Workshop in Mexico City: June 26 – 29, 2014

I was hosted by Jnana Dakini at Yoga Espacio COYOACÁN.

Doors are a symbol of hope, and opportunity, offering us a passage from one  place or state to another – they are an entrance to a new life. In India, divinities are carved on door jambs, showing that the gods guide us through to the Supreme Presence. This elaborately tiled doorway was halfway between Yoga Espacio, the yoga school, and Frida Kahlo’s house.

Vrksasana. In this variation, the hands are turned out. Slide the heels higher and higher up the wall. Pull the elbows and forearms in toward each other and then pull the torso up off the shoulders. Align the arms with the shoulders and chest: press the elbows toward the wall. Move your shoulders away from the wall. Pull the sacrum up, away from the lumbar region. Roll your inner thighs to the wall and lift from the inner knees to the inner ankles, and the inner ankles to the inner heels.  Slide your heels further up the wall.

 

To come out of the pose, keep the right leg against the wall. Continue to roll your right leg inner thigh to the wall and slide it even further up the wall. As you start to drop your left leg down, lift everything else!

 

 

Lift!

Lift!

…and go on lifting to come down.

Parvritta Trikonasana. Turning to the left, anchor the right leg outer heel to the floor. Draw the left  inner sit-bone back away from the head. Turn from the back body: drop your left back ribs into the spine. Move your right back ribs away from the spine. Raise your left arm up from the breast-bone. Keeping your right shoulder-blade pressed forward toward your right breast, release your right arm down. Place your fingertips on the floor or a block. Extend your breast bone  forward , away from your pubic bone.

On the wall of the dining room in my hotel was this brown wooden cross, with blue plastic flowers wired on to it.

© 2014 Bobby Clennell.

Kids Love Yoga

Learning…

Hmm… where to start? I think I’ll look for a new pose.

Stella at the 1st Yoga Open Health Fair sponsered by the local news stations in Denver, reading Watch Me Do Yoga. Photo sent in by Iyengar Yoga Denver.

…and Doing

OK. Now that we’ve hit the books, let’s get started!

Barbara Harris says of her 7-month-old great-granddaughter Ava, “She doesn’t know that this is Triang Mukhaikapada. She just knows her body does it.” Barbara teaches at the Boise Yoga Center in Idaho with Vickie Aldridge.

 

“Jo did this all by herself this afternoon. Unrolled the mat and went straight to downward-facing dog,” says Alexis Lombard Niceley of this photo taken by her mom, Janice Irwin.

And what do kids always do next? They raise their leg in the air! This is 劉庭安 (Amber Liu), from Taiwan. Photo by her father 劉威志 (Akko Liu) from Mix & Match Your Day.

Here’s Bonnie Yonker’s daughter Maya proving my point: Downward Facing Dog Pose with the Leg Raised. Bonnie runs the Yoga Sanctuary in Punta Gorda, Florida.

Ardha Chandrasana (Half-Moon Pose). She’s good!

Fern in one-handed Urdhva Dhanurasana. Photo by Suzy Dodd

6-year-old Acelin in Roxbury, upstate New York has found a novel way of working with props…

…and his sister, 2-year-old Elsa raises a block.

The Queen of Hearts.

Pamy Lieu sent this photo of 2-year-old Aiden from Kuala Lumpur. “Spidey boy loves the ropes!”

Thanks to everyone who has sent me photos of their kids who were inspired by my book, Watch Me Do Yoga; please keep sending them in.

© 2014 Bobby Clennell.