Downward Dog

So last week, something phenomenal happened. I have been doing downward facing dog for let's say about 10 years +. That is just the pose, the form, the shape. I have been learning the mechanics of it: the stance, the foundation, the hands, the shoulders, the tailbone, etc. I have always known my shoulders to be extra flexible and they end up crashing and splaying out. Often times, teachers will come over and give me an adjustment to remind me to hug my elbows in, hollow out my armpits, and plug the head of my armbone back and in. And this is easy for me to understand when I'm going other poses, but it always felt so good to just let my ribs hang out in downward dog. I felt like I was getting a more intense pose.

But somehow, a few days ago, I told myself that I was going to do the pose with integrity... no cheating, no collapsing... nothing. And I told my arms to hug in and my shoulder blades to move in and down!!!

They listened! Thank you oh Divine Love. I now feel downward dog. It's finally an exploration! It's joyous in every way. I want to say there and just feel the expansion in my heart. Downward dog is a backbend. Who Knew!?!?!?

I love that all I did was listen to myself, connected everything together and the pose became this delightful experience. Just talking about it now and thinking about how much this one pose has changed for me makes me want to go and practice it again and again.

So thank you yoga teachers, gurus, friends, who helped me and guided me.... for now downward dog makes sense.