Asana Practice

Beautiful Marshland

Last week I went out to the marshland a couple of times to have a morning ritual with the birds. It’s one of my favorite places to practice outside. The ground is flat and relatively soft and it’s one of the most beautiful places on the planet. There are all kinds of birds — geese, pelicans, pheasant, ducks, heron, birds whose names I do not know…There’s something about communing and connecting with nature that really soothes and nourishes the soul. Truth be told, there are geese who fly overhead at my house every morning, too, but out here there is a quiet I love, away from the sounds of traffic and sirens and the things I tried to get away from when I left NYC.

I teach several studio classes each week, but two of them are Yoga Nidra and one is Restorative, so in my personal practice it’s important to me right now to build some muscle strength and work on challenging poses.

Ardha chandrasana (Half Moon Pose) has always been a challenge for me, so it’s a great one for me to practice. It requires balance, leg strength, and of course core strength. Timelapse recordings are really helpful for checking alignment, and to the trained eye you can see the important small adjustments that are made to correct alignment. Ther’re also a little mesmerizing and fun to watch.