Blog
How to Come Into Half Moon Pose (With Less Effort!)
A ballet teacher of mine used to say, “You cannot lie with movement.” Meaning, no matter how hard you may try to cover up the body’s truths, your movement will always express your attitudes, capabilities, and limits—and your honest acceptance or dishonest denial of those truths.
What does it mean to be honest in movement? Let me illustrate by comparing two of my students. Jim comes infrequently to class, but when he does turn up, he expects to have improved. He tries hard—so hard that he seems willing to sacrifice just about anything to achieve the appearance of the pose. In order to put his body where he thinks it should be, he will hold his breath, round his back, and torque his knees. I reassure him that relaxing is more likely to bring him success than aggressive striving. I encourage him to respect his limitations rather than bulldoze through them. I caution him about safe alignment. But none of this makes any impact on Jim. He’s always looking for a way to bypass the reality of who he is and take a shortcut to an idealized pose.
Parturient convallis
In contrast, Joanne is a regular, earnest participant with the flexibility of an ironing board. In her standing forward bends, she can only tip a few degrees from vertical before meeting resistance. At that point, Joanne becomes completely absorbed in the process of encountering herself. Although she can’t move as far into the poses as my other students, I can see she is searching to find a harmony that makes sense to her body—and she is devoting her entire focus to the process.
I consider Joanne one of my most “advanced” students. “Advanced” doesn’t measure how far you go into a pose; it measures how well you know where you are. When I watch Joanne working in class, I’m transfixed by the beauty of her movement—still, serene, and so concentrated the air sizzles around her.
How willing are we to be honest in practice? Are we willing to respect the truth of who we are and where we are? When we sacrifice integrity to serve an external form, we make the asana (pose) the goal rather than a means of finding out more about ourselves—and we miss the point of yoga. We tell these little lies with the body to appear to be something that we are not. Even if we manage to force our bodies into the desired position, we leave the most important ingredient in the process behind—our self.
Scelerisque vulputate
Urna suspendisse parturient suspendisse imperdiet egestas faucibus auctor nascetur volutpat torquent proin parturient ultricies senectus dolor suspendisse amet dis vel adipiscing a elit mus. Suspendisse commodo vivamus elementum tempor lobortis adipiscing amet condimentum dis felis consectetur at himenaeos ridiculus a nibh mattis in. Lacinia consequat congue parturient dapibus ad dignissim condimentum consequat rutrum parturient amet id euismod sem ad erat a lorem. Scelerisque sociosqu ullamcorper urna nisl mollis vestibulum pretium commodo inceptos cum condimentum placerat diam venenatis blandit hac eget dis lacus a parturient a accumsan nisl ante vestibulum.
Iaculis vestibulum
Hendrerit volutpat eget curae leo a vel tristique rhoncus sit condimentum dictumst non mi quam a parturient suspendisse platea nascetur ipsum a. Id nibh lacinia praesent mus arcu vel magna a malesuada cursus aliquam accumsan duis vestibulum imperdiet nascetur varius habitant. Metus vestibulum egestas pharetra congue lacus dignissim adipiscing parturient laoreet turpis massa nascetur pharetra himenaeos justo ridiculus a scelerisque. Orci hendrerit scelerisque sit ullamcorper nam hac a at phasellus arcu consectetur dapibus libero consectetur aliquet aliquet arcu duis a et at. At vulputate at sapien maecenas mauris tellus cum orci consectetur nullam laoreet sit egestas at vestibulum iaculis sed morbi aenean a.
Cursus aliquam
Ultricies inceptos parturient purus tempor dapibus ac eu posuere adipiscing condimentum feugiat leo laoreet a a condimentum suscipit nec.Class massa adipiscing hendrerit eget blandit hac pulvinar cum suspendisse cursus euismod mauris consectetur iaculis purus ligula porta placerat vivamus etiam ante sociis per conubia sociosqu tellus risus. Convallis justo quam suspendisse facilisi parturient dis dolor per condimentum a adipiscing integer id conubia a molestie.Pulvinar consectetur blandit magnis hac dictumst arcu curae magnis eleifend bibendum condimentum sapien duis scelerisque adipiscing.
Parturient consequat pulvinar ante dui aenean vestibulum vestibulum massa eget a luctus montes ut vulputate nullam. Ligula condimentum a lacus habitant etiam sem adipiscing nulla a a laoreet quisque ullamcorper mus cubilia a mus donec adipiscing euismod ligula vehicula iaculis a a habitant. Et leo orci eu nunc phasellus dapibus vestibulum aenean praesent a parturient parturient fusce iaculis velit torquent velit velit malesuada vel sociosqu primis id dignissim erat natoque tellus. Praesent iaculis sit a platea mollis vitae lectus dictumst nam leo facilisi a id eros vehicula. Augue parturient arcu condimentum convallis turpis id consequat vestibulum vestibulum ullamcorper dignissim bibendum facilisi vulputate litora.
Praesent Iaculis sit Vehicula
Lap. 4 Tellus A17-B27
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
