Painted Poses

Yoga is a mailable practice; it changes with country, times, and the individual practitioner. For some, the body is a temple that should not marked. For others, the skin represents a blank, movable canvas for tattoos displaying thoughts, texts and deities that inspire and inform their practice. 

Modern values trending toward greater acceptance of tattoos, it's quite common to see heavily covered practitioners in studios all over the world. Works of art, stretched across shoulders, chests, arms and legs, may be tucked away during the workday. But when clothing comes off, as it often does in yoga studios, they are on display for all to see.

 

  

Iggy Pop!? Close, but no.
 DAVID LIFE, 61 "Tattoos mark a moment in time you want to give credit to," said Mr. Life, a Lower East Side resident since 1979 and a co-founder of the international Jivamukti Yoga School.

Tattoos, in fact, are not wholly apart from yogic tradition. Application of temporary tattoos called Henna is an ancient Vedic custom still practiced today.

Henna tattoos, also known as Mehndi, uses a paste made from the powdered leaves of the Henna plant,  Its active dye, Lawsone, binds with the keratin in skin, fingernails, and hair. Traditional henna is drawn in delicate patterns on the hands and feet, but modern henna is applied in all sorts of designs anywhere on the body.

 

Dogs!

There is nothing that brings joy quite like a good dog. 

These unconditionally loving and naturally assured critters embody the best capacities in their human counterparts. My goal in life is to be as good of a person my dog already thinks I am. Today's dedication is to god in the dog.

 In order to really enjoy a dog, one doesn't merely try to train him to be semi human.  The point of it is to open oneself to the possibility of becoming partly a dog.  ~Edward Hoagland


 Downward Facing Dog 
Ahdo Mukha Svanasana
(AH-doh MOO-kah shvah-NAHS-anna)

 

  

  Start on the floor on your hands and knees. Set your knees directly below your hips and your hands slightly forward of your shoulders. Spread your palms, index fingers parallel or slightly turned out, and turn your toes under.

 Exhale and lift your knees away from the floor. At first keep the knees slightly bent and the heels lifted away from the floor. Lengthen your tailbone away from the back of your pelvis; imagine someone is lifting your waist up and back. Press into the hands to slide your shoulders down your back away from the ears. Drop the head and relax the neck. 

 

Then with an exhalation, push your top thighs back and stretch your heels down toward the floor. Straighten your knees but be sure not to lock them. Firm the outer thighs and roll the upper thighs inward slightly. 

Rotate the arms inward so the inner elbows look at one another. Use the padding under the index finger and thumb to root into the floor while simultaneously lifting through the back body.

The subtle nuances of this pose are endless. When I get frustrated with an Asana I think about how long it took for my to "Get"downward dog. With time hamstrings loosen and heels reach the floor, arm strength develops and so the pose is restful rather than rigorous, and the body and mind sync up and align.

"Practice and all is coming."- Guruji