Placement

So, this week's theme is inspired by the MISplaceent of a dot.

Yup, I can find yoga in everything!

Last week the website I'd lovingly created over a period two months (felt like years to be honest) went down. To cut a VERY long story short, it was because there was a '.' where there should never have been a '.' in a piece of code my domain people were using and it caused chaos.

Last week saw an awful lot of placement change, when you think about it. We lost a monarch, which then instigated a huge reshuffle of her family and the positions they hold. Their alignment, if you like.

We got ourselves a new prime minister: instigating another massive reshuffle of cabinet, the positioning if you will, of our government leaders.

All this under a HUGE dot in the sky, our lovely moon, full and under the influence of Pisces's emotional and intuitive energy. So when MY dot caused me so much trouble, I shouldn't really have been surprised.

Anyhoo, the World kept turning, the country started adjusting and here I am, drawing links between all that and one little full stop. Why? Well, Yoga, that's why!

Yoga has all of this running through it: change, placement, alignment, adjustment, positioning-it's all there, every session, no matter who your teacher or where you practice.

I'm not one for physically adjusting my class members. It's not particularly polite, I don't think, to step into someone's space and push or pull their body into a shape that doesn't feel pleasant to them! That's not to say I don't verbally tell people if they're not aligned 'right': we have a duty as teachers to keep you safe, after all. But my preferred methodology is to encourage my students to feel into their asana. To air the little adjustments I suggest, sure, but to hold their version, for their body.

We're looking at all this on the mat this week and bringing things into the minutiae: where should a foot be? How best to hold the arms? Why turn the ankle? Where should the tailbone be?

For example: below is a common sight - warrior one held with little mindfulness.

And here, in the second pic, a slightly more aligned version!

Go ahead, I know you want to - play spot the difference and get back to me!

In the meantime: book a class and I'll see you on the mat!