Today I came to a now tried-and-true flow that helps open my hips. This is one of the first deviations/additions I brought into my Sivananda practice years ago. At that time I had only a home-based yoga practice, and though my body was flexible, I had started going to a massage therapist to work out the kinks in my back. I was lucky to stumble upon him, because I've learned so much from him over the years. Suddenly I was very aware of my psoas/illiopsoas, piriformis, gluteuses of all kinds... all of those lovely muscles that surround and intertwine with the hips. As he worked the tension out of them, I began to feel how stressed they were.
One day, after a couple of sun salutations, I paused in low lunge. I could feel these muscles stretching, and a light went on in my head. I raised my body up into anjaneyasana and hung out. I brought my hands to the floor and did a hamstring stretch (later learning that it is a half split in yoga). I traveled into pigeon on my way to resting pigeon, which is a stretch I had learned from running. I came back up and kicked my back leg up to what I now know is mermaid. I was pretty sure I had seen something like it in an ad before.
Today I know this is actually a tried-and-true sequence for many, but it's something I came to on my own, by listening to my body. Learning that it was something people already knew about didn't make it any less magical; it was one of the gateways to learning that my body has its own intelligence, if I would only listen to it.
#theresnoplacelikeom #theresnoplacelikenow #practicedaily day 5 of 30
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