Help for Your Psoas

The Psoas is a fascinating muscle. (You may have heard it called “illiopsoas” which is what it is called when it is combined with another muscles the “iliacus”.) It is the only muscle that runs from the torso to the legs (all others go from torso to pelvis and pelvis to legs) so it is essential to the connection between the torso and the legs both physically and energetically. It runs from the front of the spine in the lower back, through the pelvis, to attach to the upper inner thigh bone (femur). Its make up is also a bit different than other muscles so you need to treat it differently. It needs to be relaxed, lengthened and strengthened. Here are some podcasts for you to enjoy to help you with yours! You can also link here to a Squidoo lense with all sorts of information!

Release and Lengthen the Psoas
Strengthen the Psoas
Stretch the Psoas

Decluttering: Part I

So, my husband, children and I cleaned out our garage today. If you are like me, you wonder where in the world it all came from! I must admit, I began to philosophize as I went through box after box, wanting to throw and yet finding myself inextricably attached to much I know in my head I no longer need. I very much appreciate the work professional organizers do (I have had one in twice!) It takes a coach and a psychologist to aid us in letting go of our stuff.

We do the same thing with our beliefs. (Beliefs are more than just about religion. You can read more here about what I consider to be beliefs.) Boy do we hang on to those opinions! So much so we even see things and interpret them they way we need to in order for situations to fit our beliefs.

“We build self-images and construct concepts and paradigms that feed our sense of certainty, and then we defend this edifice by bending every situation to reinforce our certainty. Donna Farhi

Old, worn out beliefs can hold us back and keep us from growing, cluttering up our minds and our hearts. Donna goes on in her quote to say: "This would be fine if life were indeed a homogenous event in which nothing ever changed; but life does change, and it demands that we adapt and change with it. The resistance to change, and tenaciously holding on to things, causes great suffering and prevents us from growing and living in a more vital and pleasurable way.”

Is it time to declutter your beliefs and make room for something new?

Next post: How yoga can help.

Get Out of the Box

I have been studying the brain lately in reading a book called The Answer by John Assaraf and Murray Smith. Basically the book discusses how our unconscious mind keeps us stuck in our current (usually limiting) way of thinking, stuck in a box. Sometimes the box is pleasant ("My marriage box is lovely!" and sometimes it is mediocre or even very uncomfortable ("My current job is terrible but..."). But it is what we know and there is security in what we know. A step away from the known is scary and we unconsciously (and sometimes consciously) avoid taking the next step. Often we can't even see the next step.

Ready to use your yoga to expand your consciousness? Remember what you do on the mat transfer off the mat and vice versa. Ready to expand out of your box in your job? Marriage? Friendships? You can do it on the mat first. How? Do you always do the same practice or same type of practice? Do you love forward folds and avoid backbends? Do you always want to feel like you’ve worked hard so that your practice “counts”? Do you sit on your mat with no energy and just sit there? Have you done the same 10 poses in the same order for years? Use your practice to break out of the box. Change it up. Do something different! Find a pose you always avoid or one you have never done. Begin to experiment. If you always feel you need a workout, do a restorative practice. If you always do restorative, do something vigorous and get your heart pumping!

Okay, now, does the mere thought of doing something different even for one day bring fear to your heart? That is the sign that you definitely need to do something different!

Tadasana (Mountain Pose): Choose Your Own Foot Position

I have been thinking a lot about this pose since my yoga group “The Muses” and I spent April studying it. (Read more about our discoveries here.) I realize I have learned at least a dozen different ways to have the feet in the pose. In fact, I rarely hear the same direction from two different teachers! So, what is the “right” way? In answering that question, I am reminded of something Barbara Benagh said to me years ago. She said that whatever a teacher teaches you is only her opinion about a pose based on how it feels in her body.

What a sage observation! So, it is then our responsibility to take the information we are given and decide how we want to use it or even to discard it altogether if it doesn’t fit our body’s needs. I realized that I needed to find the foot position that gives me the grounded feeling I love in Tadasana (which, by the way, is feet hip width apart. I have a torque in my pelvis so if I put my feet close together I feel like I am twisting.) What foot position works for you? What helps you feel grounded and open in the body? Play with it. What you have always been told might not be what you need in your body.