Summer 2012 has become the steamy season of Asbury Park. My husband, Kevin & I have made it down a few times, initially on a friend's reccomendation. This past week we played hooky & ran down for a day to show this sweet town to Kevin's cousin, Maria. We ate red velvet pancakes, romped in the waves, dug our toes in the sand while reading, & eventually I began practicing yoga.
Fear presents itself in most people's practice. Backbends & inversions are common places to get trepidatious. It's wise to want to keep your spine in tact & not crack your skull! With consistency, the spine does become pliable & we do retain the core strength & balance to float into beautiful inversions, though the fear may persist. I feel significantly more comfortable practicing inversions at the beach because sand breaks my fall.
So there I found myself again. I placed my towel on the sand. Tried not to be self-conscious about doing something fairly curious in public. Put my elbows & the crown of my head on the towel. Dug in for stability. Engaged bandha. Lifted to sirsasana. Eventually my legs fell behind me & I landed in dwi pada viparita dandasana, a backbend that really expands the chest. Up & down I went a few more times.
Stayed with my breath, planted my forearms, lifted my head so I could gaze at my thumbs, one leg up, then the next for pinca mayurasana. Up... & over. Inversion to backbend. Eventually I heard clapping. I looked up and a group of girls, probably ranging in age from 13 to 15 wanted me to watch as they did gymastic walk-overs, cart-wheeling from yoga wheel to hand stand! I gave thumbs up & watched wide-eyed while their nimble strong bodies paraded through the sand. They then became curious about my practice & planted their elbows on the sand. I mimed instructions about elbows nearing one another, the crown planting in the sand, & they followed. Legs rose & a sea of young girls lifted into sirsasana. They then tried pinca mayurasana play & wound up with the same sandy landings I'd found.
I later went and spoke to these girls. They were gymasts who had heard of yoga, but not yet practiced. I suggested they do so as they already had such body awareness & fearlessness. I then returned to the waves to rinse off & refresh. I felt so much lighter sharing this practice with young women who were finding joy, purpose, & strength in their own bodies.
