Yoga for a Healthy Lower Back (45 page)

Your lower back will enjoy resting after backbends, but first you'll lengthen your entire spine with a seated twist to release any leftover tightness.

Sit on your mat with your legs straight in front of you. Lean to your right and shift your shins and feet over to your left hip. Place your left ankle over the arch of your right foot. Place your hands on your hips and feel how balanced they are—they should be almost even. Your left hip can be off the floor a little, but both hips should feel that they are descending down toward the earth. If you feel unbalanced, place a folded blanket under your hips. Place your hands behind you on the floor, lean back, look up, and lift your chest up any amount possible. Feel a wellspring of rising energy bubbling up your spine, just as you did in Camel Pose.

Stretch your left arm up. With a deep exhalation, take your left hand to your right thigh. Turn your palm out and tuck your fingers underneath your thigh, stretching your palm. Press your hand against your thigh and turn your lower back, rib cage, and shoulders all to the right. Turn your neck to the right and gaze over your shoulder and toward the floor, giving the left side of your neck a good stretch. Your entire spine should be involved in the twist. For even more release in your neck, if you are comfortable, turn your head to the left and gaze beyond your left shoulder to the floor (
fig. 6.17
).

FIG. 6.17

Hold for fifteen to twenty seconds, letting your spine deepen into the twist with each breath. Come back to center, shift your legs to your right, and twist to the left.

Child's Pose

Rest | Balasana

After Bharadvaja's Twist, come onto your hands and knees and settle your body into
Child's Pose
. Make sure your knees and ankles are completely comfortable so you can stay in the pose for two to three minutes, fully resting your lower back. Tuck your chin slightly and feel the back of your neck lengthen—that should feel good after you stretched it back in Camel Pose. Visualize the muscles around your neck softening and releasing. Visualize the wellspring of energy in your spine flowing freely back and forth between your sacrum and your neck in a soft wave that nurtures each nerve, disk, and vertebra along your spine.

Deep Relaxation: Find Your Inner Essence

Rest | Shavasana Variation 1

Taking the time to rest in deep relaxation after practicing backbends is as essential as practicing the backbends themselves. Lie down so that your thighs rest on a bolster, your feet rest on blocks, and your neck is supported on a rolled and folded blanket, all as shown
in chapter 2
. Before you rest, though, place your feet flat on your bolster and consider these tips to create the most comfort possible throughout your body:

•  To relax your hips, gently scoop your tailbone up and press your front pelvic bones toward each other.

•  To release your sacrum, draw your buttocks out to the sides of your hips.

•  To elongate your lower back, draw your buttocks toward your feet.

•  To elongate your middle and upper back, press your elbows into the floor and lengthen your trunk away from your hips.

•  To open your chest, draw your shoulder blades away from your ears and press them toward the ceiling, then release your shoulders down into the support of the earth.

•  To elongate your neck, tuck your chin slightly toward your chest, place your fingers on the base of your skull, and lengthen your head away from your shoulders.

Now let your body rest completely. You've completed the journey all the way through your spine, from your hips to your head, and through all of your chakras, from your root (Muladhara) to your crown (Sahasrara). You have found the heart of your spine—your sacrum—and your heart center—the Anahata chakra. In this relaxation you'll take a journey even deeper inward, toward “the heart of your heart,” your true, essential nature.

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali begins by stating both the goal and the result of yoga practice. Depending on which translation you read, sutra 1.2 describes yoga as “the settling of the mind into silence,”
³⁸
“the stilling of the changing states of the mind,”
³⁹
or “the cessation of the turnings of thought.”
⁴⁰
Sutra 1.3 continues by stating that, once settled, the Self “abides in its essence,”
⁴¹
“abides in its own true nature,”
⁴²
or “stands in its true identity as observer to the world.”
⁴³
If these phrases seem lovely but esoteric to you, start by simply imagining a radiant energy that lives in your heart center. It is hidden from you by the everyday clutter of thoughts that occupy your mind. But when you take the time to quiet and still your thoughts, it shines brightly, and your resplendent, essential nature is revealed.

With these images in mind, close your eyes and draw them down into your body. Slowly travel through your body, seeing and feeling spaciousness and lightness in your hips, lower back, middle back, upper back, and neck. With your inner sight, observe your entire spine moving into complete relaxation—your muscles becoming soft and relaxed, your sacral bone and your spinal vertebrae releasing into the support of the earth.

Bring your mind to focus on your heart center, and the radiant light within it. With each exhalation, feel your thoughts becoming less important. Let go of them. Observe how your mind becomes quieter with each exhalation. After a few breaths, feel your mind remaining quiet, until the waves of thought that usually flow through you have become still. Don't
worry if a thought pops back up and takes your attention away—your mind loves to think! Just let your breath carry it away and draw your mind back to your heart.

