The practice progresses with a purpose, says teacher David Garrigues. We start with standing postures. All standing postures are, in essence, balancing postures. They shift the energetic focus downward, towards our abdomens and legs…and away from our over-busy minds. It’s a dramatic reversal that takes committed, consistent, creative and intense effort. Lately, I’ve been focused on stability in the standing postures, particularly in the abdomen and upper thighs. Two specific instructions have helped:
In all standing postures:
Make the muscles of the upper thigh tightly grip the femur bone.
Hug everything towards the center of the thigh.
Like a too-tight garter. Or too-tight shorts.
This is a subtler, more complex instruction than ‘lift your knee cap’.
In all non-backbending postures:
Hollow out your belly.
Make a greyhound torso.
This is an easy-to-understand way of saying ‘create uddhyana bandha’.
Megan LvR 