Half-Moon Musings
(I hope you will give Dogwood Daughter's music a listen at their page.)
If you know me or you've read some of my posts at Sylvia's Daughter Says, you already know I'm into yoga. I have mentioned it in a few poems and probably will continue to do so. For me, part of the magic of writing is coming back to the same theme again and again, from different angles and perspectives. (The practice of yoga works in much the same way.)
However, I haven't really studied the history of the individual poses or the different styles such as Hatha yoga, even though I h...ave practiced them. I thought it would be fun this morning to peek into my Yoga Basics book with you. I've had the book on the shelf for years and haven't done much with it since I typically attend classes or do yoga at home with a video. It's time for a closer examination now, if I'm going to be a true student and yogi.
The word "hatha" ("ha" translated as "sun" and "tha" translated as "moon) is related to force, power, and effort. The goal for hatha practitioners is to become stronger and more determined overall, and to achieve unification of the body and mind (Mara Carrico). If you are interested in this particular branch of yoga, you can read about it and see poses and asanas at the link I've provided below from Yoga Journal.
The painting I've posted (seated girl) is borrowed from Hata Yoga Archives, also linked below. You'll have to use your right arrow button to see the image, as I've got a lot going on in this post.
I will write more about the general philosophy and practice of yoga in other posts, but I wanted to stay with my astronomy theme that I started yesterday and discuss a simple pose called Ardha Chandrasana, "Half-Moon Pose."
This pose, pictured below, has more advanced varieties, but the basic idea is to prepare the body for other side bending postures and to develop proprioceptive awareness (a fancy term for the sense of body placement and movement.
Maybe you could try just this one pose today, and return to it again as you learn to bend psychologically as well as physically toward an even better you. I found a lovely piece of art showing a woman leaning in to intimacy with the half moon at a blog with a strange name: http://resting-dead-guy.tumblr.com/post/36066767186
I wish you a balanced day.
http://isha.sadhguru.org/blog/tag/hata-yoga/
http://www.yogajournal.com/catego…/yoga-101/types-of-yoga/…/