Visualize each layer of thoughts that covers the light in your heart peeling away, one by one. Let that light become more radiant and expressive until it shines completely through every part of your body, from your heart center to the farthest reaches of your fingertips and toes. Let yourself rest in the beauty of your inner light as long as you are comfortable.

When you are ready to come out, slowly move your hands and feet, roll your wrists and ankles, and bend your elbows and knees. Roll onto one side of your body and bring yourself up to a comfortable seated position. Bring your hands onto your lap. Cup your right hand over your left, then lift and join the tips of your thumbs together, forming a circle with your hands. This is one version of a hand position called Mandala mudra, which represents the intention of cultivating wholeness and calmness in oneself.
Mandala
is a Sanskrit word often translated as “circle.” In the Buddhist and Hindu traditions, mantras are a kind of sacred art that symbolizes the universe and are used as an aid to meditation.
⁴⁴
Sit for a few moments, honoring your body for all the work it has done in its journey into wellness and wholeness.

Grow and Progress

Chin Lock

Jalandhara Bandha

You've practiced
Root Lock
(Mula Bandha) to awaken the energy of your inner hips, and you've reignited your inner fire with the practice of
Abdominal Lock
(Uddiyana Bandha). Although you may not know it, you've also already practiced a version of Jalandhara Bandha, or Chin Lock, in the meditation we practiced in the “Uniting East and West” section of this chapter. Now we'll practice it again as preparation for a challenging—but rewarding!—sequence of poses that will bring our main work to a close.

In Jalandhara Bandha, the chin makes contact with the top of the breastbone, called the sternal notch, as a means of holding life force (prana) within the chest. You've approached this movement in
Bridge Pose
and
Inverted Cleanser Pose
. Now that you've toned and loosened the musculature of your neck in this chapter, you'll explore Chin Lock along with Ocean Breath and internal retention (antara kumbhaka). Notice how your experience of this exercise differs from when you practiced it at the beginning of this chapter.

Sit comfortably, either on a folded blanket or in a chair. When you are ready, begin
Ocean Breath
. Practice between ten and twelve rounds so that both your body and your breath warm up. Feel your resonant breath flowing smoothly through your chest, and be sure that your inhalations and exhalations are even and balanced.

Now come into Chin Lock: Hold your breath in at the top of an inhalation. Lift your sternal notch up toward your chin and draw your chin down toward that spot, just below your throat. To help your chin come down, elongate the back of your neck and take your chin slightly forward and toward your chest. Don't worry if your chin doesn't rest on your sternal notch; all yoga practice is a process, and eventually you will come into full Chin Lock. The most important thing is that you shouldn't feel any strain at the back of your neck.

Hold your inhalation in Chin Lock for a few seconds, but not any longer than you feel comfortable. Feel your chest broad and full—a sacred vessel holding prana that diffuses softly through your body. Slowly release your breath with an Ocean Breath, releasing Chin Lock at the end of your exhalation. Repeat the whole cycle, seeing if you can retain your inhalation a little longer so that over time your internal retention can become as long as your inhalation. Practice ten to twelve rounds in this manner, taking a break between rounds whenever you feel a need to come back to a normal breath.

Revolved Side-Angle Pose

Stretch and Strengthen | Parivrtta Parshvakonasana Variation

This pose is like Revolved Lunge, but it moves into a much deeper twist. If your lower back is challenged in twisting poses, place a chair right in front of you. Begin in
Supported Deep Lunge Pose
with your right leg forward and your left toes tucked under. Stretch your arms out to your sides, in line with your shoulders. Exhaling, bend from your hips and turn your trunk to the right. Bring your left arm to the outside of your right thigh.

Place your right hand on your right outer hip and check in with your lower back; if it's comfortable, take your left arm as low as possible along your thigh toward the floor, then bring your hands into
Anjali mudra
. Elongate your entire trunk—the front, back, and sides—as you inhale, and twist more deeply as you exhale. If your lower back is in discomfort, lift your trunk up and support your left hand on the chair. Twist only as far as your lower back comfortably allows.

FIG. 6.18

Here's the fun and strengthening (and challenging!) part of the pose, which you can do regardless of how deep you twist. As you exhale, lift your left knee up off the floor while your right leg stays in lunge position. Stretch your left leg strongly from the sit bone to the heel in order to keep your leg straight (
fig. 6.18
). Visualize your trunk turning around your legs, the muscles of the spine lengthening from your hips all the way up to your neck. Check to see that your head, neck, and shoulders are in alignment with your spine, and press the tips of your shoulder blades forward to support and broaden your chest. Hold for ten to fifteen seconds, then bring your left knee down to the floor. Slowly unwind yourself out of the pose, then repeat to the other side.