Challenging poses!

tittibhasana
(are you kidding me with that name?)

It seems that everyone has a yoga posture that presents them with challenges.  It could be a simple pose that you visit every week or it could be something as challenging as the posture you see to the left.  What the heck is that gal doing?!?  It's a rather challenging advanced posture called "Firefly Pose", or Tittibhasana.  It was featured in this month's Yoga Journal along with a step-by-step on how to prepare yourself for entering what I think looks like a rather impressive pose.

This step-by-step approach is essential to mastering any tough postures!  Begin with babysteps, mastering your "foundation", and you can build your practice to include even the most challenging poses.  You can't start building a skyscraper without building a first floor.

For Firefly, it turns out that the "first step" is just a more intense forward lunge with the shoulder under the forward knee, instead of tucking the knee into your armpit.  For now, I think I can work on taking my lunge deeper and becoming familiar with the new feeling of having my shoulder under instead of over.  This is what yoga has always been about - shifting your comfort levels, testing your limits, and once you're comfortable, shift them again.  It's the only way to let your practice grow.

This is purely "the physical" - you can certainly apply this yogic philosophy of pushing the limits of your comfort levels with your mind and attitude.  Perhaps it will help you in a tough new relationship or one that has been troubling you for years.  Take baby steps with your postures, take baby steps with your relationships and be surprised at how much you can grow and feel better about your place in the world!

So, will it take me weeks or months to get that shoulder under the forward knee?  I'll have to start opening up my hips if I want to get there...

Mind, body, and spirit are all one; they cannot be separated.  To make progress in one, you must make progress in all.

ps - for those of you with an advanced practice, Kathryn Budig has a weekly blog where she posts "Yoga Challenge Poses" with step-by-step instructions to build your practice to include these extreme pretzel postures ;) Click here to read more!