' just when you think you've figured something out, you learn that there's another way and more work ahead of you!'
So it is with Mayurasana. I was getting a little pleased with myself, achieving some nice lift and feeling pretty comfortable in the post and then this picture turns up on the net (I've since found out that this is Sarah Plumer in in the old shala in Laxmipuram, circa 2002. photo by Govinda Kai). Is that not the most beautiful Mayurasana ever (btw, if that's your picture and you would like me to take it down or have a photo credit please let me know and I'll do so immediately).
It's her head shoulders and neck that are particularly striking, the lift she's getting there as well as in her legs....
How do you do that?
The first video , below is how I have been doing it up till now, the leg lift is pretty good I think, happy with that, but the shoulders and head point straight down.
The second video is my attempt to get my shoulders and head up. I'm thinking Salabasana, which worked for my legs, now I'm trying to get the same lift in the front of my body, dropping my shoulders down my back to try to stretch my neck through. Needless to say it's making me unstable again and I collapse at the end of the video, though not before finally remembering to point my toes.
My picture next to hers above is my best attempt so far, heads not pointing down as much but such a long way to go. As I write this my eye keeps coming back to the difference in our shoulders....
'' just when you think you've figured something out, you learn that there's another way and more work ahead of you!'
Sigh...
6 comments:
Hi Grimmly - I can't do mayurasana yet, and it always looks spectacular to me, including yours! Your feet are so high. I have seen that pic before too, and it is unbelievable...
Re: quote, every time I think I've got something down, teacher shows me a new (hard) way and it's like square one again. Le sigh.
My Maehle book arrived today!
*sorry if this is duped, got an error msg on the word veri...
nice work, grimmly. I have totally given up on mayurasana in this lifetime. perhaps that is wrong of me. I love yours, though, and the picture of that gal with the neck is just great. thanks.
Thanks KMB, Dana. Mayurasana, I figure if you can do Salabhasana then your half way there. I used to hate that asana (Salambhasana that is )but if you look at it in the context of Mayurasana then there's an ahhhhhhh moment. After that I figure it's mainly just physics, finding the right fulcrum. The arm and upper body strength gets picked up in Pincha Mayurasana and perhaps Karanda. So never say never.
Was thinking, Ashtanga,,,, kind of like a video game, Tomb Raider or something. You pick up all these little things things you'll need for later in the game. You don't think about them too much just chuck them in your backpack and move on. Sometimes you find out later you needed more Flares or something or some Key and you have to go back to an earlier stage to pick it up. More and more I think it's the easy poses, the ones you can hardly be bothered with, that you take for granted and hardly work on because your so focussed on the cool poses..... those are the ones that that are important.
Don't know why I'm going on about Tomb Raider, I never got out of ruddy Venice on the second one, spent a month of my life on that bloody game. Was fun though, only video game I ever got into.
Think we're calling the wrong poses gatekeeper poses. It's Ustrasana that is the real gatekeeper pose not Kapo and Baddha Konasana rather than Eka pada Sirasana : ) well it's a theory anyway.
Hi Grimmly, very interested on this and how it develops, and your mayurasana looks great to me!, I see what you are saying though... the "swan" neck, beautiful analogy... I am miles away from it, but keep watching the space
I'm liking the video game analogy - flares, keys, vial of antidote...invisibility cloak. Lotus, reverse prayer, chaturanga, urdhva dhanurasana...
Just came across the original picture. Turns out it was taken by Govinda Kai, he labels it like thus,
'Sarah Plumer in Mayurasana in the old shala in Laxmipuram, circa 2002'.
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