Position of the Week: Ardha Matsyendrasana (Half Lord of the Fishes Pose)

Benefits: This asana will stretch your shoulders, hips and neck.  It will stimulate your kidneys and liver, as well as energize your spine.  It is great if you have menstrual discomfort, are tired, and have back pain.  It is extremely therapeutic for asthma, as well as infertility.  According to traditional texts, it can rid you of deadly diseases...in a nutshell, this pose does it all!

As if the benefits of this asana are not astounding enough, its name is amusing, too!  I went to yoga class today after being M.I.A. for a couple of weeks.  I couldn't practice for a while due to an extremely sore neck, and this past week I was so busy at work I didn't have any time to stop by the studio.  So, needless to say, practicing today felt amazing.  My fabulous teacher started off with a short anatomy lesson on the spine.  She went on to mention how, similarly to the Spring cleaning most of us tend to do this time of the season, it's important to cleanse our bodies on the inside as well.  In the winter, we tend to naturally tighten up as we try to defend ourselves from the frigid cold weather.  So today, we did a Spring cleaning of our bodies by going into spinal twists. 

This one in particular felt wonderful. When you really take the time to go into this asana, it's amazing how you feel each vertebrae as you twist. It's as though you are stacking them up, one by one, like we used to do with blocks as kids. You start off with a gentle rotation of the hips, and slowly spiral yourself in one direction, listening to the response in your back. I like to visualize the movement happening in my spine- it helps me feel the pose on a deeper level. Especially after having not gone to class for a couple of weeks, the gentle spine twists definitely left me feeling fantastic!

Namaste,  

Lady Lotus