Flexing ankles and toes
We must make sure we are not time traveling our bodies into a projection of where the mind thinks it should be.
Always reverse out of postures. You will grow your depth astronomically. Be patient with yourself.
There is a battle, a resistance, a suffering that will be solved through using the body to meditate, be gentle and patient with your yoga technique to free yourself from yourself.
How do I know this with such assurance? I live through this.
The greatest enemy lies within: The relationship with the Self.
The stages in Standing head to knee are not a slight on a persons physical abilities, but rather a development of structural base for supporting functional movement off the yoga mat.
I have heard it all. My favorites being: “I cannot lock my knee.” However, the first prize goes to: “I am not perfect.” Both cases are with students repeatedly trying to progress into the posture and get their forehead on their knee without the foundation of contracted thighs throughout the posture. This alas, after many years of practice, leaves the student where they began without progression.
Both ankles are stable. The standing leg ankle due to the contracted thigh. Lifted leg due to the continuous kick and contracted standing thigh.
While the yoga keeps us young our practice is also going shift through the decades and we must rely on the foundation of postures, following the path of progression, honoring where our bodies are on that day. The mind lives in time and the body in the present. We tell the body what to do for us, but we must make sure we are not time traveling our bodies to a projection of where the mind thinks it should be. This is of-course is mental health through our yoga practice. Trying the right way step by step and holding oneself accountable.
Contracting the standing thigh is the only way to harness the breath in the posture. Students forgoing the technique are performing collapse into their joints. This is of-course is back to awareness. Repeated collapse into the joints during ones yoga practice is related to an aggressive emotional state.