supta virasana: a love story

"Every day."

As my teacher walked past me in a room of 25+ students, hovering overhead for a mere moment, she looked in my eyes and this is all she said.

Every Day.

As I lay on a that bolster... adjusting and adjusting again... coming in and out of the pose... not finding quite the right set up for that moment, for how to just be there...

At that point, I'd been practicing yoga for 7 or 8 years. So it wasn't a new-to-me pose. But let me tell you, this was my favorite pose to AVOID.

Every Day.

When she said these words many years ago, I felt like doing Supta Virasana every day would make my pose better. Maybe as my body gained some flexibility, I would find more ease in the pose. And it leads one towards more advanced poses, so I could further my practice.

What I've experienced over the last 6 weeks, has not been about becoming better at something. Or fixing something.

Rather, the virasana cycle has become an open channel for communication.

I've been working with this one legged variation (pictured above), and it has shifted our relationship. No longer filled with dread at the sound of its name, I'm actually excited to talk with my ankles, knees, hips, pelvis, psoas, and lower back in this pose.

And y'all... my left and right sides have got some different stories to tell.

On one side, it's a story spaciousness and ease. A quiet spreading in the back of my diaphragm.

And the other side, well, it's holding something. It's not painful, just contracted. Holding something for safe keeping? not ready to release? Not sure yet.

But truly, me & supta virasana? We've only just begun.

I never loved this pose. And yet, here I am swinging from avoidance & dread TO curiosity. We are definitely at the turning point in our enemies-to-friends arc.

I often ask students what might change if you were to practice something every day for a week?

What's changing for me is not simply my physical body. TBH, it's more my mind. I'm grateful that my teacher didn't give me a variation or alternative on that day (like she's done before & after.) She gave me something even more valuable: an invitation to return to myself, to MY practice, and explore.

Every day once felt like an act of self discipline to be better. To fix myself.

And now, every day feels like a place of devotion to practice listening.