It’s been a difficult two years for most everyone, some more than others. This is the season when it’s customary to give our thanks for being alive in this beautiful world, and we’ll be excused if our Thank You lists are rather shorter than usual. But I think we can all agree there’s one thing we can all be enormously thankful for, and that’s the far-beyond-the-call-of-duty efforts made by Kim, her staff (especially her right-hand person, Laura, every studio owner’s dream manager), and the great faculty at Nest Yoga for keeping the place going and thriving when so many other schools threw in their sweaty towels. If you get the chance, be sure to let whoever you run across how thankful you are for their invaluable contributions to our Nest community. Oh, and if any teachers are reading this, be sure to thank all your wonderful students for sticky matting with us through thin and thinner.
Now in honor of the looming holiday, our bird pose of the month, Bakasana. A baka is a heron or crane (we’ll use the latter name), and according to my Sanskrit-English dictionary, also a “hypocrite, cheat, rogue, the crane being regarded as a bird of great cunning and deceit.” The pose is quite challenging, most beginning cranes have a hard time taking flight. But once you get the hang of it, like all balancing poses, it’s tremendously exhilarating.
It would be useful before launch if you did a few simple groin openers: a bent-knee lunge, perhaps, Bound Angle (baddha konasana), wide leg sitting forward bend (upavishtha konasana) and its standing cousin (prasarita padottanasana), and the squat known as the Rosary (malasana). You might also do a rounded back exercise, like the Ball Pose (kandukasana), in which you lie on your back, hug your thighs to your torso, and lift your nose to your knees, firming your belly. That done, ready?
1. Squat down, feet slightly apart and inner feet parallel, heels elevated on a thickly folded blanket or sand bag if they don’t rest easily on the floor. If this is your first attempt at this pose, or have crash landed with previous attempts, put a block on the floor maybe a foot or 18 inches in front of you, either on one of its ends (so it’s at its tallest height) or one of its sides (at middle height). You’ll get a better sense where to position the block and at what height as you move toward the pose. We’ll call this variation Tofu Crane so our vegetarians don’t feel left out.
2. Work your torso down onto your inner thighs and your shins into your armpits. THIS NEXT IS CRUCIAL. You must have your hands as wide as the narrow width of your sticky mat and your elbows stuck sharply out to the sides, wider than your shins.
3. Lean forward and rest your head on the block. If it feels too high, back off and lower it, too low the same and raise it. Now lift your buttocks away from your heels. Yes, I know, you Iyengar people relax, we’ll get to the buttocks and the heels shortly. Be sure you round your back as you did in Ball Pose, belly contracted, very wide between the shoulder blades, tail bone releasing down.
4. Once in this position, hold for 20-30 seconds or as long as you can comfortably. Then release your buttocks back to your heels and consider yourself an honorary Crane. Stretch your arms out to the sides and flap them like wings, but resist the temptation to wade into the Bay hunting for fish. However, if you do feel confident that you can go to the next level, return to the previous position, and this time pick your feet slightly off the floor, drawing your heels toward your sitting bones. Again hold 20-30 seconds, or as long as you can comfortably, and release your feet to the floor. Flap your wings again.
5. If you feel like you’ve reached your limit for the time being, see the suggestion at the end of this breakdown (or is it a “beak down”?). But if you feel you’re like you’re ready to leave the nest (figuratively speaking, of course) and soar into the firmament, remove the block and squat down. To be on the safe side, you might want to position a bolster or thickly folded blanket in front, just to use to pad your face and nose if things don’t work out as we’re both hoping they will, you probably more than me.
6. Now lean forward again, head neutral (that is, looking down at the floor), and do what you did in step 4 above, lift your buttocks first, then your feet as high as you can. Round your back, firm your belly, hold 20-30 seconds or however long you can comfortably, then release. Flap.
7. Now for what is considered the full pose among Nest Iyengar veterans (and I’m talking decades here), like our own Mary Paffard (she’s back 20 November), Leslie Howard, and treasured friend Patricia Sullivan. This time when you come up, DON’T lift your buttocks away from your heels, lift the buttocks and heels as a unit. Since you’re copying an Iyengar student, imagine a teacher hollering at you to “Tuck up those heels.” And hey, no cheating! Then press your inner legs against the outer arms and straighten your elbows. Hold for 30 seconds to a minute, and release. If you come down before that time, but you’re feeling good that you got as far as you did, the imaginary teacher will scold, “Nobody told you to come down.” Needless to say, if you want to flap, be sure your arms are equi-distant from the floor with the elbows fully extended. And don’t forget, today’s maximum is tomorrow’s minimum.
You might want to do a reclining twist either with knees bent or legs straight to release your back (jatharaparivartanasana). Happy Thanksgiving (I’m especially grateful for my models, Alice, Lynn, Katherine, and Kirsten).