The Daily Om: Find your Flow Friday - Breakthroughs

Yoga is such a part of the fabric of my life, that sometimes I take it for granted. Sometimes dear yogi's, I even get bored. Postures like Vismavatrasana are humbling. The challenge of it combined with my longing for something not quite obtainable enliven what can sometimes become a dry practice. It's important to always reach toward what we want. Visvamitrasana is a posture that was beyond me for a long time, and even now, after years of working with it, I feel my limitations in this pose. My heart never really opens toward the sky here. But I reach for it.




Yoga illuminates. There are times when the physical body is capable of a pose but we still don't get it. There may an emotional breakthrough that needs to happen. When it happens, you can access to the pose. Vismavatrasana is still one of these poses for me. When I committed to Vismavatrasana it unlocked emotional pain in both the heart and hips. I found myself going home to cry, and needed a lot of alone time and stillness for a couple of weeks while I worked it out, which is awesome. There was a lot of release on all levels. Sometimes we need to shatter a little so we can be free from patterns of movement or thought that have stopped serving us.


When we can allow ourselves to break open, these ancient practices have the potential to be deeply healing and transformative. But we must catch ourselves when we project our shattering outward, so we can turn it back in. I find this aspect of the practice fascinating: The things that yoga pulls out of us, and how our minds play with these things. The teacher is irritating, the student next to you makes funny noises, the room is too hot, or too cold, your nose itches -- anything that takes you out of your experience, whatever it is, it is not coming at you, it is coming from you and you are projecting it outward.

When your yoga gets a little scary, and you feel yourself perhaps breaking apart a bit,  your practice is doing the deep work of transforming you. In Yoga-speak we call this "piercing the granthis." Granthis (pronounced "gruntys") are the opposite of chakras or energetic wheels. Granthis are energetic knots. It's beneficial to keep your channels open and your energy flowing. 

The essence of this post is: Make friends with the postures that challenge you, and remember you might experience "side-effects" as they work their yoga magic on you.  I still have a long way to go in Vismavatrasana before my heart will open enough to feel the lines of energy in my body here. I'm a little scared of what it may pull out of me.  It's exciting, and this is what keeps me coming back to the mat, day after day, year after year. The journey continues. 

*Quick Tip*: Start with the back leg on the ground. When you're ready to lift up into the full pose for the first time, anchor the outer edge of the back foot against a wall. You will be amazed at how much that connection supports you here.  The front leg pushes hard against the front arm. Pull IN to lift UP.

A bit about our Author, Camille Brown: Hi there and welcome to my segment, The Daily Om. I'm a twenty-something lover of health, fitness, yoga, personal style, reiki, nature, travelling, and capturing those special moments in life that matter the most. My daily goal is to be the best I can, give all I know about yoga, holistic living, and just living your most authentic natural life. I will offer challenging asanas that will push your personal limits in order to achieve success on the mat and offer insight mantras to get your day started your day on a positive note. Remember, "A day without laughing is a day wasted."
Read more from her at http://lotusflowerwellness.blogspot.com