Can anybody help me out on these...
(1) Which of the pranas is responsible for perspiration? Is it apana (excretion) or vyana (fluids)?
(2) We learned in class that inner elbows should face each other in downward facing dog, and in the Anusara teacher's manual, John Friend says they should face forward in Chaturanga Dandasana. Is there an optimal alignment for your inner elbows in plank pose?
(3) I'm a little confused about what John Friend means by "expanding" and "contracting" spirals. Are these synonymous with "inner" and "outer" spirals?
Did anybody else go to the Sianna Sherman workshop at Yoga Union last weekend? I went to all sessions except Sunday. It was a great workshop, but I was feeling a little burned out after two weekends and 21 hours of yoga, plus my family was starting to forget me (LOL). Anyway, I took a lot of notes and would be glad to share what I learned!
Hi Peggy,
ReplyDeleteGreat Questions. Thanks for these. Sorry it has taken so long for me to respond.
1) perspiration is Vyana vayu it is what circulates from the core out to the periphery.
2) yes, they face fwd in chaturanga and bent arm poses like that and up dog and arms down by the sides. they face towards each other in arms over head positions and out in front positions like plank :)
3) Expanding spirals and contracting spirals are the inner and outer spirals of the arms. But since the arms have different effects on opening or closing the back body when they are in different positions he has us focus on what happens to the upper back when arms rotate in or out in various positions. This is one of the hardest alignment things to grasp. We will cover this when we work more with the upper body.
We'd all love to hear what you learned and it would be good practice and deeper learning for you to articulate it back. :)