Hinging from the Hips

Aunt Becky from Full House mid Sun Salute on the set of the new 90210 show she's on.

Flamenco

This clip is of one of my favorite scenes from the movie Happy Go Lucky. I love both the filmmaker's use of the body to illustrate character and his particular choice of flamenco, a dance that uses the body to transmute hardships into pride. I think it's interesting to see the commonalities between dance and yoga--but the differences as well. You will never hear, "Where is the revenge?!" from your yoga teacher, and probably rightly so. This flamenco instructor does embody the energy of Kali wonderfully. Maybe I should start flamenco lessons and stake out "my space!"

showing off the crotch chakra

I'm not that huge of a fan of American Apparel, but I admit that two of my favorite dresses came from their stores, once upon a time, before I was well informed on their founder's sexism and creepiness. Here they are showing off their new yoga outfits, and ignoring the posture malfunctions, can we talk about all the wardrobe malfunctions that poor girl is going to have? I would be arrested if I showed up to do downward dog in that bra.

Check it for yo'self.

Mula Bandha Monday

I just wanted to throw the Yogery a bone here and post something, anything. It's been so long and so much YOGA has happened, including the Crib, but I'll just start by talking about class this morning.

I went to Kira's Sweet Vinyasa this morning. I resisted, a lot, feeling too stressed for yoga. I can't even believe I still have that thought. I can think of only one yoga class ever that was truly a bad idea, and that was after contracting some third world disease from eating bad cookie dough.

My Rob Brezsny horoscope said that if I surrounded myself in purple, I would be able to manifest all my spiritual desires. Or something. So I grabbed a purple mat and a purple blanket and set to work. Kira officially designated today "Mula Bandha Monday." I'm not normally that motivated to find my mula bandha, but apparently I've been an ignorant fool to not care about it.

Kira said that we leak a lot of Prana out of that bandha, located on the pelvic floor. That caught my attention, because I recently watched a Caroline Myss video in which she talks about how we can leak Prana through our emotions and our thoughts. Caroline says that most of us leak gallons (tons? watts? what would be the appropriate measurement for something invisible?) of prana every day on thoughts of past injuries and wounds. We literally become drained.

The first Google search result for mula bandha is great-- an article by David Life. He explains the details of the mula bandha's physical and spiritual effects, and he actually draws a spiritual lesson from the homophone Your Anus and Uranus. Impressive and bawdy.

All I can say is that I did feel less 'drained' when I engaged the mula bandha. Last Wednesday Kira led a meditation that allowed me to feel my higher chakras. I remembered that feeling today as I stirred mula bandha into the pot, imagining everything aligning and connecting. I felt the power of my awareness bringing me into a safer space with my energy concentrated in my body instead of floating around being spent on useless worries and thoughts.