Episode Transcript
[00:00:11] Hello friend. Welcome back to another episode of deep in your practice. My name is Lauren Leduc and I'm the owner of true love yoga in Kansas City. And it is thanksgiving week, and since it's Thanksgiving week, I wanted to talk about one of my favorite heart opening poses today, which is ustrasana or camel pose. I also wanted to tie in a little bit of yogic philosophy to help bring in the gratitude this week. To me, camel pose really embodies this sense of both vulnerability and courage, vulnerable in that we're really opening the heart, drawing the chest forward, and it can be a little bit scary bending backwards at the same time. To me, especially the sensation after the posture. I feel so open, and I like to open my palms up afterward and feel as though I'm receiving all of these gifts. And I feel like I'm both giving during the posture and then receiving after in a way, which is this really nice exchange of energy. It also helps me feel this large sense of gratitude. And of course, it's thanksgiving week and it's so important to tap into this energy of gratitude always, but especially during this season, our mats and off the mats. I'll also be talking about this yogic concept of Santosha today, which is one of the niyamas in the eight limbed path of yoga.
[00:01:33] And practicing contentment requires both acceptance and gratitude, which helps us appreciate all that we have and all that is around us. And it helps us embrace both the physical and emotional aspects of the yoga practice as well. And in particular, we'll talk about that in camel pose today. So here are five tips to elevate your camel pose and also how to cultivate santosha, or gratitude and acceptance within it. So first tip for ustrasana, or camel pose, is positioning your hips and knees so the hips stay directly over the knees in this posture. Oftentimes I'll see the hips start to draw back toward the heels, which can really strain the low back, or I'll see them pushed way too forward. I don't see that as often, but someone with a lot of mobility, I'll see them press forward, and we want to maintain this sense of structural integrity as well as creating mobility in this posture. So knees are hip distance apart, hips are directly over the knees during the posture. A couple of ways to support this one is to pad the knees, so you might be invited to double fold your mat in this pose, or you can place a blanket underneath the knees because it's not always comfortable to be on the knees, especially if you've had any kind of knee injury, and then I would think about engaging the glutes to help press the hips forward. Your glutes are hip extenders, so think of engaging the glutes and pointing your tailbone down toward the earth. You might even think of a slight internal rotation of your thighs, so drawing the inner thighs in toward each other. I might even suggest placing a block between the thighs and squeezing it to help maintain strength and integrity in the legs as you set up the foundation of this posture. When it comes to Santosha or contentment, let's cultivate this sense of contentment with the support that we might need to create this beautiful foundation in the posture, accepting the use of props without judgment and finding self compassion or foundation. If your hips aren't directly over the knees, it doesn't mean you're bad at yoga or that you're going to get hurt right away or something like that. We can still try while also cultivating this sense of contentment and gratitude for what we do have. Tip number two is setting up your shoulders for stability in the posture. So instead of just retracting the shoulder blades or drawing them together, I like to cue to roll the shoulders up, back, and then down before going into the posture. So this sets your shoulders up, and you can keep them this way through the posture. No matter where your hands are on your body, it helps the chest stay open, and it creates this really strong stabilization for the heart. You might even feel as though you're broadening through your collarbones.
[00:04:27] One of the assists that I love for this pose, it's kind of intimate, but the teacher actually places the foot between the shoulder blades and lifts up. I don't do it very often unless I have a very established relationship with a student, but you might think of someone placing their hand behind your shoulder blades and lifting it up so the energy of this posture is less about going backward and more about lifting upward. So can you embrace Santosha as you open the heart? As you create integrity through the shoulders in this pose? How far can you open the heart today? And can you find contentment with what feels good to you, not what you've seen on Instagram or maybe bringing your feet or your head down to your feet, although some people are able to do that for sure. But can you find contentment in wherever your heart wants to lead you that day safely? Can you allow yourself, once you found this beautiful structure and foundation, to soften into the posture and to breathe with the heart wide open? And can you find gratitude for that? Tip number three, is to ensure safety in your low back. So it's really important to engage the core in this posture and to lift through the front body to support the lower back, avoiding any kind of collapse or major compression in the lumbar spine or in the low back. So again, like tip number two, imagine lifting the heart up rather than focusing on bending backward. And this will heat help. This will help keep the spine long and supported. You can also think of using Uddiyana bandha. For Uddiyana Bandha, you're drawing your navel in toward the spine and up toward the heart. You can't really draw the ribs together so much in this posture, but that light contraction can help support your low back and keep you nice and strong in this pose. You might even try the pose without any support of the hands to see how far back you can go holding it safely. And you'll need your core engaged to be able to do that. So you might even practice camel with the hands at the heart. And for Santosha, or contentment, can you accept where your back bend naturally lands today? Can you be content with your body's current capacity rather than striving for a deeper bend? And beyond content, can you be grateful that your body is doing this amazing