Stretching The Spine Is Natural Movement!

    

Columbia Records It’s A Beautiful Day, The cover was designed by George Hunter and painted by Kent Hollister based on the cover of a housekeeping magazine from around 1900

I have always delighted in looking at this album cover art! The woman looks comfortable in her body, full of vitality and enjoying a Hot Summer Day (a great song on the album). She has an openness, her heart is exposed, unguarded. She is experiencing the breeze, the sun and life! She is wholly present in that moment! 

Along the same lines;

I remember a scene in a visually stunning Chinese *movie. Many people were harvesting or tending rice, they were all bending forward, down. A breeze came up and one by one everyone stretched their backs (similar to the woman on the album cover). At one point all of them were in variations of this position. They were not rushed, they all seemed to be listening to their own bodies needs, stretching their spines as much and as long as each needed to before going back to work!       

Think about this for a few minutes…visualize it…

(* I wish I had a clip or remembered the film’s title, if you know, Please comment below!)            

…When do you enjoy a nice long stretch of your spine? 

 I often hear people saying “I don’t backbend” or “I can’t Backbend”, and I see some students struggle with the easiest “backbend” postures. I wonder how much of this has to do with our modern lifestyle and our  mindset, and our emotional health (self love, acceptance), to to feel free and safe! 

Do rounded shoulders and hunched backs reflect our wounds, our heartaches?  Is it some kind of armor over our heart?

As a yogi, I say YES, it is our wounds and our armor both!

I and many people find emotions come up when backbending! Even gaining just a little new suppleness around the heart, has brought me to tears. This is not a bad thing! If I have grief or sadness, isn’t it best to acknowledge it, give it some space and time to release from my being?

“The deeper sorrow carves into our being the more joy it can contain” ~ Kahlil Gibran 

I was recently at concerts where the music was amazing, yet few people were smiling and very few danced. I thought of this poem;

O wondrous creatures, By what strange miracle Do you so often Not smile?~ Hafiz

I simply wish for everyone to love being in their body, exactly as it is. To feel comfortable and have a sense of vitality, aliveness.

I wish for everyone to enjoy embodied movement, embodied rest, embodied closeness. I wish everyone to find peace. this is why I teach yoga.

Peace, Christina 

100 reasons to get out in Nature.

1. Fresh air
2. Sunshine
3. Exercise
4. Enjoy the beauty of trees
5. Enjoy the beauty of terrain
6. Enjoy the beauty of the sky
7. Enjoy the beauty of clouds
8. Enjoy the beauty of stars
9. Enjoy the moon
10. Enjoy the moonlight world
11. Focus your eyes at different distances
12. Enjoy the beauty of plants
13. Remember the cycle of life
14. Enjoy the beauty of creatures
15. Enjoy the beauty of birds
16. Experience the environment
17. Enjoy the beauty of breezes, wind
18. Relax
19. Get creative inspiration
20. Enjoy the sense of smell
21. Enjoy the sense of touch
22. Eat, food tastes better outside.
23. Get away from screens
24. Get away from phones
25. Get away from traffic
26. Get away from day to day routines
27. Possibility for adventure is high
28. Remembering how change is a part of life
29. See something new
30. See something old
31. Hear your own intuition
32. Enjoy quiet
33. Enjoy the sounds of birds
34. Experience different temperatures
35. Experience rain
36. Experience snow
37. Feast your eyes on colors
38. Feast your eyes on textures
39. Feast you eyes on patterns
40. Explore
41. Play
42. Enjoy sunrises
43. Enjoy sunsets
44. Release emotions
45. Enjoy the beauty of flowers
46. Enjoy the smells of flowers and plants
47. See life all around you
48. Experience phenomena of the sky- rainbows, northern lights, shooting stars.
49. Experience stillness or storms
50. 50 to 100 enjoy all 50 things by sharing them in the company of different friends especially curious children!

Thinking About Furniture…

Furniture is everywhere, in a multitude of styles, materials, colors, but is most of it really even necessary? Is it smart? Healthy? There is the status of having the latest or fashionable furniture all over the house, Another consumer thing.  Does Modern Furniture Design  promote healthy posture and body? NO, not most of it and not the constant use of it, the dependence on it because it limits how we move.

It is only on rare occasions that many western people move to the ground and up- picnics are about the only exception and more and more people are bringing chairs out to nature, picknics and soccer games too! 

There seems to be  ideas about ease and comfort,  as if moving up and down from the ground is a chore rather than a natural or joyful part of life.

Sitting all day in a chair at a desk causes all kinds of problems.  These modern conventions for “comfort “actually  cause weak muscles in the back and legs inevitably disrupting alignment, core strength and health.

If we rarely move down to the floor and back up those muscles become weak, the whole sequence of muscular movement, and balance used to sit on the floor are important for our continued  physical health.  Just consider your hips and the range of motion used to get to the floor and back up again.

Many of our elderly people, here in the west  have weak hips and legs and poor balance; this is in part, directly related to how we don’t use our bodies through mid-life. In the west we start limiting the range of motion beginning  with 1st grade, we sit for longer and longer periods on chairs and couches.

Two very good solutions for this:  Cutting off the legs off the dining room table and sitting on pillows, and putting your mattress on the floor. Doing these two things will assure you are going down and up from  the floor 4 or more times a day.  Also your ceilings will appear higher  (o; and room more spacious! 

 I always remember seeing elder people when I was in Tunisia; They would  move with so much  more agility and grace, lowering and raising from the floor with ease, and such great posture. Then returning to America, I noticed  people  strain to sit on the ground and middle aged and older people avoid it like it is dangerous!  What is more dangerous is not doing it and losing that strength and range of motion!

Christina Bouajila      www.happymountainyoga.com