Inner Spiral

Tonight was week 4 of the Fundamentals of Anusara-Inspired series. Since we dedicated week 3 to Organic Energy (the 5th principle) this week we went back to pick up the 3rd principle, Inner Spiral.

Inner Spiral, and it's complement Outer Spiral, are refinements of the major principles of Muscular and Organic Energy. Inner Spiral lets you play around in the pose a little bit, find just the right alignment, before really turning on the juice with Organic Energy.

My example tonight was about parenting. When my daughter was old enough we finally implemented a schedule in our lives. The schedule was the best thing ever! It made every part of our life move much smoother and we were no longer going on the whims of a tiny being and her stressed out mom. Hooray! At first with the schedule I was very set in my ways. I did not venture out of the scheduled routine and it made me pretty rigid and anxious. I missed out on a lot of opportunities for fun and I was always stressed about the next step in our day. No Fun!

As my daughter got older I realized I could adjust the schedule day to day. I could make small adjustments to lunchtime and naptime and bedtime. Move the routine around just enough to make space for the reality of our day as long as I held to the basic structure. This let me get really flexible and fluid in my mind and in our life. Things opened up and I felt better and I'm sure my daughter and husband do too.

In this example the rigid schedule is Muscular Energy. We have to have Muscular energy to hold the body together and hold the pose together. BUT if we only hold, we'll miss out on creating a lot more space and fluidity in the body. The principle that creates that space and fluidity is Inner Spiral (or Expanding spiral). The looser schedule. The schedule isn't totally thrown away, but it is played around with a little bit.

Inner Spiral has three main components (and we'll stick to the legs for this one). It is a spiraling tornado-shaped action that moves from the inner edges of the feet up the legs to the upper thighs and all the way to the back of the waistline (oops! left out the waistline tonight, sorry ladies!) It moves the thighs IN, BACK, and WIDE apart. IN. BACK. WIDE. That's inner spiral.

The effects of Inner spiral are WONDERFUL. Your low back gets a deep curve and it feels SO good. The legs move into Optimal Alignment with the head of the thighbone in the socket and the hamstrings get tracked into place. It can be very healing and curative for many back problems. All of those put together make people feel better. And when we feel better we're happier. I'm not saying Inner Spiral can totally bring on world peace... but it just might! It certainly brings greater freedom into my body, heart and spirit. Ah!