Just Released! Restorative Yoga - Healing Through Breath and Stillness DVD

An article I wrote for HomeSpa

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Despite great difficulty in choosing a favourite yoga pose, I feel particularly attached to viparita karani, commonly known as"legs up the wall". I love teaching this pose to yoga students of all ages and experience levels, for it's power and impact lies not in its complexity, but in its simplicity. Yogis discovered centuries ago that by reversing the gravitational force of the earth, which happens in inverted postures, you may actually be able to "get younger as you grow older".

Therapeutically, this pose cleanses and nourishes us at the deepest level of our being. The minute you bring your legs higher than your head you begin to "tone vital organs, stimulate the endocrine glands, and promote the balanced and efficient running of our entire physiology"1 Spending time in the pose revitalizes you as it relaxes you, which they say is the result of the change in blood flow in the body . While the physical benefits are enough to get anyone motivated to try the pose, the emotional and spiritual benefits are what keep students coming back for more.

My intention in describing how I teach this posture is to share with you the principles I consider when attempting all restorative yoga postures. Legs up the wall is a restorative yoga posture. One of the best things about this pose is that nearly anyone at any age and any state of health can attempt it. It does not take remarkable flexibility, or great strength. According to Patanjali, the ancient authority on yoga, all postures should evoke two qualities: known in Sanskrit as "sthira" or a conscious alert and present state and "sukha", a relaxed, comfortable state without pain or agitation. It is meant to be sustained for a number of minutes. These two important qualities are entirely possible in this posture - which may be the reason for its incredible impact on the human body, mind and soul. The restorative posture is effective only when all effort disappears.

Find a wall or the back of a door to begin. Sit sideways against the wall with your knees bent. Slide your back down on the floor and let your legs come up on to the wall. Keep the soles of your feet parallel to the ceiling. Your buttocks can either be a few inches from the wall or if your legs or lower back are stiff than allow an 8-10" distance between your back and the wall. Experiment until your entire back feels like it is resting on the floor. Feel for your sacrum - the fused bones that sit at the base of your spine just above your tail bone. Let your sacrum rest on the floor. Insure that your lower back and your shoulders are supported from beneath by turning your palms to face up. Put your hands under your skull at the back and lengthen your neck away from your body. Then rest your head gently on the floor. Your head and neck should feel conformable. If you have any neck problems, try resting your neck on a folded towel or blanket and supporting the curvature in the neck region.

While this inversion is likely the gentlest of the inversions, this pose should be avoided during menstruation or for people with very high blood pressure problems. The pose should feel comfortable. Some people find that their legs fall asleep in this position. If this happens, try bringing your legs down the wall with the soles together and come into cobblers' pose (boddhakanasana). You can also bend your knees and rest the soles of your feet on the wall. This feels very nice on your sacrum and lower back. If you want to have a greater inversion, lift your buttocks and place a bolster or a few folded blankets under your sacrum.

Once you're comfortably in the posture connect with your breath. Patanjali's Yoga Sutras emphasize that our ability to be present and aware in any posture comes through the breath. Prana, or life force, is said to follow your breath into the body. Prana links us to the eternal source of all life. Inhale the prana in to your being beginning at your sacrum. Imagine that each vertebra in your spine is like a balloon that fills with air and prana. Inhale your breath as if it is a wave filling each balloon as it rolls up your back as high as it can go. Then let your breath roll down as you exhale deflating each balloon until you return to your sacrum. Continue for a few minutes until you notice that you can roll our breath all of the way up and down your back. Inhale your breath sideways across the lower back ribs. Feel your breath on your shoulder blades, and if possible even up through your neck and skull. Stay consciously breathing for about 10- 20 rounds. If you want to deepen your breath, hold the inhalation in before exhaling. The holding should never feel uncomfortable. Try and make your exhalation long and slow and steady. Ideally the length of you exhalation is double the inhalation.

Then stop breathing consciously and just allow the rhythm of your own breath to nurture and massage you from the inside out. Move your awareness to the back of your being. Scan your body beginning at the back of your legs. Feel your buttocks and hips on the floor. Move your awareness to your spine and the back ribs, and finally to the back of your skull. Let your eyes rest gently inside the sockets, allowing them to be turned downward. Soften your jaw, soften your scalp. Ask yourself how it feels inside. What parts are relaxed? What parts are not? Can you shift your relaxation to those constricted parts? Is your mind quiet? Are your thoughts where you want them to be?

The Yoga Sutra's begin by describing the goal of yoga as the ability to direct the mind exclusively toward an object and sustain that direction without any distraction 2, "yogascittavrttinirodhah '. Yogis say that the breath reflects the state of mind- when the breath is long and slow and steady, the mind follows suit. Most often I take this approach when my legs are up the wall and direct my mind exclusively on my breath in order to make my mind like a calm ocean without the trace of a ripple. This technique provides a wonderful feeling of lightness of being. Your body becomes weightless, your mind is peaceful and you can access your higher self or spirit. For those that have experienced this it's like tasting a bread crumb from god.

Yet I think of how many times I've been in this posture and my mind is more like a drunken monkey swinging from branch to branch than a calm ocean. There is a story of a Rabbi who was in the mountains sitting by the window in a cabin. He looked outside to admire the fabulous view, but the window was so full of cobwebs and grime that he could not see clearly. At first he was frustrated, but as he began to focus on the window itself, what he first saw as grime and cobwebs was now an incredible sight. He realized that the clouded window represented those things in his mind that prevented him from seeing his own light. Focusing in on what may appear to be a distraction can lead us to incredible "in-sights". These can become the focus of our meditation in this restorative posture. Why do I react with anger? Why do I hold resentment? How does that tension in my back keep me from accessing my higher self? The insights that arise on my yoga mat can provide me with access to wisdom I need when I'm leave the yoga mat. This process of questioning the inner world allows me to move from a state of perceived darkness into a place of incredible light. This is truly a gift from the divine, accessible to each of us who cares to try.

• be alert.
• be comfortable.
• find my breath.
• deepen my breath as I deepen the posture.
• let go of "trying" and let my breath take me into a centered state.
• choose to use this calm state as a place to do nothing or to do some soul searching.
• come out of the posture and enjoy the power of the asana on the body, mind and soul.
• take whatever I've gained in this pose with me off the mat and into my life!