, Mountain Pose - Hugging In

Mountain pose, or tadasana, teaches steadfastness amidst the glorious diversity of the universe.

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