Moving beyond duality...

With so much happening in the world it can feel hard to practice, hard to settling during our time on the mat - but trust that this is when we need our practice the most, that we can let these feelings inform us, let them be our reason rather than our excuse.



Practice is a time to simply show up, not as an expert but someone who is willing to listen. To sit with our bodies and say I am sorry it took me so long, but I am here now.

Yoga is about moving beyond duality, but as Nikki Myers, the founder of Y12SR says “In order to move beyond duality first we have to acknowledge it exists.” I want you to let Nikki’s words be your guide in this week’s practice.

This week play with these poses:

Tadasana
Urdvha Hastasana (raising the arms upward) 
Adho Mukha Svanasana (downward facing dog)

In Adho Mukha Svanasana explore the rotation of the arms that we always go through in class:

• Ground the thumb and index finger (be sensitive to how you do this, can you find a compassionate connection to the earth beneath your hand, rather than a forceful one?)
• Notice how this creates an inner rotation to the forearm - play with it - can you bring the inner elbows to face each other, can you use the opposite hand to help you roll the skin of each forearm in? Use a foam pad, use a belt. What does it feel like to lose that rotation?
• Now can you maintain that action on the forearm and do the opposite with the upper arm, can you roll it out without losing the inward rotation you have created below? Again play, use the opposite hand to move the skin, what does it feel like with and without that rotation.

Feel how you are realising a duality within the movement of the arm, acknowledging it - then feel how the realisation of that duality actually brings you in towards the midline - or in other words allows you to move beyond the duality. Muscle moves towards the bone, and your arm, by acknowledging its parts, becomes whole.

Now can you maintain that and lift into Adho Mukha Svanasana? Can you find and maintain the unity in your strength?

Then go back to Urdvha Hastasana - find it again, play.

Adho Mukha Svanasana again - how does the dual rotation in the arms mirror what has to happen in the legs? Can you recognise it?
How is it both the same and different.

Now find it again in Urdvha Hastasana - arms and legs.
How does that affect the pose?

Not just unity in strength, but also strength in unity.

Human Family - Maya Angelou

I note the obvious differences
In the human family.
Some of us are serious,
Some thrive on comedy.
Some declare their lives are lived
As true profundity,
And others claim they really live
The real reality.
The variety of our skin tones
Can confuse, bemuse, delight,
Brown and pink and beige and purple,
Tan and blue and white.
I've sailed upon the seven seas
And stopped in every land,
I've seen the wonders of the world
Not yet one common man.
I know ten thousand women
Called Jane and Mary Jane,
But I've not seen any two
Who really were the same.
Mirror twins are different
Although their features jibe,
And lovers think quite different thoughts
While lying side by side.
We love and lose in China,
We weep on England's moors,
And laugh and moan in Guinea,
And thrive on Spanish shores.
We seek success in Finland,
Are born and die in Maine.
In minor ways we differ,
In major we're the same.
I note the obvious differences
Between each sort and type,
But we are more alike, my friends,
Than we are unalike.
We are more alike, my friends,
Than we are unalike.
We are more alike, my friends,
Than we are unalike.
​

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