(…or: A Tale of Two Yoga Postures)
Ananda Balasana
The “Happy Baby” pose is a fairly basic one as far as proper form goes. You lie on your back. You raise your feet and legs as high up as you can while still being able to grab your own feet same-hand to same-foot, and spread your legs apart, and then if-wanted, rock back and forth a bit.
Essentially: legs up, bum up.
While in a class, it’s a pose you want to look around first to see if you’re actually hearing the instructions properly as they’re narrated to you–for fear of actually living ‘that dream’, where you’re doing something wild and crazy and the rest of the world is doing the less-crazy actual calm/tame proper thing.
It looks and feel nutty.
Savasana
Savasana, I assume is everyone’s favourite posture. I only think this because it’s my own. …and I, often though often falsely, think everyone has the same leanings and preferences as I do.
While “Happy Baby” doesn’t register on a solemn scale, Savasana–or ‘corpse pose’ as it’s also named–registers off the charts.
Yoga opens and closes with Savasana. You lie on your back, avoid adjusting where possible, open your heart and feel everything… especially your breath and your own heaviness.
It’s a perfect rest because it feels well-deserved and it almost always comes with a clear head.
My weekend
My weekends almost always strive to be Happy Baby-esque. I try to laugh, and feel good, and end off each week with a little bit of productivity but even more indulgence. I worry when I’m not getting the most out of each weekend because they’re such a precious resource. I revel in opportunities to be and feel nutty. With a certain hedonism, I put the week aside or laugh it off.
That’s all very fine. Almost always there are more adventures than I can count and almost always I wouldn’t have it any other way.
This weekend, though, a Shavasana-esqe weekend, as though by divine intervention, was thrust upon me. Literally. I was given a gift I didn’t even know I wanted. I wasn’t even given the gift, I was bound to it with no other alternative.
Friday/Saturday/Sunday I was sick. I started feeling like, ‘Oh great, here goes a Long Weekend” but then I didn’t even have the energy to feel that. I slept in most of the day, ate and moved to a minimum, napped, then went to bed early each evening. Normally an all-day nap prevent sleep, but my body accepted sleep at any point it was available. Somehow, my body was feeling like it was deprived of rest and it was taking it at all cost.
Holiday Monday, I woke up feeling super alert and super great. Maybe some people get that gift every morning, but for me it’s a rare treat. The roommate had planned a ‘surprise day’ which turned out to be a day of indulging in relaxation-kicked-up-a-notch [i.e. in the hands of spa experts]. The relaxation was interrupted only by great food. I try not to think too much during massages, just like I try not to think too much during Savasana. I did, however, think how perfectly necessary the day and the weekend had been. How had I not realized, I this need for some time to do absolutely nothing, think nothing, recharge, and renew; why did the realization have to find me? Spring Cleaning doesn’t have to be active doing/thinking/planning it can also be just the opposite.
It’s not just true for weekends. The same holds true for vacations and adventures and projects. The ‘Happy Baby’ Ananda Balasana moments tend to make the best pictures and be the moments most-discussed. Sometimes, though, the Savasana ones are just as nice to think back-on… they just also, sometimes, take a little more scratching to get at to remember.
Tomorrow, just before June starts and all the madness that goes with it, I’m hitting the mat. It’s been a good long while since I’ve done any formal yoga. The instructor is one I really connect with. I hope amidst my concentration and through my cursing (for it being so long since the last session) I’m able to enjoy it in a Happy Baby sort-of-way.
This weekend, I go to Edmonton, and have zero doubt there will be a ton of bum-up nutty-feeling madness. I also hope I’m able to get in a bit of the quiet reflection (and gratitude) true rest and Savasana can deliver. After a stretch without recognizing the need, now that desire is all that makes sense anymore.
In fact both somewhat-opposing sensations seem to provide clarity for the other…
…kind of neat.
And kind of worth remembering.
=)
Hm.
