REACHING HOME BASE
Moving house.
It’s a first world problem but at some stage most of us need to do it, some of us more than others. I’m preparing to move again, and it has me looking carefully at my yoga practice and what supports us when we feel ungrounded, disheveled and a little lost in our own space.
Something I love about yoga is that it doesn’t just include the physical poses. It includes philosophy and theory that provides us with a platform and with the tools to be more discerning, supporting ourselves how we best need to in the ever changing landscape of our lives and worlds.
Perhaps one of the most confounded and confusing concepts of several Eastern traditions is that of impermanence, the concept that all things are changing. But what if we leant in a little deeper, and dared to peer inside the impermanence of all things? Would it make life a little more easy? Would it have us letting go of all that stuff we think we should have or be, or do?
The short answer, is yes.
So amongst the boxes of books that I cherish and am attached to (and maybe have read, and maybe will and maybe won’t) and the family hand me downs that were expected of me to live out the way they were brought in, I turn to my practice. I ground into the base of my own home, my body – I feel into my own two feet knowing that wherever I take myself, I have a home already within me. In the subtle anatomy of yoga this is often referred to as the ‘base chakra’ or muladhara in Sanskrit (the ancient yogi language) meaning literally ‘root support’, and is represented by the colour red.
Some of the best physical poses to keep us grounded include:
Malasana – the squat
Uttanasna – standing forward bend
Adho mukha svanasana – downward facing dog
Sukhasana – easy pose
Begin in your squat and take a total of 5 deep breaths in each pose.
Visualise a beautiful red light growing at the base of your spine as you stay.
Stay in each pose for a total of 5 breaths and you will have a base that is unshakeable!
5 deep breaths is equivalent to 1 minute, so here you have a 5 minute practice.
Take a moment from your day, and arrive back into the home that is your body.
Written and modelled by TLSE Yogi, Kate Pippos.
Shot by TLSE photographer, Heloise Love.
