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VIRABHADRASANA I (Warrior I)

warrior1

Through the experience of practicing yoga, we catch glimpses of ourselves until we begin to awaken and recognize our true nature, which is that of lightness and expansiveness. In other words, we experience our Self, which is ananda or the state of bliss. Through this ever-deepening awareness, we feel a connection with things around us. With the shorter days of winter, it can become more difficult to recognize the lightness of our being, and therefore we might feel darker and contracted.

Perhaps this reaction has brought many holidays and festival of lights around the shortest day of the year, the Winter Solstice. These celebrations are linked to pre-organized religions as a celebration to honor the sun and the beginning of the longer days. In this honoring, a connection is made to our own divine inner light, which is a boundless source of strength, beauty, and power.

Virabhadrasana 1 is a pose that allows us to celebrate the qualities of our Self. Begin by standing at the front of the mat with your feet close together. Take a moment to feel where you are right now, physically, mentally, and emotionally. Then, with your left foot, take a comfortable but long step straight back (about 3-4 feet) so your hips and chest are still facing the same direction as your right foot. Your left foot turns slightly out to the left from the parallel line with the right (front) foot. Bring your awareness to the inner edge of the left foot. As it slides back against the resistance of the floor, it allows the left inner thigh to roll inward. (This action brings the left hip a little forward and squares the hips a little more.) With a strong intention, extend from your outer left hip and tailbone through your left foot grounding the heel. Imagine that you are sending a powerful ray of light, a laser beam, through your leg into the earth and into infinity. This action sets the foundation of the pose by keeping the left foot and heel firmly connected to the earth. Note: you may need to adjust the width of your stance, perhaps stepping the back foot forward a little bit, to keep the heel grounded. This action is important so you can create more length through your spine allowing a greater celebration of the Self:

From our strong connection to earth, we reach our arms to the sky and our hearts open and rise upward like the dawning sun. With palms facing each other, bring the hands slightly forward then draw in from the finger tips toward the shoulders, allowing the arms to connect with the heart and the shoulder blades to slide down the back. Keeping this action, let the arms reach up vertically; this will help to expand and brighten the chest. Inhale, lift and expand the heart a little more, then bend the right knee so that it is directly above the ankle.

After a couple of breaths to settle yourself, fold at your hips enough to bring the shoulders about 6 inches forward. Then bring your chin to your chest to allow your gaze to turn inward to the boundless, luminous ocean of strength and beauty in your heart and bow by sliding your lower ribs back and inflating the kidneys (approximately located an inch below your lower back ribs) like balloons, color and design of your choice. Now, reestablish your foundation by extending once more from your tailbone through your left foot, keep the kidneys inflated, inhale and lift your heart to the sky and celebrate with all your inner beauty and strength pouring out through your pose. Celebrate and recognize your own inner light, which is full of ananda and grace. The pose, Virabhadrasana 1, is a holiday of celebrating your own power and light, which is reflected and can be seen on the outside as the sun. After celebrating in the pose for a few breaths, release the pose by unbending the front knee, lowering the arms down by your sides, and stepping the left foot lightly forward back to mountain pose with feet together. Repeat the pose on the other side, stepping the right foot back this time. When completed, stand with your feet as close together as when you started. Can you feel any shift in your body or mind? Notice the lightness and expansiveness that was created by honoring the strength inside through Warrior 1. Sensing these feeling gives us a glimpse of our true nature.

Mark Stevens


VIRABHADRASANA 1(Warrior 1)

warrior1

When I went through teacher certification training, a portion of the final exam consisted of performing yoga poses in front of JJ and then discussing them. She recommended that we perform the poses we hated the most. The logic was that this performance exam was like a private yoga lesson. We needed feedback on our own asana practice to help us improve if we were going to be successful teachers. A teacher who doesn’t practice yoga doesn’t usually teach well after a while. I became a teacher and went on to teach teachers. I’m amazed at how many teacher trainees, including myself, count Warrior One as a pose they hate.

What is interesting is that this is considered a level one pose. So most of us assume we need to keep working on this “basic” pose and don’t give it as much thought, as we would for a full backbend. But to take these basic poses and give them the thoughtfulness and mindfulness we would give an advanced pose is just what most of us need. So let’s go through this pose with mindfulness

Beginning from mountain pose (tadasana), step your right foot back similar to your stance for triangle pose (trikonasna) except keep the hips facing the front of your mat. You may wish to keep your feet a little closer to each other than you do in triangle pose to allow better contact of the back heel with the mat. Keep your hips facing forward. Let your back toes point more toward the front of your mat as opposed to the side of your mat. This allows ease in the back knee and the hips can be squared more easily.

With your hands on your hips, and your shoulders and hips facing forward, bend your front knee so the shinbone is perpendicular to the floor. The knees will tend to lean toward the center of the mat. Don’t allow this to happen as that can strain the ligaments of the knee .

Take your right hand and place it on the back of your right thigh. Engage the muscles under your hand. This back leg is the “humble” leg of the pose. It gets forgotten. We focus so much on that front knee bending deeply and keeping that alignment, we forget about our back leg. The back leg is the key to the pose. You must keep the back leg engaged.

The pelvis must also be aligned. Not only are the hips squared to the front, but the hip points, pubic bone, and navel all need to make up a level plane. If the tailbone is tucked the pubic bone will wind up forward of the navel. Many of us need the sensation of our “butt sticking out” to find a level pelvis (if that gives you a pinching sensation in your low back, try breathing in you back ribs).

Most folks ask at this point, “My back heel doesn’t touch the floor. Does this matter?” No. It doesn’t. A rolled mat or even blanket placed under the back heel will give something to press against. However, I even skip that and simply work on that back leg and level pelvis. Often, I’ll see that the heel drops (with regular practice) as a result. The heel dropping can become an “ego” aspect of the pose, so don’t obsess over it.

Next we'll focus on the torso. Your sternum, or breastbone should be perpendicular to the floor. So no leaning forward. Lift your ribs away from your hips, finding space yet drop your shoulders. This can take some practice. Be aware of your front ribs. This pose has a backbend quality in it yet we need to maintain uddiyana bandha for balance. If you haven’t learned the bandhas yet, just know that you want to draw your front ribs in and breath into your back ribs. This will alleviate the low back pain associate with the pose.

Lastly we add the arms. When our arms reach up toward the sky we tend to lose a little of our foundation. Fear not, just KNOW this and adjust. So reach the arms up by the ears, bringing the hands toward each other. While adding the arms double check your foundation described above. The dropping of shoulder blades and breathing into the back ribs enables the shoulders to move more deeply and with better range of motion is far more comfortable for the shoulders.

Lastly, begin to look up while keeping the back of the neck long, gaze toward your thumbs and breathe into the pose. You have power, strength and an inner calmness, the qualities of a true warrior.

Alexandra "Zan" Evans


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Last modified: Monday, 10-Oct-2005 01:58:15 EDT