Week Two - Hasta Bandha, Hands to Earth
Happy Earth Day!
Thank you all so much for being there last Sunday for our first round of new term yoga classes in Thrive. Our theme this term is all about the 'bandhas' - ancient neuromuscular connection points to help lift and enliven the body. If you missed last week's classes, we explored pada bandha to begin; a powerful foot to earth connection - grounding down in order to rise up. This week we are moving on to the hands - hasta bandha - a practice of open hands and open heart.
This Sunday's yoga will be fantastic if you want to build mindful strength in your wrists, work on alignment in your arms and shoulders, and open your heart to generosity and service. At the moment I have three drop in spaces available in the Hatha Flow at 5pm, and a few more available in the Soft Stretch at 6:30pm. Let me know if you would like to pop in for either class :) It will be a gentle time to fill your cup. Yoga is the most selflessly selfish practice ever - a wise and necessary one. Taking the time to breathe, pause your thinking mind, move your body, release the tension in your heart and relax; is all ultimately in service of others and the world around you. A happier and more peaceful you creates a ripple effect that can only do good, I think.
Hasta Bandha in Sanskrit translates directly to 'hand lock'. It is a practice of finding anatomical alignment and energetic lift in your hands to optimise balance, strength, and relieve pressure on your wrists. But in yoga philosophy we learn that everything is connected, and that the hands are direct extensions of the heart space. You give and feel with your hands. When you press down with your fingers and palms to lift out of your wrists in a downward dog pose, you simultaneously lift and enliven your heart centre. Just the same, when you offer something freely to another - simply because it feels good and right to do so - there is a subtle softening in the muscles of your upper back, and you tend to stand a little taller for the rest of your day. Like attracts like. Intention carries momentum. Hasta bandha can be a practice of alignment and connection in more than just the hands and body.
Hands are powerful transmitters of energy; you offer food with your hands. You lift people up with your hands. You touch and feel with your hands. Good doctors carry out great healing with their hands. People cause harm when their hands and hearts close into a tight fist.
The tightness of our heart usually dictates the tightness of our generosity. It's impossible to give freely if your heart is blocked, even when you want to! I struggle with this one a lot. It is so tempting to give generously from this place of 'I should do it, I must do it, If I don't do it they won't like me...' - despite the very best intentions, favours offered from this place of pain or shame are almost always received with equal pain or shame. It does no good in the big picture. And giving in this way can lead you to feel empty and burnt out, which in turn tightens your hearts and your hands.
I think it must take a lifetime of work, practice, and wisdom, to allow yourself the necessary time and space to feel nourished enough to give with an open heart - without taking too much energy from yourself in order to do it. But small steps can move mountains. Generosity begins with you. I believe it was the beautiful queen of drag Ru Paul that said; if you can't love yourself, how in the world do you expect to love anyone else? In other words, if you can't give yourself what you need and crave and desire in order to feel well and whole, how do you expect to be there for the people you love?
As part of a new daily practice and necessary reclamation of my own creativity - this morning I wrote down five imaginary alternative lives for myself. The first life that came to mind was that I could be a marine conservationist and help to restore reefs in tropical seas somewhere. It filled me with energy and enthusiasm to consider offering my life up in this way. But it made me reflect honestly on the last time I did anything in the name of environmental conservation... maybe, zooming out and nurturing our environment could be a practical and effective way to nourish and nurture ourselves. When you look outside, everything in the natural world is completely co-dependent. Plants and animals thrive in relationship with one another, giving and taking constantly, borrowing and lending, all without lack or begrudgery. That's what bio-diversity is; that's why it's so important. Maybe the disconnect from nature is what blocks our hearts and exhausts us - and perhaps that's what makes generosity feel sometimes like pouring from an empty cup.
In any case, taking a short moment to pause, place your palms on your heart, and listen to the rhythm of your life - the pulse that is here and now - can be a monumental act of healing. I know that much for sure. And this is where yoga practice - any yoga practice - can help, because it gives you a dedicated time and space to do it. Did you know that our planet has a measurable heartbeat!? Today, you might bury your hands into the ground and breathe. Feel your heartbeat in the earth. You could even plant a seed :)
It is well to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked, through understanding;
And to the open-handed the search for one who shall receive is joy greater than giving.
And is there aught you would withhold?
All you have shall some day be given;
Therefore give now, that the season of giving may be yours and not your inheritors’.
You often say, “I would give, but only to the deserving.”
The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture.
They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish.
From 'On Giving' By Kahlil Gibran
Le grá,
Macha
