Thursday 6.30p Intro — Week 3 (October 1, 2009)

New student in class
Focus: “Bodification” of the breath” taught by Geeta and Prashant Iyengar in Pune July, 2009.

Discussion: annamaya kosha becomes pranamaya kosha

Note new poses for this week are in bold face.


1. Invocation in Swastikasana
a. Soft, slow, smooth inhalation. Soft, slow, smooth exhalation. The energy, prana, that you generate through the inhalation and the exhalation should reach even the remote areas of the body. Sit erect to create space, height, width, and depth to drench every area of the body with the breath.

b. From the inner cellular body, you have to keep yourself open because the cells are receptacles that receive that energy.

So let that annamaya kosha [physical sheath] of the body become completely a pranamaya kosha [energetic sheath], as though every cell of the body is receiving that energy.

If the nerve fibers fluctuate anywhere, or get inflated, the energy will get sucked up by those nerve cells. Don’t deflate them, as though the air is taken out from those areas, [else the prana will leak from them].

c. Quietly and silently, lift from the outer body, as the subtle body settles deeper into the core, the inner sheath, where it can remain restful.
[Geeta Iyengar — Pune July, 2009]

d. For sciatica and mid-back pain during pregnancy, sit on four evenly-stacked blankets, with part of the thigh on the blanket. Don’t let the baby sink into the right side of the pelvis.(NB)

2. a. “Stretching” the back thighs connotes an aggressive mechanical action whereas “opening” has a less forceful feel. We hold the breath when “stretching” but tend to breathe normally when “opening.”

3. Upavistha Konasana

4. Parsva Upavistha Konasana

5. Baddha Konasana
a. Reinforce the spine by lifting the inner buttock bones and pelvic floor.
b. On stacked blankets, substitute for Upavistha Konasana, for sciatica and mid-back pain during pregnancy. (NB)

6. Ujjayi I in Supported Supta Baddha Konasana
a. Breath awareness
b. Belt each leg independently to make space in the groins and abdomen. (NB)

7. Ujjayi III in Supported Supta Baddha Konasana
a. Slightly longer exhalation towards the infinite vastness within.
b. “If you only labor with your body, you will be weaned away from the culture of yoga. So become breath aware.”
c. “The breath should become muscle, skin, bones, tissue, cells, fibers through the “bodification” of the breath.”
[Prashant Iyengar: Pune July, 2009]

8. Viparita Karani

9. Ardha Parsvottanasana (hands on wall, upright)
a. Prior to class, left heel up on brick for sciatica during pregnancy, especially after driving. (NB).