Yoga Bites: Honoring Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. “I’ve been to the Mountaintop”--Standing mountain pose

“Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind… I’m not worried about anything, I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.” — the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Today we honor Rev King by standing firm and strong in mountain pose.

Under and inside every great architectural structure is both the pyramid and the arc–most of all in the human body.

Next time you stand, feel for this:

• the great pyramid on the bottom of your feet: the points on the ball of the foot under the little toe and the big toe, and the center of your heel. Press those three points firmly into the earth. Make sure your two feet are parallel, and either together or hip distance apart.
• lift the arches of your feet while pressing down into the pyramid points and feel how even if your feet are apart, the two 1/2 arches form a great arc. As you lift the arches of your feet, continue to draw up through the inner thighs, “zipping up”, like a zipper closing through the inner seam of your body towards the core and up. All the while continuing to press into the pyramid points into the ground.
• stack the arc of your pelvis (where one thigh bone attaches into the hip socket all the way around to the other) over the feet arch. In order to do this you must keep your two sit-bones (& butt cheeks) wide and not clenched (no butt wrinkles!), while you also slightly draw your tailbone down as if it could travel through the center of the heels of your feet (imagine a little light beam). These three bones- the two sit bones and one tailbone, create a pyramid, albeit short and wide, similar to a three-pronged plug, which draws down and “plugs in” to the earth. all the while the feet ground and the arches rise.
• stack the arc formed by the bottom of the rib cage over the pelvis and feet arcs. In order to do this, you must draw your lower ribs into the body and relax the areas of the kidneys in the back body (vs. letting ribs jut forward and stressing your adrenals), which will ask you to activate your core muscles.Take the ribs wide instead of forward to keep the breathe expansive (think wide panoramic landscape).
• feel for the reverse pyramid formed by the tips of the collar bones, or shoulder points, and the sternum, or center of the chest.Widen this pyramid with each breath.
• draw the arc of the upper pallet of your mouth over the bottom three arcs, which will take your head slightly back and re-align the cervical spine from the “staring at the computer screen head”, activating what’s called jalandara bandha (energy lock in the throat- which contains strength and allows for better breath and energy flow)
• finally, feel the arc of the top of the inner skull travel over the lower arcs, allowing the head to become light, like a helium balloon.
• breathe into and as the great pyramid you’ve now become- bottom points are your two feel, top point is the crown of your skull.
• Feel your stability and lightness at once as you stack your arches. The inner space of the arches start to connect, like a tube or vessel, a straw for energy to be sipped through.
• You expand beyond the borders of your skin and into the world with inhale, and you contract back to your inner center on exhale.
• breathe into your heart. breathe out from your the heart.

steady as she goes,

now Go Tell It On the Mountain…