“Heart-openers” : Happy Valentine’s!!!


There are what are called “heart-openers” or “opening-the-heart” poses in ashtanga yoga. Those who practise yoga believe that backbends and twists “open your heart”

(Yoga tank top by Myra: Thanks again!)

(Anatomically, these poses stretch the muscles around the rib cage and shoulders. Metaphysically speaking (I’m not too much of a “metaphysical” person), many yogins believe they open your “heart chakra”; then you close them with the forward bends, then open them again with other backbends, then close them again with forward bends or the plow pose, etc. ]

This is an example of a “heart-opener”, it’s a variation of the fish pose – it’s a fish pose on lotus (go to your inversion, lotus your leg and feet in mid-air, come down very slowly, then assume the fish pose and you’re there.).

Happy Valentine’s for tomorrow!

Original, unidentified poses (taichi? Karate Kid? Modified tree pose in ashtanga?)

pose.PALM SPRINGS SUMMER VACATION AUG 2009

Photo by Myra Lambino-Ramos, Palm Springs Air Museum (fighter planes of WWII), August 2009 (children’s faces concealed by photos of their celebrity look-alike thru photoshop). Poses: Lemme see…one looks like some sort of crane pose in Karate Kid; another looks like a modified tree pose in ashtanga yoga; while another looks like a native American raindance.