"Be light as a feather", Manju Jois

I can still hear these words so clearly. When I was practicing Ashtanga Vinyasa with one of my teachers, Manju Jois, I would sometimes be exhausted. The sweat would be pouring down my face, my clothes would be soaked and after hours of practicing 1st and 2nd series back to back (we did have a 10-15 min break between), I would sometimes feel like I had nothing left to give.

Then he would say those magic words, "light as a feather". Amazingly, I would feel lighter. Not that it was easy, but it didn't feel as heavy and cumbersome.

This is where we enter into the world of Uddiyana Bandha.

Uddiyana = to fly up

Bandha = lock

Gravity has an affect on the energy in the body that we call prana, and it wants move down and escape out of the pelvic floor.

For this reason, we engage both Muhla Bandha (root lock) by lifting the pelvic floor and Uddiyana Bandha (flying up lock) by drawing the lower belly in and up. This creates a sense of being lighter, almost like your floating.

Try this exercise if you like. It can be done either sitting or standing.

1) lift the pelvic floor, as if you had to go to the bathroom and there was none around.

2) Draw the lower belly in and up.

How does this feel? You may feel as though your spine gets longer and you might even feel a bit lighter.

In this week's class, we will be exploring these actions to see how they might effect our spinal alignment.

Please feel free to join us. You can join any time. Although these classes do build on one another, you can join at any time. You're always welcome.

Click Here to join:

https://www.yogawithdeb.com/schedule/cdb7049c-77b2-44d1-8d72-f97adefe751d_1644532200