thing? So many people take their bodies for granted. So many people, due to their life circumstances, have to sit all day. How amazing is it that we get to take this time to open up our hearts, to release the spine, to create this beautiful heart opening shape in the body. How amazing is that? Tip number four is supporting the cervical spine or supporting the neck. So you want to be really mindful of the neck by keeping your head in a safe position for you, that might mean in line with the spine. So I usually give a few options. One is keeping the chin toward the chest. One is aligning the head so that the cervical spine or the neck is a natural extension of the rest of the spine. So that might mean looking straight up, or you might lift your chin slightly up and then slowly lower your head back. Earlier in my yoga practice, I always wanted to do what I thought was, like the fullest expression of every pose. First of all, that's sort of a misnomer, because the fullest expression is just whatever your body feels most open in that day, it's not more than that or past that. But second, I had a. I have kind of a chronic neck injury. I was in the Rocky Horror show when I was a teenager, and I. I did a lot of head banging while I was performing in that. And I think I got whiplash. So ever since then, my neck usually feels fine and then every once in a while I'll sleep on it funny and it goes out well, laying my head back and camel isn't always going to be a good choice for me. So every time I start with the most accessible version of chin to chest, and then I go further and further and see what works for me that day. So I recommend not attaching to any particular position of the head and instead seeing for you in your practice that day what feels best for you. And can you find contentment in that version? I feel like I'm repeating this a lot, but I feel like a lot of times we have these strong expectations for ourselves and when we don't meet them, it can feel really disappointing when instead we can cultivate a sense of acceptance and gratitude for wherever we are today and it's the same thing in our lives. We can look around and see what we are lacking all the time, or we can look around and see what we have in abundance.
[00:09:17] We can cultivate a sense of gratitude for what we do have. We can say, yes, thank you. More please. Instead of I want, I want, I want. And tip number five is to explore different modifications and variations of camel pose. So there are so many different ways to explore this posture, and I'll not going to talk about every single one, but I'll give a few examples. You can place your hands in different positions so hands can be on the low back with fingers facing up, down, or curved around the low back. I talked about hands at the heart for core engagement. You might have hands at the heels. If you do so, I recommend reaching back simultaneously so that you do not strain one or the other side of the low back. You can have hands on blocks next to the feet. You can have toes tucked under or untucked. It can be fun to sit back toward the heels. Place one hand on the heel, then lift your hips up and support the head with the other hand. And I know it's hard orally to fully translate this, but I like having my head in my hand and just letting the weight fall into my hand. It's really relaxing for the neck and I can find a little bit more ease within this posture that does take a good amount of effort. Also, if I'm having one of those days where I want to go really deep, I like to run my hands along the thighs and reach back more for like the very top of the calf, or even reach the head back toward the heels. One of my favorite transitions of this posture is going from camel to wheel. If you're doing that, the toes need to be tucked under, and it's sort of a quick motion that happens. You might even use the wall as a prop and bring your hips right up against the wall and then lift your heart up, maybe reaching back for the heels, maybe not. That way you can feel the hips making contact with the wall. You can do camel post standing up. So keeping hips over the ankles, you'll lift up through the heart. There's dancing camels. So this one, again, kind of hard to fully describe verbally, but I'm going from one side to the other, and it's completely transition and movement oriented. There are so many different ways to explore this pose, and I think that the invitation here is to find contentment in which whichever version works best for your body. Today you can celebrate the present moment. Whether you're super deep into the posture or finding a more gentle variation, all have value. It's about celebrating, giving yourself what you need. So those are my five tips for camel pose and also finding Santosha, or contentment, within it. It's such a beautiful heart opener that physically, emotionally, and spiritually connects us to abundance, to gratitude, and to contentment. To Santosha. I encourage you to think of different ways that you already practice Santosha outside of your yoga practice. How do you notice and find acceptance with what is within and around you at the present moment? Do you have a gratitude practice? And then maybe think about how you can cultivate this sense of contentment, which, again, is gratitude and acceptance on your mattress. Can you give yourself more grace on the mat? Can you appreciate the silly moments? Can you appreciate the wobbles? Can you appreciate when you really nail it? There are so many things that happen on the mat, like in life. Can we practice cultivating this beautiful sense of gratitude and acceptance so that when we come up with things in life that sometimes can be tough, we have this muscle built already of Santosha. Let's take a moment, you know, as we talk about camel pose today, maybe to practice it and to allow yourself to feel like you are gratitude embodied. That your heart is open, that you are so grateful for the land you're on, for your home, wherever that is, for those that you love in your life, for who you are and who you're becoming, for the universe, for all beings everywhere. May we be happy. May we free. May we find contentment. And may we continue to create the conditions for all to find contentment. Thank you so much for listening today. I hope you have a beautiful holiday om Shanti om. Peace. Until next time.
